If you're feeling overwhelmed by the ACT and SAT prep journey, I get it!
After teaching high school mathematics and test prep over the last 10 years, I've seen it all…
- I’ve worked with students who were overwhelmed, underwhelmed, and everything in between
- I've helped crazy smart kids with learning disabilities and high-scoring hard workers give their scores the extra boost they needed.
- I've met students overcoming personal tragedy (concussions, the sudden passing of a family member, emergency surgeries), who were understandably behind on their college admissions journey, and helped them find their testing confidence and get to the other side of testing fast.
No matter how rocky or smooth-sailing your journey has been so far, I am beyond thrilled that you're here to discover a better, faster, less expensive way to prepare for the ACT and SAT.
Sound too good to be true? It isn't!
Here's how we’re changing the test prep industry for good.
We’re Your Friendly Neighborhood Test Prep Company.
Think of us as your friendly neighborhood test prep company that just happens to live on the internet.
If you call, email, or contact us on Facebook, you'll hear back from us. With more than a decade of experience helping families through this process, we’re more than happy to answer your questions as you plan your testing path.
I am also one of the teachers, along with Lauren Gaggioli and Soren Filipski, that your student will work with in our on-demand online prep courses, and I'll answer any testing questions they have too!
If you take one of our online ACT prep courses or online SAT prep courses, you'll also meet Kat Clowes, our CEO, college admissions expert, and my co-host for the free bonus workshop Cash for College that we included in every of our test prep programs to show you how to get an awesome return on your investment.
If you order one of our Complete Package programs, your books will be packed and shipped by Dakota Nash, our office manager and delivery leader. (It's crazy how fast he gets your package to the post office!)
Our company is a family endeavor. The test prep journey is too.
At Higher Scores Test Prep, everything we create is designed to support the student who is preparing to test as well as the family who is helping their child on the journey to college.
It's our Whole Student, Whole Family support system.
Here's how it works...
We Provide Whole Student Support
A lot of students think they're just bad test takers. The thought of any exam causes their palms to prickle with sweat and their hearts to race. They've lost all hope that they can ever get better.
But even students who are typically strong testers can find themselves flummoxed by their first ACT or SAT results. They often felt great about their first testing efforts, but are completely crushed when a disappointing score arrives.
Unfortunately, most students have never dedicated any time to learning how to logically approach a multiple choice test. Some have figured it out through trial and error. Most think there is something wrong with them.
But the truth is that the ACT and SAT are just like any other test in that they can be studied for and bested, but unlike any other test in that they are a little sneakier than your average in-school exam.
Getting higher ACT & SAT scores isn't just about remembering the right fact at the right time. It's also about arming students with test-specific strategies to help them boost their confidence and navigate the inherent uncertainty of these exams.
And every one of our online test prep courses does just that.
Each test prep course Lauren and I teach is designed to teach students what to expect from the sneaky test makers and show them how to dodge the tricks and traps they lay. I meet students where they are and help them transform from fearful supplicant to formidable opponent on test day.
We Provide Whole Family Support
As a tutor, I was charging $250 an hour for my services and was booked to the hilt.
As a math teacher in a large public high school system, I knew how little was being done in the schools to prepare students for standardized testing. I saw the divide between the way concepts were presented in the classroom and how the standardized test industry approached the same concepts in their questioning.
I knew the students in my class and the circumstances they came from. I knew what they were truly capable of given the right instruction but that the cost of one-on-one tutoring would be prohibitively high for the majority of my students.
When I met Lauren Gaggioli, who had also been in the standardized test tutoring business for over a decade, we were able to compare notes on our curriculum and we found that our philosophy and much of our approach to preparing students for standardized testing was the same. We wanted to find a way to share our strategies that were getting students incredible results at a more reasonable price.
How? Online courses became key.
By going online, we were able to reduce the 2 biggest stressors of testing:
1. The time it takes students to prepare, and
2. The cost of quality preparation for parents.
Here at Higher Scores Test Prep, we help students get their higher scores whenever it fits their busy schedule, and none of my online test prep courses costs more than 3 hours of my private tutoring rate.
But something was still missing...
When Lauren launched The College Checklist podcast, she and her dad would debrief about all the things they could've and should've done differently in her college admissions journey.
The biggest bone they had to pick was always about money.
It’s the same story that Kat had with her dad. In fact, the more they began learning more about the link between test scores and cash for college, all four were thoroughly disgusted with how few of the numerous lucrative opportunities they took advantage of when Kat and Lauren were in high school.
They had no idea they existed.
The way we see it, if you're investing in test prep as a family and your child is working hard to boost his or her scores, we should show you how to earn that investment back in free tuition money.
To that end, every test prep course includes the Cash for College workshop - a 1 hour course that Kat and I host together that's designed to show your family how to turn your child's test scores into free tuition money.
