Meet the Founder, Josh Teal, of Cheeta Tutoring! Josh shares his story below of how he went from a Test-hating Teen to actually loving taking tests and now a Test-Prep tutor for the SAT and ACT! Josh also shares a special story about one his students he tutored that was able after group sessions with Josh, increased her SAT 9 points! It’s clear Josh is passionate about not only helping students improve their SAT and ACT scores but also how it will help them achieve their dreams!
Let me just get this out of the way: I used to hate standardized tests.
Not dislike. Not shrug-off.
I mean HATE: bold, all caps, would-skip-them-if-I-could hate.
When I took the SAT back in 2000, I scored a 1070, and I thought that confirmed everything I already believed: these tests were pointless and unbeatable.
I mean, come on. How do you possibly prep for a test that supposedly covers everything from kindergarten through 11th grade?
Spoiler Alert: you can. But I didn’t know that yet.
Fast forward to 2014. I needed a job. A tutoring company called Applerouth said I could be a great fit… if I scored in the 99th percentile on both the SAT and ACT.
Challenge accepted? More like, “Wait, me? The guy who thinks these tests were rigged?”
But here’s the thing: I needed the job. Badly.
So I did something that 16-year-old me would have found hilarious. I studied. Hard. Like, 40 hours a week for 4 straight weeks hard.
That’s over 160 hours reading the books, solving every problem, and basically living and breathing test prep. I didn’t just improve; I crushed it. I scored over 2300 on the old 2400-point SAT (equivalent to around 1560 today) and got a 34 on the ACT: the 99th percentile.
That’s when I realized something huge. These tests? They’re not about intelligence.
They’re about strategy.
The real twist? I loved it.
Once I started tutoring, everything changed. I discovered I could explain tricky concepts in ways that made sense to each student. They started seeing real improvements: not just in scores but in confidence, too.
I still remember sitting between sessions thinking, “Wait… they’re paying me to do this?”
What started as a challenge became a passion. I wasn’t just helping kids get better test scores; I was helping them realize what they were capable of. (Gah! Ended a sentence with a preposition.)
Fast forward again.
After years of tutoring over 200 students and working with some amazing companies, I launched Cheeta Tutoring: my own dream project.
Why “Cheeta”? Part Twitch handle, part homage to how fast and agile good test strategy can be when it’s tailored to the student.
I built Cheeta Tutoring to give students what I never had:
– Clear, proven strategies
– Teaching that adapts to how they learn
– A guide who’s been through the fire and came out stronger
– Learning in a way that doesn’t feel like a slog
And yes, I still geek out over grammar rules. (Don’t get me started on comma splices. Actually, do. I love it.)
So… why work with me?
Because I get it. I’ve been the kid who thought these tests were impossible. I’ve been the adult who cracked the code.
But this isn’t my story anymore.
Now, I’m the guide: The Gandalf. The Morpheus. The Yoda.
The one who shows up, hands your teen a strategy-lightsaber, and says, “Let’s do this.”
They’re the hero now.
And while we’ll definitely work hard, I’ll do everything I can to make it click, make it interactive, and maybe, just maybe, make it fun.
I can’t promise they’ll love every second, but I can say this: more than once, a student has looked up and said, “Wait, the session’s already over?”
Let’s make the time fly for your teen, too.
Student Story:
Let me tell you about my favorite student.
Her name is Julia, and when she first came to me, she joined one of my ACT Small Groups. She was a swimmer, and during her junior year she received an offer to attend Georgia Tech on a full-tuition swimming scholarship. There was just one problem, she had a 22 on the ACT, and she needed a 26 to qualify. Georgia Tech was the dream. She wanted to study biology there and eventually become an OB-GYN.
Her parents signed her up for my 8-session ACT Small Group, and, from day one, she worked like someone chasing something bigger than a test score.
Julia is the hardest-working person I have ever met. She showed up to every session, completed every homework assignment, checked her answers, and asked great questions. If she missed a question, she wanted to understand why. If she got one right but was not sure why, she wanted to understand that, too. She took organized notes and clearly studied them between sessions. She did not treat tutoring like something to get through. She treated it like training.
After those 8 sessions, Julia took the ACT and scored a 29!
She had cleared the benchmark for Georgia Tech, and she qualified for the scholarship. Her family was thrilled, Julia was thrilled, and I was thrilled.
Then her parents called with an update. They had spoken with Julia’s recruiter and learned that if she could raise her ACT to a 30, she would move from a full tuition to a full ride scholarship.
I was honest with them. That kind of jump, especially after she had already improved 7 points, was not very likely. In my experience, even moving up 1 point after achieving an increase of 7 is very difficult. However, a full ride would mean much more than a high score increase. It would help cover books, room and board, and the many costs that come with college. It would lift a real financial burden from her family.
Julia’s parents added five more one-on-one sessions, and her work ethic never dipped. She was always on time, always prepared, and always ready to learn. She always came to our sessions with damp hair and smelled like chlorine. She wasn’t just coming from the pool, but she was also going right back to it. Swimming wasn’t just a scheduled obligation for her. She chose that level of training. She lived in the pool, and that same discipline showed up in tutoring every single time. In fact, I’m not entirely sure she didn’t figure out a way to do her homework from the pool!
After those five sessions, Julia took the ACT again and scored a 30, and, because Georgia Tech superscores the ACT, she got a 31! That’s a 9-point increase from her baseline. Legendary.
She earned the full ride to Georgia Tech.
If that were the end of the story, it would already be one of my favorites.
But it’s not the end.
This happened about ten years ago, so we know what happened after that incredible score. Julia went to Georgia Tech, swam Division 1 all four years, and graduated with a degree in biology. Today, she’s at Emory, studying to become an OB-GYN. In other words, she’s living her dream.
For more details about Cheeta Tutoring and working with Josh, visit www.cheetatutoring.com.