Prospero Learning Studio
Real teaching, one student at a time.
College essays, test prep, AP English, and music production. Taught by a thirty-year educator and working producer, not a side-gig tutor.
College Essay Coaching
An essay that sounds like a real person and stands out in a stack of thousands.
Learn more →SAT / ACT / PSAT Prep
Reading and writing prep built for the digital SAT and the new Enhanced ACT.
Learn more →AP English
AP Language and AP Literature, taught by someone who taught the course.
Learn more →Music Production
One-on-one beat-making for kids and teens, taught by a working producer.
Learn more →College Essay Coaching
The college essay, taught by someone who read thousands of them.
I spent thirty years teaching students to write, and I know what makes an admissions reader stop skimming. I help your student find a true story and tell it in their own voice.
Who this is for
Juniors and seniors writing the Common App personal statement or supplemental essays. Students who have a deadline and a blank page, or a draft that reads like everyone else's.
How we work
- Find the real story. We do not start with a topic. We start with the specific moments and details no one else could write.
- Pick the structure. A single story told in scene, or several connected moments around one thread, chosen to fit what your student has to say.
- Write in their voice. The whole game is sounding like a real seventeen-year-old, not an essay. I protect that on every line.
- Cut the cliche. The winning game, the service trip, the lesson about hard work. Readers have seen each one ten thousand times.
- Revise to specific. Vague is forgettable. We trade every abstraction for a concrete detail and land the reflection that shows who your student is becoming.
Why it matters now
The essay carries more weight than it used to, and with admissions offices screening for AI-written work, an authentic voice is the hardest thing to fake and the clearest signal of a real student. Voice is exactly what I teach.
SAT / ACT / PSAT Prep
Test prep built for the tests as they are now.
The SAT went fully digital and the ACT was overhauled. I prep students on the current formats, focused on the reading and writing sections where thirty years of teaching English does the most good.
Who this is for
Students preparing for the digital SAT, the Enhanced ACT, or the PSAT/NMSQT who want real instruction on the verbal sections rather than a generic course.
What I focus on
- Reading and Writing, and English. Grammar rules, reading logic, and the question types, taught by someone who has taught this material for decades. On the new ACT, English is no longer the easy section, and that is squarely my lane.
- The current formats. The digital SAT in Bluebook, with its adaptive modules and short passages, and the Enhanced ACT, where Science is now optional and the test is shorter.
- Pacing and strategy. How to move through the modules, when to skip, and how to read under time. The mechanics that cost points even when a student knows the material.
- Real practice. We work from official practice and target your student's actual weak spots, not random worksheets.
A note on scope
My strength and focus is the verbal side. [Marc: add a line here if you also offer math or full-test support.]
AP English
AP English, taught by someone who taught the course.
AP Language and AP Literature support from a thirty-year English teacher. Close reading, argument, and the writing the exams actually ask for.
Who this is for
Students taking AP English Language or AP English Literature who want to build the reading and writing skills the course demands, during the year or heading into the exam.
What we cover
- AP Language. Rhetorical analysis, argument, and the synthesis essay. Reading nonfiction for how it works, then writing about it under time.
- AP Literature. Close reading of poetry and prose, and the literary argument essay. Building real interpretations and defending them on the page.
- The free-response writing. The essays are where points are won and lost. We practice the moves and the timing.
- Year-long or exam push. Steady support through the course, or focused prep in the run-up to the May exam.
Music Production
One-on-one music production, taught by a working producer.
Your kid wants to make beats. I teach them how, start to finish, on real software, with someone who actually produces.
Who this is for
Kids and teens who want to make their own music. No experience needed and no instrument required. Works on any device.
How it works
- Start making music day one. A real beat in the first session, not a lecture.
- The right tool for the age. Younger students on BandLab, teens on Soundtrap, all in the browser.
- Real feedback. Your kid brings what they made and I show them how to make the next one better. That back and forth is what keeps a kid going.
- Build real skills. Drums, bass, melody, arrangement, and finishing a track they can actually share.