Junior Entrepreneur Cashes in on SAT Skills, Starts Prep Course

An enterprising junior has found a way to help pay for his Harvard education by teaching skills that helped him get into Harvard in the first place--performing well on Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT's).

The possibility of cashing in on his SAT acumen came upon Douglas F. MacLean '93 after he returned from his summer post at a London law firm in dire need of money for the upcoming academic year. "My entrepreneurship started out of necessity," says MacLean.

Faced with the menial alternative of "working in a library for $6. 90 an hour." MacLean founded the Crimson Testing Service (CTS), which he described as "an innovative, individual approach to the SAT that will allow students to meet their desired SAT goals."

The fundamental difference between CTS and other well-known test-prep programs such as the Stanley H. Kaplan course or the Princeton Review, according to MacLean, is its stress on tutoring individual students to meet their specific goals.

"It's a very goal-oriented program. We ask the students what school they want to get into and then design a program to meet that goal. No SAT program is this goal-specific," said MacLean.

MacLean pointed out that his course also differs from other long-established organizations in that CTS stresses individual attention from a personal tutor that is close to the same age as the student.

Because these undergraduate tutors have recently and successfully gone through the testing process themselves, MacLean said. "They may be able to relate better to the high school test-taker's concerns."

He studied the trends in SAT tests over the past 10 years and put together a manual. "How to Beat the SAT," on his computer, and used the manual as the primary teaching tool for his course.

"It's written in very simple English and really simple terms. I want to make the SAT as painless as possible," he said.

He even included a few cartoons among its pages in order "to lighten things up."

Now that he has jumped on the entrepreneurial bandwagon, MacLean will drive that bandwagon as fast and as far as he can. He is trying to have his "How to Beat the SAT" manual published, and he is drawing up plans to branch out to other schools.

"I'd like to set up franchises of this business, give them all the materials, and I'd be a coordinator and get proceeds from all their earnings," MacLean said