These tactics aren't reserved for 99th percentile scorers. All families can leverage the lessons taught in the program to earn the cost of their prep course (and much more!) back in free tuition dollars.
Since we started including it, I've had multiple students earn 5- and 6-figure awards.
We show you exactly how you can earn 1,000%+ return on your investment in every one of our test prep courses.
How cool is that?
We Guarantee Your Satisfaction
Our competitors like to wave around big point promises, but the ugly truth is that most of the guarantees in the test prep industry come with a lot of fine print.
Unlike other prep companies, our guarantee includes no legalese, no loopholes, and no tricky time constraints. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. No gimmicks. No games.
Here it is in black and white...

Ready To Get Your Higher Score?
Whether you're here after a few not-so-successful testing attempts or years before your child is set to pick up a #2 pencil, I have resources that can help you.
I am looking forward to helping you find incredible success on your ACT or SAT.

Lauren Gaggioli, Founder of Higher Scores
After graduating from New York University with her B.F.A. in Theater, Lauren moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. To make time for auditions during the day, she called upon her academic roots from her high school days and began tutoring the SAT and ACT.
She quickly fell in love - not with the exams, but with the feeling that she was helping students put their feet on a firm path towards a big, bright future.
(Ok, maybe she fell a little bit in love with the exams too. Her dad didn't nickname her #2 Pencil Nerd for nothing.)
After 7 years working as an in-home tutor with a large test prep firm and then in her own independent tutoring company, Lauren distilled her experiences into the 4 different ACT & SAT prep programs that are now available through Higher Scores Test Prep.
Lauren's love of teaching and compassion for what students are facing in today's complex, competitive college admissions landscape allows her to bring a little bit of calm to her corner of the college admissions process.
Lauren is also the host of The College Checklist podcast. On the podcast, she interviews college counselors and other college admissions professionals, bringing timely, relevant information to today's college bound families.
Lauren lives in Seattle, WA with her husband Mike, and their 4 energetic babies: Gigi the Chihuahua, Malcolm the Russian Blue, and Ava & Alex, the human kiddos.
When she's not teaching, she can be found arts & crafting with the kids, training for her next half marathon, creating a tasty new dish in the kitchen, or planning her family's next Disney vacation.
Christina Varner, Head of Testing - Math Specialist
Christina brings 10 years in high school level math education to Higher Scores. She has been tutoring students privately in both subject specific content and test prep for over a decade.
As a former teacher, she strives to engage students from Algebra 1 to Statistics so that they gain greater math understanding through productive struggle--drawing their own connections and making their own discoveries.
With patience, humor, and the ability to quickly assess and accommodate students' needs, she prepares her students for not only their next math class, but for concrete application of important mathematical concepts. After meeting Lauren Gaggioli and comparing notes, Christina knew instantly that Higher Scores was the way to reach more students and to help them earn higher scores.
Christina Varner holds bachelors degrees in both Mathematics and Economics from CSU Bakersfield as well as her California teaching credential. She is trained specifically in educational technology as well as Math Mindset, which helps students develop mathematical confidence in addition to understanding. She has contributed to various district curriculum committees, charged with the development activities and assessments for use in classrooms across the Kern High School District.
In her free time, she enjoys staying active through group classes at the gym, singing at local events, and participating in Swing Dance workshops (sometimes as an instructor and others as an attendee). At home, she and her child Owen enjoy experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen and watching scary movies.
Kat Clowes, CEO/College Admissions Consultant
Kat originally fell in love with the college admissions journey after completing high school a year early and navigating the ins and outs of the process with her dad. They went to every college fair, college night, and presentation they could in an attempt to know as much as they could about the process and how to apply. Being the oldest, she was the proverbial “guinea pig,” forging a path that made it easier for her younger brother in his admissions journey. (She and her dad still marvel at all the things they wish they would have known about admissions before applying).
After completing her Bachelors in Communications at Santa Clara University, she began working in Hollywood (on the business side) before landing a job at a community college as a costume designer. It was there that she remembered her love of the admissions process again as she helped her transfer students navigate their own admissions journey.
Going back to school, Kat completed her Masters in Business Administration with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship from Mount St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles and her post graduate certificate in Educational Consulting from University of California, Irvine. She started her own firm, March Consulting, to help families like her own navigate the admissions process and in the past 10 years, had helped hundreds of families earn thousands in scholarships and advance to the colleges of their dreams.
She met Lauren Gaggioli early in 2014 and instantly knew they shared the same mission: helping students navigate and enjoy the process while earning money with their test scores and school choice to keep costs down. When Lauren approached her about taking on Higher Scores, she knew it was a perfect match.
Kat brings her years of experience with college admissions, planning for the SAT/ACT, and how to keep college costs down now to Higher Scores.
In her spare time, she still loves to sew and watch scary movies. She lives in California with her husband, daughter, cat, and great dane.