Before:
-He was already getting mid-90’s in English class.
-But he struggled with generating ideas and thinking creatively about a subject. Would freak out about essays.
-Used to write too slowly, and would run out of time in in-class essays.

After:
Edward: “This program really helped me improve my English skills in multiple ways. Through this program, I learned step-by-step techniques to approaching literary analysis. These step-by-step techniques are really useful because they bring out my creativity and allow me to analyze deeper. It’s a very good foundation.”

“What differs between [Top Student Academy’s] program and my previous tutors is the breadth and scope of the course. Through this class, I was able to explore different advanced techniques, different sentence structures, different vocabulary, and incorporate them effectively in my writing.”

“This program really helped me prepare for senior level English classes, because of the strategies I got from the course. This included a step-by-step process for analyzing poetry, analyzing prose, analyzing novels, and writing cohesive synthesis essays.”

“I was able to use all the skills that I've learned in my classes and I expect to use them in my university classes as well. The notes I have from this class, I will definitely keep forever as they will be very handy in my future academic pursuits.”

“Getting a high mark in English 8 to 10 does not automatically translate into a higher mark in a higher level English course. I was able to maintain my mark, even improve it in IB English. I ended up with a 96% while a lot of my other friends found a huge drop, and they didn't anticipate how hard a senior level class would be.”

“I found that my analysis and critical thinking when analyzing texts improved a lot. This course really helped me think on my feet.”

“Through this program, I was able to boost my writing speed. In the end, I was able to write essays in under an hour, which completely astonished me.”

-She feels like for her, the most valuable benefit of our training is it nurtures and develops emotional intelligence in students.

Maggie: “Obviously the study (at Top Student Academy) helped his English courses... he got 95% when he graduated. In Grade 11, Grade 12, he made such big progress on every single course.”
“At the time, we were quite amazed by his progress in all his courses.”

“I think the learning goes beyond high school.
Business has a lot of analytical and critical thinking. Critical thinking is so important in all the courses in university.
This is basically the foundation, the necessary training for all his university courses. So David did very well on all the university courses.”

“David's training at Top Student Academy is very valuable. I think it provides very good training for critical thinking, So, for those skills, I think the training laid a very good foundation for their lifetime.”

“I think the most valuable aspect of your course, and this is also why I chose Top Student Academy versus other places, is because I think you help students grow emotionally, and develop their emotional intelligence.”

“I was amazed by the quality of the videos you developed. It's very professional. It's high quality. Your explanation is so clear, so concise, and very logical.”

“I think investment in my kids’ writing is very important. I don't necessarily think it's for academics only. It’s also very important for their personal growth.”

“I think writing is a valuable investment that you can only do when they are at this stage of their life. This is the long term investment that you will make for your kids.”

Before: She tried a lot of afterschool writing classes/tutors, but always dropped out after one or two classes because they just lectured, gave general information, did not provide in-depth analysis, and were not high level enough for her needs. None of them could help her improve her grades.

After: Top Student Academy’s training helped Judy improve from a 4 to a 7 (70’s to 100% for IB) within 1 year.

Judy: “It’s a really drastic increase and I’m super happy about that!”

“The training taught me analytical skills by breaking down sentences, objectively analyzing perspectives, finding quotes and evidence to logically support your argument.”

“The training taught me a systematic way to break down prompts and organize my ideas into well-structured paragraphs.”

“The teaching materials are very useful and engaging. It provides very condensed, concise notes that are super helpful! I still keep a copy of them now in university so I can review them for college seminars.”

Critical Thinking Training:

“High school writers can really benefit from this course by learning how to identify deeper significance of texts and critical thinking.”

“Critical thinking is one of the most important transferable skills. You need it when learning ANY subject and in life.”

“Top Student Academy’s courses trained my critical thinking through teaching me step-by-step approaches to logical analysis and how to ask a lot of guiding questions. Literature is a very effective way to train your critical thinking.” (see her explain why in her video!)

“I probably learned more techniques in one year of Gold [Level Course] than I’d learn in the last two years at school.”

“What surprised me the most was probably how much joy I got out of the course. It was so great for me to see my own progress... It makes me so happy to see all the hard work put in by the Top Student Academy team.”

“What exceeded my expectations is definitely the amount of detail and work that’s been put into the course, and how much fun I have—I did not expect to have so much fun looking at all this literature and writing about it!”

“I found the video lessons very clear and effective, because they’re NOT like a one hour lecture…They’re divided into very digestible portions. And there’s very detailed descriptions, which definitely helped me learn. The videos really highlight exactly what the most important techniques are that you must learn.”

“The video lessons really showed you step-by-step what to do. And it’s really easy to ask questions and get answers and help.”

“The main reason I would recommend this course to others is because it definitely teaches you all the details of good writing, and all the variety of techniques that you can apply to almost anything. And it's just a fun experience overall”

“It's amazing. It's really helpful. I love the class!”

Josh: “I learned a lot about critical thinking and writing, learned a lot about how to analyze writing pieces. And then how to convey what I am thinking properly and accurately on paper or in writing, which helps a lot in various aspects. I’m in STEM fields and you need to write a lot.”

“I felt like when we had an exam in high school that involved writing, I went in without much fear after taking this class.”

“My sister, currently in 10th Grade, is also taking classes with Top Student Academy. It’s important to learn how to be analytical, convey your feelings and ideas on paper, and be creative with original composition.”

Q: How did Top Student Academy’s Training Benefit You Beyond High school?

Josh: “I think it is also important to be creative in STEM, when you are thinking about how to design an experiment, and try to think outside the box, I think it’s also very valuable.”

“In terms of my core courses and research, I was working with a professors [who] always emphasized how, when you’re ready to write a paper, those data is half the battle. But how to package your data and convey it in very thoughtful ways is the other half of the battle and I definitely learned a lot about that (at Top Student Academy).”

