Schecter Academic & Admissions Services

Admissions services for
applicants to
high schools, colleges
and graduate schools.

About Me

My name is Mason Schecter. I’m a graduate of Columbia College (BA) and The Wharton School (MBA), and I scored above the 99th percentile overall and on every section of the PSAT, SAT, GMAT and LSAT on my first attempt for each.

I train my standardized test students to master mistake proofing, miss only those questions they do not know how to do, and never, ever get stuck. My college essay students produce theme centered essays that strengthen their applications relative to those of their peers.

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Why Choose Me

I’m a standardized test expert

On my first and only attempts, I scored above the 99th percentile on every standardized test I’ve taken {PSAT, SAT, GMAT and LSAT}.

To which you may respond:

That’s nice, but SO WHAT?

Who cares if I’m good at standardized tests? Big deal. That doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that I can help you or your child.

Can I help? Absolutely!

I’m a process improvement expert

Let’s start with some fundamentals.

Students approach a standardized test armed with two tools: knowledge and process. While knowledge determines whether a student can figure out a correct answer, process determines how consistently one will.

I focus on process

In addition to being a good test taker, I am also a former management consultant. Consequently, I believe in prioritizing efficiency and in spending time on activities that yield maximum value.

Most standardized test prep systems do neither. By focusing on knowledge, often by the pound, most approaches waste the majority of prep time reviewing concepts that students have already mastered.

Furthermore, for most students knowledge gaps are not the primary problem, because in most cases, students already know what to do.

But if knowledge gaps aren’t the primary problem, then what is?

For most students, the problem is not that they CAN’T get the right answers, but that they DON’T get the right answers.

In short, the key problem for most students is making mistakes that they do not catch and correct.

People often call such mistakes “dumb errors;” however, they’re not dumb errors. They’re human errors. If you can find a human who doesn’t make mistakes, then you need another definition of human.

I make plenty of mistakes, at least as many as other folks do, but did that keep me from perfect scores? Nope! The trick isn’t to make fewer mistakes, or to stop making mistakes altogether, but rather to prevent mistakes before they occur and to identify and rapidly correct mistakes when they (inevitably) do.

I teach the skills students lack

Most students under-perform on standardized tests not because they lack knowledge, but because they lack critical skills.

Chief among those missing skills is Mistake Proofing:

Mistake Proofing, or its Japanese equivalent poka-yoke (pronounced PO-ka yo-KAY), is the use of any automatic device or method that either makes it impossible for an error to occur or makes the error immediately obvious once it has occurred.
AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR QUALITY

I don’t teach “secret” tricks, because there is no magic to mastering standardized tests. I teach superior processes, because they work.

My students attack every standardized test section consistently and efficiently, get every question correct that they know how to do, and never get stuck, because even when they do not know the right answer to a question, they always know what to do next.

The skills are timeless and generally applicable to all standardized tests; hence, if you master one, barring some nuances, you can master them all.

My Approach to
Application Essays

The purpose of an application essay is to add information has not been communicated elsewhere in an application. A successful essay offers context for an applicant’s history, and insight into an applicant’s motivations.

Application essays are not creative writing exercises. Thank goodness for that, because most people, regardless of their many other talents, are not talented writers. Even those rare birds who are talented typically have little experience writing what application essays demand: a self-promotional, first person narrative.

An effective application essay needn’t be a literary masterpiece, but it does have to be personal. My students deliver essays that are clear, organized, substantive and satisfying, and specifically tailored to what admissions personnel want to see.