I want to make something available that I don’t usually just hand out for free, mostly because I don’t have a good reason not to: the actual week-by-week structure I use to plan a 12-week SAT prep cycle with tutoring students.
This isn’t a watered-down teaser version. It’s the real skeleton — diagnostic first, then a build sequence through the content areas that tend to hold the most recoverable points, timed practice worked in progressively rather than all at once at the end, and a taper in the final week that protects sleep and confidence instead of cramming right up to test day. If you’ve read anything else I’ve written, none of the individual pieces will surprise you. What’s useful here is having them laid out in order, as an actual plan rather than a collection of separate tips.
Here’s roughly what the arc looks like, week by week. Week one: a full, timed diagnostic, no exceptions, before anything else gets scheduled. Weeks two through four: foundational work on whatever the diagnostic flagged as the highest-value gaps — usually a mix of a specific grammar concept or two, a pacing habit, and a reading strategy. Weeks five through nine: the heaviest lifting, alternating between targeted skill work and increasingly realistic timed sections, with a short progress check around week six or seven to confirm the plan is actually working and adjust if it isn’t. Weeks ten and eleven: full-length, timed practice tests under conditions as close to real as possible. Week twelve: the taper — light, confidence-building review only, protected sleep, and the checklist items squared away well before test morning.
Why give this away? Partly because a lot of families genuinely don’t need a tutor — they need a credible structure and the discipline to follow it, and that’s a real, legitimate outcome I’m fine with. A motivated student with a real diagnostic and this kind of week-by-week structure can do a meaningful amount of this work independently, and I’d rather that family have a good plan for free than a bad one they paid for elsewhere.
And partly, honestly, because families who try to run this plan on their own and hit a wall somewhere — pacing that isn’t improving, a content gap that isn’t closing, a student who needs outside accountability to actually stick to the schedule — are exactly the families who end up reaching out afterward with a much clearer sense of where they specifically need help. Either outcome is a good one, and neither requires me to hold the plan back as some kind of paid secret.
If you want it, comment PLAN and I’ll send it straight over — no email funnel gauntlet, no strings. Just the plan.
Do’s and Don’ts
| DO: Start with a full, timed diagnostic before scheduling any content review, even if running the plan independently.Follow the week-by-week structure in order rather than jumping around based on mood or convenience.Build in a progress check around the halfway point to confirm the plan is working and adjust if it isn’t.Protect the final week as a taper — light review only, not last-minute cramming. | DON’T: Don’t skip straight to full practice tests without foundational targeted work first.Don’t treat the plan as a checklist to complete quickly rather than a paced, weekly structure.Don’t abandon the plan at the first sign it isn’t going perfectly — use the built-in progress check to adjust instead.Don’t cram in the final week, even if earlier weeks felt behind schedule. |
Dr. Hurwitz’ Take
I get asked occasionally why I’d give away something that’s genuinely part of how I run paid tutoring. My honest answer is that the plan was never the scarce part — the accountability, the weekly adjustment, the person actually checking whether it’s working and course-correcting in real time, that’s the part that’s harder to replicate for free. A motivated family with this plan and real follow-through can do a lot on their own. I’d rather help with that directly than pretend the structure itself is some kind of trade secret.
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