Indian American company TestRocker helps to ace standardized tests

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TestRocker Inc., a standardized test prep company founded by Indian American Suniti Mathur and her two daughters Sonali Mathur and Urvashi Keown, has helped more than 10,000 students pass their SATs, PSATs, ACTs and SSATs over the last six years.

Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, TestRocker has been working with 160 schools in Jersey City and New York City and 40 schools in India, though they have reached many more students in 40 countries, virtually.

“We started off as a global company,” Keown said in a phone interview, to Desi Talk. “My sister and I were born in India and when I was going to high school in Singapore; my tests scores did not look so good. So I told my mom that I would go through a test prep course but that just lowered my score.”

“At that point my mom decided that she would tutor me and my sister. That boosted up our scores and we got into University of Notre Dame in Indiana,” she added.

Keown said that she used to work in advertising before she dropped everything to help bring her mom’s teaching to good use and make a difference.

“My mom is a high school English and math teacher and has been a private tutor for 18 years now, so I had always been interested in education,” she said.

There are many standardized test prep companies and programs all over the world, but what makes TestRocker different is their one-on-one interaction with the students.

“We start by providing a free consultation for each student. If a student is happy with that and decides to join us, then we give them an account manager who then creates a plan for the student. While they are getting tutored, students can see how they are performing, which in return helps us see how we can help them improve. In addition, we send out progress reports to their parents so they can also see how their child’s test preparation is going,” Keown said.

TestRocker features more than 2,000 questions with video explanations as they thrive to customize the learning for each student, allowing them to improve personally.

“While other programs teach strategies and give out practice tests, we teach the fundamentals. We make sure that we have 12 to 15 students in each classroom as it allows personalized preparation,” Keown added.

Keown also mentioned that since these tests change about every 10 years, TestRocker can adapt to these changes easily because “we are an online platform and can add new material anytime.”

While their mother has been a teacher for more than 18 years, Keown has a business management degree from the University of Notre Dame and her sister has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Marketing from the University of Notre Dame, as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School.