Elite Educational Institute of Rowland Heights

This has been my final stretch of SAT testing review and I’m happy to say that Elite has been my best experience by far. Contrary to other reviews, I have actually studied on my own and found it quite difficult and grueling to understand all of the meticulous and difficult concepts that the SAT consists of. The phenomenal teachers at Elite have helped me improve my score by over 300 points and it’s an understatement to say that I’m satisfied. The lessons and work are definitely worth it’s ticket price to attend the classes there. Unlike the other reviews on here, I believe that Elite’s staff is not rude; they are actually holding their students ACCOUNTABLE for their work which is part of their JOB DESCRIPTION. If the staff wasn’t the way they are now– tenaciously holding their pupils accountable for their lessons, work, and grades– I wouldn’t be paying that bulk of money that I am to them. All and all, the teachers and staff have shown an interest in individuals and are always willing to help you in any way possible even if it means staying after class hours to discuss a certain topics and/​or lessons. Because of the connections I have made with my intellectual and kind teachers, my thinking and disposed tendencies are definitely more suited to do well on the upcoming SAT. I definite recommend sending your child to this branch. Thank you Elite for helping me build my personal and educational future! Thank you for aiding me in the next chapter of my life at UCLA!

My review is probably not going to hold much value since it’s been years since I attended this place, but… I’ll write a review just for nostalgia’s sake. I will say though that I agree a lot with what Chris H said, especially looking back on Elite.
I attended Elite from winter until the spring of 2007, if I remember correctly. That would’ve been for a good part of my junior year in high school, so that sounds about right, since the majority of students take their SAT’s that year.
I think I was pretty much like most students here — dragged by their parents and unmotivated. There would be 3 hour long practice SAT’s every Friday afternoon followed by classes from 9am until noon every Saturday (the schedule may have changed since my time there). The fun thing about Elite was that I met a lot of cool and funny people during my time there, and I remember how a lot of us bonded over humor and colleges we hoped to get into. Sucks how I never got contact information from any of those people, since some students would drop out of the program or just come and go. But this was pre-​Facebook blow up and during those lame MySpace days we’re talking, so I guess social media couldn’t have been helped back then.
But nostalgia aside, the curriculum here pretty much uses actual old SAT tests to whip you into shape. I excelled in the Verbal class since grammar and all that is my strongest point (I scored a 780 on that section on my actual test), did decent in the Reading Comprehension, and did horribly in the Math class. But with the whole routine done week after week, I really think what Chris H said is right — you’re pretty much forced to study (in this particular case, the same set of question types the SAT will ask you, over and over). You could do this on your own with prep books, but what Elite does is essentially have teachers guide you through and try sharing whatever tips and tricks they know. Pretty much, they break it all down for you.
To be honest at the end of the day, I’d like to say Elite did help me in some way (after all, it WAS $ 100 or so every week, and I stayed at this place for months). If I recall correctly, I took the SAT once, and I scored a 1960. The course I performed worst in, Math, obviously didn’t improve on my actual SAT (I got 600 or so I’m surmising), so I’m guessing that’s just something that can’t be changed.
Overall, this place I think is just a good experience in general. Having people force you to study isn’t so bad, and this IS the SAT we’re talking about. Although I will say that these days, the UC’s don’t really seem to give a shit about anything in terms of admissions… people who don’t try (or have connections) get into top-​ranking campuses and people who do try get into low-​ranking UC’s. IDK, man. The world’s changing, what can we do? But at Elite, you’ll make friends in your classes, so it’s not too bad. And you’ll pretty much go through a big step of high school along with these other students you’ll meet — so looking back, it’ll be a good memory.
But everytime I pass by this plaza or stop on inside to go to Yogurtland, I’m hit with nostalgia. I see my younger days, and being in the real world now… I’d do anything to go back. Suddenly, being forced to study or take a 3 hour practice test doesn’t seem so bad after all. So if any of you high school juniors are reading this right now and go to Elite, you are actually lucky right now. Really! Cherish your time and commit to your studies. If anything, you have another 4 years of college waiting for you, and those are going to be the best years of your life.

My son took the diagnostic test at Elite Rowland Height and his score was 1600. We signed him up for a 8 weeks prep class. He got his SAT scores result yesterday — 2100. We are very happy and contented. He wants to try one more attempt but I advise him not to. I told him to put more on his school studies and tries to maintain a decent GPA. As a mom, and I am very sure including my son, really respect the person in-​charge at Elite Rowland Heights — JULIAN. He is very professional, knowledgeable and kind. Make an appointment for your child to see Julian and I dare to say you will NOT be disappointment with his advices and information. Thank you Elite and Thank you Julian.

These supposed SAT prep classes are really just full of lies. Basically you pay them hundreds of dollars for them to tell you what you would be able to read from several SAT prep BOOKS.
But why do many people report score increases? Because without these classes they would not be whipped and spoon-​fed the information they need to score higher on the SAT or ACT. Basically you are paying them to force you to study. This does work though it costs a lot of money.
If you really actually wanted to score well on the SAT and had the willpower to actually read some SAT prep books, Elite would just be a huge waste of money for you.
This place is run professionally by Koreans, however many of the classes are not taught by Korean teachers. For example, one of the best teachers here is a super cool white dude that throws packets of papers at you and is really funny and teaches very well.
In conclusion, if you can self-​study SAT prep books yourself, do not go here or to any of the other prep classes that do the same thing (such as Princeton Review or nearby ACI). If you need to be spoon-​fed information, then by all means Elite is probably the best prep class out of the rest, which is quite a hard thing to do considering there are SO many in Rowland Heights.
And in case you’re wondering, my SAT in October 2007 after going to Elite and Princeton Review was 1950. After not even thinking about the SAT until one week before Oct. 2008’s test and self-​studying the collegeboard book I received 2010.