To infinity and beyond, after your SAT

Seniors leading test prep sessions at the local library

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Shreyes Gunna

Coppell High School seniors Nitish Elango and Bhavesh Mandalapu discuss an SAT math problem in preparation to tutor middle school and high school students before the SAT tutoring sessions at the Cozby Library and Community Commons on Saturday. Elango and Mandalapu are co-creators of the Infinity Prep SAT tutoring group and have been uploading videos to their YouTube channel for three months.

Anette Varghese, Student Life Editor

Pursuing a college career calls for two main factors among others: good grades and a good SAT/ACT score. 

Coppell High School seniors Nitish Elango and Bhavesh Mandalapu created their YouTube channel Infinity Prep in order to ease the taxing testing process. They began their complimentary tutoring sessions after a friend reached out to them asking for math help, to fill in the gaps test preparation programs often leave. 

Test preparation programs, such as KD College Prep, C2 Education of Coppell and Huntington Learning Center Coppell, mainly focus on test strategies rather than teaching fundamental math concepts. 

“[Our videos] focus on people who already have a general knowledge on the topics that were explained. So they’re short and to the point,” Mandalapu said. “[Infinity Prep] fills in, we just skip over those parts that go straight to the point where the tough thing, abstract parts are.” 

After seeing a tangible result in one of their peers, Elango and Mandalapu reached out to the Cozby Library and Community Commons to share their content with a larger audience in person. They now host monthly live sessions at the library covering widely tested math concepts

“[Elango and Mandalapu] helped me by pushing my score up 90 points,” CHS senior Geeth Gunnampalli said. “To be honest, they’re my friends, and [they offer a] completely different perspective [and] they don’t leave until they’ve figured out how to help.” 

While the duo offers a fresh outlook as fellow students, they lack genuine teaching experience. The bridge to tutoring their peers was paved with adjustments and growing to accept feedback. 

“Anyone can be good at math. But tutoring is a whole different avenue in itself. I would just start by tutoring my friends. And they’d be like, ‘You know, I [know] what you’re trying to do. But this doesn’t really help me,” Elango said. “After [hearing] minute feedback from all our friends, they make me a better tutor, and now I’d say, I’m getting a little better.” 

Beyond in-person tutoring at the Cozby Library and uploading short videos on YouTube, Mandalapu and Elango hope to continue their program throughout their college careers. 

“We’ve always had the intention of reaching out and connecting with more students to provide more,” Elango said. “Now with the [the tutoring sessions at Cozby Library], that’s [another] avenue for us to expand. Knowing that [Infinity Prep] is helping a ton of people this will be something that’ll keep going on for a while.” 

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