Testing 1-2-3: Next Step Test Prep offers alternative exam tutoring

John Rood was always a natural test-taker. What dawned on him, though, while training to teach giant prep courses for graduate level exams is that this model of tutoring lacked the detail to help the average student.

Thus came the idea for Next Step Test Prep, an alternative test preparation small business that focuses on individual, one-on-one tutoring for each student. Rood found that his experience with the one-on-one format was “extremely effective.”

“I thought that by cutting some of the overhead and focusing tightly on great tutoring for the professional school exams, we could do well,” he said.

With that specialized focus on the individual student, rather than the more common practice of one-size-fits-all lecture courses, Rood and Next Step Test Prep faced more challenges than their competitors.

“We actually have to keep adapting our program for the individual student, and it definitely takes more attention and a very dedicated educator. On the other hand, that’s the entire point of our program – so I see it as a challenge that we’re happy to take on,” Rood said.

That added level of accountability for each student has not prevented Next Step Test Prep from getting exceptional results when it comes to students meeting their testing goals, something that the tutors meet with students on prior to preparation beginning in order to set reasonable, attainable goals.

Consistently practicing with past exams and receiving specialized help from world-class tutors, who not only have to rank in the highest percentiles of the tests they tutor on but must go through a teach-back interview process where they must play out how they solve problems, is the winning formula allowing students to meet their goal. “The ultimate outcome is generally not a surprise,” Rood said.

Rood notes that in an industry dominated by several big names, “our biggest challenge is just recognition.” Striving to make Next Step Test Prep even bigger and better, his main goal for the future is “to make sure students who could benefit from our program recognize us as an option.”

With the stellar results his company and students have been getting, that should be yet another test that Rood manages to naturally breeze through.

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