Amy Minster

14 years tutoring SAT/ACT. Writes course materials. Math content expert.

Education:

Masters, Art Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago

Bachelors, Art Education , Southeast Missouri State University

Subject Specialities:

SAT, ACT

Bio:

Amy has been teaching and tutoring for The Princeton Review since 2004. She is a Star Tutor for the ACT, SAT, and SAT Subject tests for Math in the western suburbs of Chicago.

In her tutoring career, she’s encountered a wide range of student needs, from the student trying to raise his score from low to “average” to the student with a 32 on the ACT hoping for a 35. (He got it!) She’s also worked with students with learning differences, visual processing disorders, and even one blind student with accommodations for testing with an assistant reading her the questions. With each new student, Amy uses humor, patience, and empathy to get to know the personality, strengths, and areas for improvement of her student. She then finds the most effective and efficient way to improve the necessary skills and fill in the content gaps.

Amy also helps with content development for new manuals and tests, first as an author and reviewer and now as a project manager. She works with the Director of High School Programs to define the direction of the course instruction and supervised the creation of new materials. She has been instrumental in creating all the Princeton Review materials for the revised SAT since 2015.

Amy is also an Uber Trainer for the company. As one of two top math content experts for the SAT, she trained all the company’s SAT Master Trainers on the manual she helped to write. Those Master Trainers in turn updated all the Princeton Review teachers nation-wide. Amy also has experience training new teachers in the Chicago area and Madison, WI.

Though Amy has always had an aptitude for math, even attending the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy for high school, she resisted using those skills for a long time. She got two degrees in art – a B.S. in Art Education and a Master’s in Art Therapy. Prior to joining The Princeton Review, Amy worked as an art teacher and art therapist in the Chicago Public Schools. When starting a family, though, Amy wanted work that was more flexible and focused on nights and weekends. The Princeton Review was a perfect fit, and she’s never looked back. Now she has two kids, Annalee and Everett, and she can be present for them while also having a satisfying career. Now she even has dreams about math sometimes.

She doesn't have much free time, but she likes to travel, read, paint, and sew. She has an Etsy shop where she sells superhero dresses for girls.