Achievement
Over the last eight years, Maine Prep has become Maine’s premier Test Preparation company, helping thousands of high school students raise their SAT and ACT scores, boost their admissions chances, and qualify for merit scholarships. In addition, we have worked with many college students to improve their grad, law, and business school prospects.
A Little History
Maine Prep was founded in 2002 by Jack Mahoney, who during the 1990s taught all major tests and trained new test prep teachers for Stanley Kaplan in New York City. In 2002-3, Jack devised and wrote the first edition of Maine Prep’s TEN for TEN® SAT prep curriculum. He consulted with South Portland High School, which had recently instituted Maine’s first free curricular SAT course.
In 2004, the company opened its first office in Brunswick. Maine Prep had five students. By the end of that year, we had added our first teacher (Jessica Kaplan, who also heads the curricular SAT program at South Portland HS) and had prepared 120 students. To help students be ready for the New SAT (March 2005) with its Writing section, we designed and introduced a comprehensive SAT essay analysis system and wrote new Writing curriculum focused on grammar and usage.
In 2005, we began our SAT prep training for high school teachers, teaching our initial sessions at Bridgton Academy. During the year we added two teachers and worked with 195 students in classes and private tutoring sessions, mostly in Brunswick and Cape Elizabeth.
The next three years marked a period of rapid growth. We added four more Maine Prep teachers and expanded our group class offerings to Kennebunkport, Portland, Lewiston/Auburn, Bangor, and Readfield. We taught “before-school” SAT prep that Freeport High School provided to 60 of its students at no charge (and that helped raise individual composite scores as much as 300 points). We trained teachers at high schools in Skowhegan, Oakland, Monmouth, and Lewiston; those schools all used Maine Prep’s TEN for TEN curriculum to help their students prepare for the state-mandated May SAT. Sean Lent became the first Maine Prep teacher to teach a curricular course for a private school when he taught SAT prep to over 120 post-grads at Bridgton Academy. In July, we opened our new offices at 22 Parkers Way in Brunswick. By the end of 2008 we were working with over 300 students a year privately and in classes.
In 2009, our SAT prep curriculum was used at public high schools in Cape Elizabeth, Freeport, Lewiston, Monmouth, South Aroostook, and Vinalhaven. We taught over 30 group SAT prep classes from Bangor to Kennebunkport. We began our first Falmouth class in November. Rich Taylor taught test prep four days a week for the entire fall semester at Bridgton Academy. Last but certainly not least, Jessica Kaplan of Maine Prep was inducted into the UNUM Educators’ Hall of Fame based on her success with the SAT prep course she designed and runs for South Portland High School. Jessica’s Testwise course has used Maine Prep’s TEN for TEN® curriculum since 2003; in 2007, her students posted an average score gain from PSAT to SAT of 176 points.
In 2010, we continued our small group classes in Bangor, Brunswick, Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth, Kennebunkport, Lewiston, and Deering, and later began classes at Hyde School in Bath and Gould Academy in Bethel. Bo Gallup, an SAT/ACT prep maven, joined us and worked with students from Camden to Brunswick. Maine high schools licensing our curriculum included those in Cape Elizabeth, Monmouth, Lewiston, and Bridgton. In July we trained teachers from Sanford High School, which began offering free Maine Prep SAT training. Last summer, we were pleased to add to our ranks Dan Meade from the Waterville area and Claire Hirschmann of Portland, who has rapidly become very busy teaching classes and private tutoring in the Brunswick-Scarborough corridor. Finally, Dugan Slovenski, her husband Peter, and their boys opened a new summer camp on Panther Pond in Raymond. Among the camp’s offerings was (get this!) SAT prep. Dugan used the Maine Prep methods and materials in the camp’s classes. Congratulations, Dugan and Peter, on your successful first summer!
In 2011, we began new group classes in Scarborough and Newcastle.
