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author: matthew larriva

matthew larriva
matthew larriva is an ivy league graduate and an expert of test prep, test taking, and the pre-college process. in addition to publishing two books on test prep, matthew is the founder of powerful prep, a leading concierge tutoring firm, dedicated to transparency, massive point gains, and customized curriculum. the program has been featured multiple times on cbs as the premier test prep program in the la area. he has passed two of degree library’s 10 hardest exams in the world including the mensa admissions exam, and the cfa exam–the test the wall street journal called the world’s hardest test. he enjoys skydiving, and has played oboe at carnegie hall twice. feel free to reach out with any questions about test prep or the pre college process. matthew loves to see students succeed regardless of whom they prep with.

  • sat subject-verb agreement quiz

    before you start, you may want to read the writing essentials subject-verb agreement post. if you feel you ‘got it’, then have a go at these five questions. they are not easy, so good luck!   1. the number of americans living in rural areas have decreased (a) to unprecedented levels, with (b)most farmers saying that their days (c)in…

  • sat math basics – triangles

    what you need to know about triangles on the sat is nowhere near as much as you probably learned in high school. remember law of cosines? exactly, most people do not. but the law of cosines, and just about every thing else from trigonometry, is not tested on the sat. ahh…i think i just heard…

  • sat reading comprehension question type: direct reference

    in the previous installments, we took apart a reading comprehension passage. the passage is of medium length, and you will usually get a couple of these on the sat. typically, passages of this length have no more than six questions. as this is a tutorial of sorts, i’ve decided to milk the passage for ten…