L to R (front row) Darwish Gani, David Forman, Abhi Ramesh. (Back row) Tripp Roberts and Ashwin Muthiah.

BY JYOTHSNA HEGDE

“Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant” said the wise Ralph Waldo Emerson. Surely, there is something about being young that makes one believe that you can change the world. So, when a group of youngsters Darwish Gani (age 20), Abhi Ramesh (age 19), and Salil Kumar (age 21) realized that the test prep industry of today lacks a curriculum designed specifically for smart, motivated and high-achieving students, they decided to create Altair Prep, a service to help motivated and hardworking students reach their full potential on the SAT.

“Even though I was in the top 1% of my class, I did not fare well with SAT scores,” says Darwish, a valedictorian, adding that none of the courses he opted for were designed for high scoring students, specifically. Utilizing the strengths of over 15 students across the country from schools such as Georgia Tech, Princeton, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern, they engineered a fast-paced curriculum which they believe better caters to driven students using the exact strategies applied a few years ago. 

When asked about what makes Altair Prep unique and distinct from the rest of the courses, Darwish and Regional Director Ashwin Muthiah (age 19) are quick to reply. They believe their pattern recognition strategy will alter the way students approach SAT by forcing them to recognize patterns within the test. “SAT has been broken into a comprehensive database of over 40 subcategories and strategies. Each question on the SAT has been categorized into 1 overall category, 2 subcategories, a difficulty level (1-5), and a target strategy” says Darwish. When a question is missed, they believe they can pinpoint the exact areas of weaknesses and address them in a targeted manner. Being students themselves – Darwish, Junior, majoring in Math and Economics at Northwestern University, Abhi, a Sophomore, majoring in Business and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Salil, a Senior at Northwestern, and pre-med is an added bonus to this business model, since they can think the way students do. They also believe that their tutors, who have aced the SAT exams recently, offer the unique experience of students learning from accomplished peers. Picked from some of the nation’s finest universities such as University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Darwish believes that their tutors are mentors from whom students can gain valuable insight into the college world. The tutors in Atlanta area, Chris Choi, Alex Letov, and Tripp Roberts are all graduates from Walton High and currently enrolled at Georgia Tech. You may visit www.altairprep.com for more information.

Working with the vision “High achieving students need classes that match their potential”, the young makers of Altair Prep believe their 6 week series that features 32 hours of class time, 12 hours of proctored testing, and a near perfect score (770+) tutor for each section will in fact help students aim for that elusive perfect score. Altair Prep believes in keeping a small class size and fosters adaptive learning process with personalized homework, unique strategy categorizations and a friendly atmosphere. Their hopes for the future soar high, aiming to be national providers for test preparations across the US. Looking beyond, building a network of kids who are above average, they believe will be an added advantage of being part of the Altair team.

Altair Prep opened up a center in Atlanta this January. They plan to spread out to Philadelphia and Chicago in stages and throughout the US eventually. 

No matter what the future holds, it is truly inspiring to watch young minds brimming with confidence and positivity, go after what they believe in. As Pablo Picasso rightly said “Action is the foundational key to all success” and it appears that these youngsters are certainly headed in the right direction. Here’s wishing the Altair team the best in all future endeavors.

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