One-on-One Preparation

The Comprehensive Course and the Advanced Course are Walker Prep's two sustained one-on-one engagements in SAT Reading & Writing. Both are taught by Dave Walker directly — no associates, no substitutes — and both are organized around the same substantive spine: an iterative cycle of Socratic review, targeted study, and deliberate practice, grounded in the Cross-Examiner's Toolbox™, the system of analytical techniques at the center of Walker Prep's method.

Every engagement begins from diagnostic work: Dave and the student working through the student's missed questions from an official practice test. For most families, this work happens before the engagement, in the Diagnostic Review — Walker Prep's standalone diagnostic service and recommended starting point — after which Dave delivers a written diagnostic identifying the specific strategic and conceptual gaps behind the misses, along with a preparation roadmap that guides the engagement from the first session. Families who enroll without the Diagnostic Review begin instead with a first session largely dedicated to the same diagnostic work, with the resulting priorities recorded in the first lesson summary.

Beyond the sessions themselves, every one-on-one engagement includes full access to the Walker Prep student platform, which carries the Mastery Course, Walker Prep's full curriculum in SAT Reading & Writing; the Word List, Dave's SAT vocabulary application; and the Casebook, the practice and analytics platform. Rigorous homework assignments are posted to the student's one-on-one tutoring space on the student platform, and Dave submits a detailed lesson summary after every session. Practice draws on Walker Prep's bank of official SAT material and on Dave's own quizzes, exercises, and mock questions.

The two engagements differ in scope, not in method. Both are sufficient for establishing proficiency in every major question type on the Reading & Writing section, and both use the same instructional approach across every session.

The Comprehensive Course runs eighteen sessions and is calibrated for students aiming at the 85th–90th percentile — the 650–690 range on Reading & Writing. It is the right choice for the student whose primary work is systematic development of proficiency across every question type, and whose target score sits within the range that disciplined application of the method reliably reaches within eighteen sessions.

The Advanced Course runs twenty-four sessions and is calibrated for students aiming at the 91st–99th percentile — the 700–800 range. The six additional sessions carry two extensions: deeper grounding in grammar fundamentals, and advanced treatment of the question types where the highest-scoring students distinguish themselves — Inference, Command of Evidence, and the other categories where the College Board's most challenging and novel constructions appear. The Advanced Course is the right choice for the student whose target sits at the top of the curve, where a broader analytical repertoire is required.

Students uncertain which engagement fits their circumstances can begin with the Diagnostic Review, where Dave will make a specific recommendation based on the student's current performance, target score, and timeline.

Representative instructional-hour distributions. The table below shows a representative allocation of in-session instructional time across each engagement. These are examples only — actual allocations vary with the student's strengths and focus areas. Instructional hours comprise both direct instruction and guided practice.

Both engagements are sold in cohorts aligned to specific national SAT administrations. Access to Dave's booking calendar is granted immediately upon purchase — families can begin reserving their preferred session times right away, with bookings confirmed instantly. Availability tightens as each administration approaches; families preparing for the next several test dates are typically secured months in advance. Enrollment for a given administration remains open until the roster fills or until the timeline for the engagement no longer accommodates the full session count.