Since I was a child, I knew the SAT was a test I would eventually have to take. However, I never worried much about it, assuming that it was all in the future, and I could deal with it then. I kept this attitude until the end of sophomore year when I realized junior year was approaching, and with it, the SAT’s.

One of my friends mentioned Dr. Li’s camp, and how amazing it was; so, we decided to sign up. For the entirety of summer, the SAT camp weighed heavily at the back of my mind, as the date loomed closer and closer. Even with its outstanding reputation, I assumed it would simply be a gimmick, and would not really give me the assistance I needed to achieve the score that I desired. At the camp, however, I was pleasantly surprised. After expecting the two weeks to drag by, I instead had a wonderful time! I will admit even that by the second week, I found myself looking forward to the subsequent days.

In my opinion, my favorite part of the day was when Dr. Li taught us, to prepare us for the math portion. It was a subject I had always been good at, and I assumed it would come easily to me. Instead, I found myself spending lengthy amounts of time on each of his questions, struggling to come up with the answers. When Dr. Li began to go over the problems, however, I was astonished. The way Dr. Li approached the problems was so unique, and it made me realize just how simple the problems were, with the right approach. At times, it almost seemed impossible how Dr. Li was able to find some quick shortcut, draw a line, and get the right answer! However, by the end of the camp, I was able to solve those questions quickly as well. Even though I began the camp with a very disheartening score on Dr. Li’s “test”, I began to improve, only getting a couple wrong here or there, and from there I was able to obtain and 800 on the SAT.

But the camp was not just helpful for math, as it significantly improved my scores in both the critical reading and writing sections. From the beginning, these sections had been my worst, as my vocabulary was not up to par, my grammar was abominable, and my reading comprehension was more than lacking. However with the help of Dr. Thomson, I soon learned how to improve my essay score from a 7, at the beginning of the camp, to a 10 on the SAT. He also taught me many tips and tricks that I was able to employ on the test to narrow down the choices, making it significantly easier to work through the lengthy grammar section. To further help with my writing, I learned countless new vocabulary words from Mr. Snyder, many of which I had never seen in my life! In addition, with the help of Mr. Denney, I turned what I thought was my worst section, critical reading, into my second best. With the aid of his expertise, I managed to get an 800 on this portion on the SAT as well, completely surpassing what I had thought I could achieve.

It has been such a transformation going from knowing absolutely nothing about the SAT before that summer, to getting a 2350 on my first try, and I owe it all to Dr. Li’s camp. I can honestly say that my experience with Dr. Li’s camp was a catalyst for my success not only on the SAT’s, but also in school.  His camp provided me with skills that I utilized for the SAT as well as for school and life. After completing his challenging course, I have realized that through hard work and perseverance, I can achieve whatever I put my mind to.