After the crushing realization that traveling and writing fantasy novels was not a viable career option, Laurel discovered a love for teaching and went into test prep. She’s taught the SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT, and holds 99th-percentile scores on each of those tests.

Laurel’s first foray into formal education was teaching English in Romania when she was just 19. Since then, she’s run nonprofit tutoring programs in urban schools, taught English in Georgia (the country), worked as a grief counselor, and even taught at an SAT camp (where she raised scores an average of 36 percentile points). Regardless of the subject matter, Laurel loves helping students understand previously intimidating material and boost their confidence in the process. She believes that the greatest obstacles to a killer score are our own self-sabotaging tendencies – and if we can harness the abilities already within us, nothing is unachievable.

Aside from her educational expertise, Laurel has a deep interest in the arts and has tried to pursue writing, art therapy, and every poverty-inducing creative field in between. She’s found herself contracted for an assortment of odd jobs, including working as a cake decorator and a face painter and dancing at an NFL halftime show. She also trumped every band camp story ever by attending circus camp, and will happily regale you with stories of trapeze falls (and demonstrate her juggling skills) after class.