Tom Meli beside a lake

Hello, I’m

Tom Meli

SAT instructor

I’ve spent twenty years learning how to explain hard ideas so they stick.

Teaching since
2006
SAT focus since
2015
My SAT as an adult
1550

I built Deep Test Prep to put those explanations in one place.

See all 130 lessons

Why I teach this way

My first SAT score left me confused.

The second time, as an adult, I studied the test’s patterns on purpose.Each lesson here teaches one of those patterns, so you can spot it on test day.

Tom’s SAT scores on the 400 to 1600 scale: 1200 as a teenager and 1550 as an adult, 350 points higher.

Every lesson takes a skill from the rule to a question you solve yourself.

Here’s how that looks for one grammar skill: fixing a comma splice.

  1. Part 1

    Learn the rule in plain words

    See why it works before you use it.

  2. Part 2

    Work it yourself, one small step at a time

    Learn to spot when a question calls for it.

  3. Part 3

    Check that it clicked

    Use it on questions you haven’t seen.

Twenty years of teaching went into these lessons.

  1. 2006

    Good teaching starts with the student in front of you

    I started by helping Chris, a young man diagnosed with autism, learn on his own terms.

  2. 2008 to 2014

    Staying steady when a problem is new

    I led wilderness programs and rites of passage where young people met problems they had never seen.

  3. 2015

    Learning which explanations help students improve

    Explaining the same hard ideas to many students showed me which examples and practice orders work.

  4. 2024

    Turning those explanations into an online library

    The library now has 130 lessons, so the one for any skill that trips you up is a search away.

Open the whole library with one payment.

Every lesson works the way I’d explain it to you across a table: one idea at a time, with a question for you to try.

Tom MeliSAT instructor
  1. TodayPreorder for $97Early-bird price
  2. January 2Library opensThen $149
Preorder the library