About Us

Mark T. Coffin is the owner and President of Academy Custom Test Prep. Dr. Coffin is a graduate of Amherst College (B.A.) and the University of Pennsylvania (M.A., Ph.D. in American Civilization). After teaching for three years in the English and History departments at the Hawken School (Gates Mills, OH), he teamed with an investment management business in Cleveland to originate and manage venture partnerships in a variety of industries. Dr. Coffin purchased the predecessor company to Academy Custom Test Prep in 2012.

Academy offers both in-person and remote tutoring for ACT, SAT, PSAT, and GRE tests as well as the Common App Essay/College Admissions’ Essays.

Company History

Academy Custom Test Prep was founded in 2006 (then known as Academy Customized Test Prep).  Academy differs from existing tutoring services in several important ways:

1. Academy is locally owned and operated, so both the owner and Academy’s tutors are familiar with local schools, their curricula, and the common backgrounds and experiences of Academy’s students.

2. All tutoring is one-on-one and is priced lower than one-on-one tutoring generally available from competitors.

3. Tutoring plans are completely flexible, and there is no minimum required number of sessions.  Sessions are scheduled as close as possible to the student’s preferred meeting days/times, and sessions can be conveniently added or dropped.

4. Academy stresses student-tutor interaction to customize the teaching to each student’s strengths and weaknesses.  Use of Academy’s proprietary teaching materials, comprehensive instruction in test-taking strategy and pacing techniques, methods to reduce the high levels of anxiety that often accompany these tests, session-by-session reporting to students and their parents, and practice, practice, practice using actual ACT, SAT, PSAT, and GRE tests helps each student to reach his/her full potential.

5. Academy intends to remain small and local for close control and oversight of its services to parents and students.  Marketing is therefore almost exclusively by word-of-mouth (recommendations to others from previously-satisfied customers or from college counselors at local schools), not advertisements and mailings.

As a direct result of this approach, Academy has had proven success, not only in producing top-scoring students but primarily in assisting every student to achieve his or her best test scores.