Alyssa’s desire to teach grew from her life-long appetite for learning, a passion she pursued through extensive reading, writing, and traveling. Alyssa’s fascination with all things human led her to the department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Cultural Anthropology.

Upon graduating from CU, Alyssa gained admission to the University of Pittsburgh as a dual Master’s Degree candidate in the Graduate School of Social Work and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs where she self-styled a major in International Social Welfare. As a graduate student, Alyssa acquired a unique skillset including a strong clinical background in both interpersonal and cross-cultural communications, as well as analytical writing, oral presentation and debate, all of which would prove key to Alyssa’s later success as a college test prep tutor.

Alyssa’s desire to share her passion for her studies inevitably led to a career in education. Beginning twenty years ago, while raising her three children, Alyssa worked as a teacher and site director for a prominent test prep company. Later, she joined the faculty of the Social Science Department at a New Jersey High School, while continuing to tutor SAT and ACT students. Word of mouth about Alyssa’s students’ successes spread quickly and the overwhelming demand for her services eventually convinced her to give up her teaching job to focus full-time on undergraduate and graduate test preparation and essay assistance. Thus, Alyssa Petrone Test Prep (APTP) was begun in 1999.

Since that time Alyssa has logged more than 35,000 hours tutoring/coaching more than 1,600 students; all have gone on to higher education and a majority have attended top-tier or second-tier universities. In the past two years alone, Alyssa’s students have been accepted to such prestigious universities as Dartmouth College, Brown University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Tufts University, Columbia University, Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Middlebury College, Vanderbilt, Georgetown University, University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, The University of Chicago, Colgate, Carnegie Mellon University, College of William and Mary and Williams College, and UCLA. Alyssa’s own daughter, Hannah, is a recent Dartmouth College graduate. 

Upon completion of their undergraduate educations, many of Alyssa’s students come back to her for graduate school assistance with the GRE and the GMAT and for assistance in preparing their personal statements for their graduate school applications, medical school, and law school applications.  Alyssa’s students have been accepted to such prestigious post-graduate programs as the University of Pennsylvania, Fels School of Public Policy, Northwestern University Medical School, NYU Steinhardt School, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, Duke's Fuqua School of Business, NYU Rory Meyers School of Nursing, and the University of Michigan Law School.

Any test prep tutor worth her salt can attain a perfect score. Not every tutor, however, is able to effectively impart to students a clear and effective methodology to achieve the highest possible scores for themselves.  Alyssa’s insightful, in-depth knowledge of the structure and content of the Reading, English, and Writing portions of standardized tests comes from thousands of hours of experience and is unparalleled in the test prep industry. Equally as important as her exhaustive knowledge of the college admissions tests are Alyssa’s remarkable grasp of the psycho-dynamics of performance and her ability to coach students to peak performance.