“This class is very useful! I’ve gotten this far in my career and a lot of that has to do with the writing skills I honed…Your writing is a very important skill.

Definitely get started honing your writing skill earlier than later. I think it’s an incredibly important skill to have.”

Jeanette: “Top Student Academy’s course is the only course that actually TEACHES you HOW to write essays…other courses or tutors just TELL you to write essays”

“This course focuses a lot on deeper skills.”

“The video lessons are super high quality, easy to understand, and highly efficient. Every sentence it says has a purpose. Every minute is useful. I’m always learning new things in this course and I can immediately apply it to my own writing.”

“I’ve never had English taught to me the way Top Student Academy did. I never imagined a course like this could exist. The course is definitely super helpful and very effective.”

“The techniques the course teaches are very systematic and streamlined. They are easy to learn. These techniques transformed how I write and how I analyze things.”

“I highly recommend this course. This course will be monumental in changing the way you approach your essay writing process.”

This course also helped me improve in subjects like science, math, mandarin, and social studies:

“A lot of the skills this course teaches are very cross-disciplinary and cross-applicable to other subjects.”

“My analytical skills greatly improved. This also helped me with math problems.”

“The outline techniques this course teaches is different from just creating an empty organization structure my school teaches. This helped me greatly with a social studies essay that’s 3000 words long."

“This course taught me to write a lot faster. It improved my in-class writing at school. And I’m so much faster at science lab reports…this course’s training sped up my lab reporting process by hours!”

Jaxon: “I’ve actually done other English classes (tutoring center) before Grade 8…and their class was so different and ineffective.

Immediately after Grade 8 when I started taking class here, I felt the impact right away. My English mark skyrocketed by term 3 in my Grade 9 year (within 1 year).

“When we were figuring out who’s going to be in Grade 10 Honors, I was actually the benchmark. I got the highest mark in my entire class.”

“Now I know how to have original interpretation. I know how to analyze with depth, and I know how to express what I say with eloquence.”

“The teaching materials are very helpful…not something you can find elsewhere. I think what makes it so special is because she organized them in a way that makes it easy to retain.”

“Looking back, through all my years here, I feel like the system she’s created is really apparent… Each year gets progressively more difficult in a good way. It never becomes overbearing or over-simplistic to us. I think that really shows how much effort she has put into creating this wonderful system.”

-David trained with Top Student Academy for 3 years in high school.

David: “I definitely enjoyed the structure and format of the course.”

“Overall, I think I’ve become a much more analytical person. And that kind of mindset I think has been very helpful for a variety of different courses. Throughout my university journey, I’ve had a fairly high average in terms of grades. That kind of mindset has helped quite a lot.”

“A lot more college courses will use writing than you might think, especially in business. A lot of courses have writing assignments and projects.”

“It’s just very beneficial to be good at written communication because of how prevalent it ends up being. No matter what major you’re taking, you’ll never be able to escape writing, essentially. So it’s definitely a very good skill to learn.”

“Writing skills ends up being important for all sorts of application processes. As long as they’re focused on discovering what kind of person you are, and your cultural fit with the employer or school, it always ends up being very important.”

Before:
Had many private tutors, but those private tutors could not help her with academic breakthroughs. She hit a bottleneck and was consistently getting 86%-88% in English.

After:
-Improved from 86% to 95% within 1 year of training with Top Student Academy.

-She got 93% or higher in Pre-AP, AP English Literature, and AP English Language classes. She got 5s on both AP English Literature and AP English Language exams.

-She trained with Top Student Academy for 3 years (Grade 10 to 12)

Jasmine: “The materials are very comprehensive… You get a lot of help and guidance with EVERY step of the analysis and writing process. This course covers a lot more details than private tutors.”

“The course taught me many note-taking strategies and annotation techniques.”

“The course provides rigorous, strict training on timed writing. I learned to optimize my results in a tight amount of time. The training is extremely helpful in time management.”

Fred: “In Grade 11 when I started here, my English mark was around 93%, which was really high for me. I never thought I could actually achieve that!”

Before:
-Didn’t know how to organize and plan his essays, which had many overlapping portions.
-Tried other writing classes/tutors before, which were ineffective.
-Could never get A’s in English. Was consistently getting 81%-82%.

After:
-Improved to 93% in one year.
-Felt Top Student Academy prepared him well for AP classes like AP Seminar & AP English Language.
-Became skilled at synthesis essays, and could analyze four texts in one essay.

Before:

-Was struggling with timed essay writing and was scoring high 80s to low 90s.

-Could usually only finish half of his in-class essays.

After:

-He achieved 97% within 1 year with Top Student Academy!

-His writing speed and quality both massively improved. He finished 3 essays in 2 hours on the AP English Literature exam and scored a 5 (perfect score). He can also finish an essay for English, History or Geography in one hour.

Jun: “I think my proudest achievement after taking the class is definitely writing the two perfect essays on my school exams, especially since I go to a school where the teachers are notorious for being very very hard markers. That was a very proud moment for me.”

“I think the biggest thing that I took away from this course is that now I actually write outlines for every single essay that I write before it. So now I can usually finish my essay in 30–20% of the time.”

“Their video lessons were absolutely essential towards the success of this course....

My favorite thing about these video lessons is that the techniques they teach are very actionable. I don’t want generic advice like ‘show, don’t tell’... Even though every week I’d be learning one dozen, two dozen new techniques, it was all laid out in a way that I can actually internalize it! I was easily able to internalize at least 80%-90% of the techniques they teach.”

“Having like an outline and actually setting aside, OK, I have one hour to work on this, no more, no less. That saved me a ton of time so I can do other things that I maybe find more interesting or more valuable and that has improved my life as a student a lot.”