The Mary Louis Academy (TMLA) is a private Catholic college-preparatory school for young women located in Jamaica Estates, Queens, New York City. It was founded in 1936 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood. The school is commonly referred to as TMLA or simply Mary Louis.

TMLA offers a comprehensive academic program that emphasizes both intellectual and personal development. The curriculum includes a wide range of courses in various subjects such as mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, foreign languages, and the arts. Advanced Placement (AP) courses are also offered to provide students with the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school.

TMLA’s Aspire Scholars Program offers tools and opportunities to help students gain acceptance into one of over 50 Aspire colleges and universities. These individuals are invited to apply to become TMLA Aspire Scholars.

Through the Aspire Scholars Program, all students are provided with:

• One cost free trip to visit prestigious colleges and universities along the East Coast.
• SAT/ACT Prep Courses offered at little to no cost.
• Individual cost free consultations for students and their families with financial advisors specializing in college financial planning and the financial aid process.
• Individualized college admissions counseling and assistance throughout the application and admissions process.

Curvebreakers’ 18-hour signature partnership course was provided to two classes of students to maintain a student-teacher ratio of about 18:1. They began the course with a diagnostic assessment of the digital SAT. The testing platform mimics the actual exam, providing the same in-app tools, adaptive modules, and performance.

Both midway and at the end of the course, students sat for their second and third diagnostic assessments. Using official SAT scores from the March SAT exam, students in class 1 saw an average score increase of 111 points. Students in class 2 saw an average score increase of 93 points. 

The success of this program was a culmination of many factors, but the two with the most impact were:

1. Students used a new curriculum geared toward the new content and questions of the digital SAT. Feedback from Asia where the digital SAT was first rolled out showed that students who used old materials to prepare for the exam format did not do as well on average as students who used newer resources provided by the College Board. 

   In advance of the spring testing season, Curvebreakers set out to develop its own proprietary curriculum with their published book, Decoding the Digital SAT, at its core. Each student had a copy of this book to follow along during class and practice new strategies.

2. The difficulty level of Curvebreakers’ diagnostic testing platform was on par with the official exam. Many students across the US felt underprepared for the new exam because the perceived difficulty of the March exam was much harder compared to the October PSAT and the practice tests that were freely available from the College Board. 

   Curriculum developers at Curvebreakers strongly believed that rigorous preparation is necessary for success, and the students at TMLA demonstrated this with their success.