Meet The Team
Jim Addeo
Our co-founder and primary teacher for CANY has 12 years of experience teaching for standardized tests including the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT and TOEFL exams. He graduated from Cornell University in 2001 and went on to work overseas in various teaching positions in Italy, China and Thailand. James holds an M.S. in Mathematics.
Erin has been a teacher and a tutor for Perfect Score Test Prep since 2015. She received her B.S. in Education from Manhattan College and is now pursuing her Ph.D. in Biostatistics. Certified in Math 7 - 12, Erin has taught at home and abroad, including 15 months in China. She contributes her success on the SAT and ACT to a strong understanding of the core content and a knowledge of when to apply the right strategies.
Erin Dauerer
Our company's founder, dubbed “Test-Prep Nerd” by many of his friends and colleagues, began his career with Kaplan as an SAT classroom instructor and tutor before going out on his own. He has more than twelve years of experience teaching and tutoring for standardized tests, including the SAT, the ACT, SAT IIs, Regents Exams, and other tests of core curriculum. He attended Harvard University.
Justin Van Wely
Kevin Root has been teaching in one capacity or another for most of his life. He started volunteering as a tutor in High School, where he racked up almost a hundred hours. He tutored professionally in various subjects during College. After graduating with dual degrees in Mathematics and Education, he taught for a couple of years at a High School in Virginia, where he established a Physics department during his first year of teaching. He is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Mathematics at SUNY Albany. He believes that greatness is a measure of potential, not achievement, and that every student was born with the spark of greatness already inside them.
Kevin Root
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Our Story
A note from the business owner
As a self-proclaimed test prep nerd, I find the only thing I love more than taking tests is teaching others how to take them. This is why many of my students have found immense success on these exams, some students increasing their scores as many as 510 points between administrations of the SAT and 16 points on the ACT, since I began the company back in 2013.
While point increases may vary, one thing I found that stays the same is that all students who work with me find my love for these exams infectious.
As the essayist Donald Miller explains in Blue Like Jazz:
"I never liked jazz music. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes, not even once. After that I liked jazz music."
To do well in something, I believe you have to love it a little. And, sometimes, the only way to love a thing is to watch someone else who loves it, first. It is like this with standardized exams, which is why I make it my personal goal to get students to enjoy test taking, in general, treating each exam as a challenge to overcome, a puzzle to solve, a game they can win. Most students eventually do find they love taking these tests once the proper methods are in place.
I've built my company, Perfect Score Test Prep, around these ideals. I hope you find the same pleasure in test taking that I always do.
Sincerely,
Justin P. Van Wely,
Business owner
Hi, I'm Justin
Our Mission
Our mission is to bridge the growing gap between below-average and above-average test takers created by standardized tests. At Perfect Score Test Prep, we teach our students to employ systematic techniques in combination with logical reasoning to excel not just on standardized exams factored into college admissions decisions but on any exam they will face ever.