Chariot Learning offers unparalleled individualized SAT & ACT instruction, academic coaching, and subject tutoring for high school students from Rochester to Syracuse and just about everywhere else. We also deliver outstanding expert GRE prep.
Since 2009, we’ve been helping our students earn scores and grades that amaze their parents and impress their target schools. Our team of dedicated educators combines deep experience, content knowledge, and a proven professional program with the latest advances in both in-person and remote instruction to help our students learn quickly, efficiently, and effectively. If you can imagine a feature your dream educational partner employs, we probably use it… and teach it to other educators!
Why Chariot Learning?
When you work with Chariot Learning, you can be confident that you’ll be benefiting from massive experience. Mike Bergin, our founder, is recognized nationally as a leader in test preparation. Tens of thousands of students around the United States receive instruction every year in programs he’s developed, directed, or arranged.
Our amazing team of passionate educators, which includes certified teachers and college professors, brings phenomenal test knowledge and instructional insight to every session. Another reason why Chariot Learning is different from any other organization you’ve worked with is our unique methodology, specially designed for individual instruction and focused not just on strategies but on the enduring reading, writing, and reasoning skills your teen will need to thrive in college. We couple the Chariot Learning curriculum with official practice tests to ensure that your teen has every advantage in earning his or her very best score on test day. No wonder our students tend to earn such stupendous score increases.
Our depth of experience also makes us valuable partners to the schools, libraries, and organizations we consult with to provide valuable resources, events, and training to their students and staff. Get in touch to find out how we might work together.
Our History
Chariot Learning was founded in 2009 in Rochester, NY by Mike Bergin, who started in test preparation in 1994 as a teacher for Kaplan, eventually rising through the ranks to become Director of Kaplan’s White Plains center, overseeing programs across seven counties. In 2000, Huntington Learning Centers recruited Mike to revamp the company’s SAT program; over nine years as Director of Exam Prep, Mike created, among other things, Huntington’s SAT & ACT curriculum, operations, and training materials and helped direct their national implementation.
After so many years in retail test prep, Mike launched Chariot Learning as a response to the limitations and frustrations of most existing programs. Although we started in a new city with no contacts, families we worked with couldn’t help but rave about our powerful, highly personalized expert preparation. Today, our large and growing team of professional educators is thrilled to work with students, parents, and educational partners in Rochester, Syracuse, and everywhere else.
Our Team
Mike Bergin
After over 28 years of intensive experience in every aspect of standardized test preparation, Mike Bergin knows what works in test prep and what doesn’t. A nationally recognized leader in test prep, Mike founded Chariot Learning in 2009 to deliver on the promise of what truly transformative, individualized education can and should be. Besides overseeing Chariot Learning’s national programs, Mike is an ACT Certified Educator who trains teachers across the country to implement critical skills and college and career readiness standards.
Mike is proud to be the founding President of the Board of Directors of the National Test Prep Association, a non-profit dedicated to promoting the highest ethical standards and best practices in the test prep industry while advocating for the appropriate administration and use of standardized tests for admissions and assessment purposes. Learn more about Mike’s central role in the international test prep community in this interview.
Mike is also the creator of the SAT/ACT TestFlip program, founder of the free testing and admissions answer site TestBright, co-host of Tests and the Rest, the college admissions industry podcast, and creator of the Facebook industry group for test prep professionals, Test Prep Tribe.
Lastly, Mike is the co-author of the Amazon bestseller Crash and Learn: Lessons in Business.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Mike loves raising his two kids in Rochester but brings them back to NYC often so they don’t lose their edge!
MOONLIGHTS AS: Nature writer and publisher of 10,000 Birds, the world’s favorite birding blog.
ALSO LOVES: Traveling the world and exploring new places and food; unlocking eloquence.
Dave Holtzman
Dave Holtzman loves to help students learn. When he isn’t teaching or tutoring medical students, he enjoys teaching Chariot Learning students skills that will help them succeed after high school in addition to doing well on the ACT and SAT.
Dave is a trained neuroscientist that has been teaching at the college level for over 25 years. He received a BS in Biology from Cornell University and a PhD in Neural and Behavioral Sciences from Downstate Medical Center. Dave has taught a wide varied of subjects ranging from Animal Behavior to Neural Development and is currently teaching Immunology and Neuroscience for Oceania University of Medicine.
MOONLIGHTS AS: President and Lead Tutor for AceMedTests
ALSO LOVES: Spending time with his two wonderful daughters, traveling to tropical areas (sometimes with college students), and playing and listening to music.
Greg Laden
Greg Laden is a dedicated educator with a background in research and higher education. Greg conducted Anthropological fieldwork in Africa, has a PhD from Harvard, and has taught at Harvard, Boston University, and the University of Minnesota. While at UMN, Greg served as admissions director for a small college within a college, the Program for Individualized Learning. This and other administrative work gives him a valuable perspective on college student academic expectations, and the transition from high school to college.
Recently, Greg has turned his focus to K-12 education, teaching courses for Northwestern University’s gifted and talented program, “AWE,” training high school students to be STEM coaches, and tutoring and teaching middle and high school students in math, programming, and robotics. In his own public school district in Minnesota, Greg is an education advocate and frequent guest in classes including AP Biology, Human Anatomy, the AP/Honors Mentor Connection, and English.
MOONLIGHTS AS: A writer of several novels, one of which is actually done so far!.
ALSO LOVES: Hanging out with and learning from his 13 year old son.
Hilarie Lloyd
Hilarie Lloyd is a professor and tutor with a passion for teaching law, literature, college writing, and international relations at University of Rochester and Alfred State College. She loves being part of the Chariot Learning team because she likes seeing students improve their scores, open up college admissions choices, and pursue their dreams.
Hilarie grew up in Alfred, NY and attended Duke University and Cornell Law School, working as an attorney for almost a year before deciding to follow her love for teaching and academia by starting her PhD in English at University of Rochester.
MOONLIGHTS AS: Jewelry designer for The Enchanted Cabin.
ALSO LOVES: Rescuing cats! Hilarie volunteers on the Board of Directors at Only Maine Coons Rescue.
Jim Reinish
After 20 years as one of New Jersey’s most successful and popular tutors and a 33-year career as an executive with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Jim has relocated to Rochester. New Jersey’s loss is Rochester’s gain as we can take advantage of the experience he has gained from preparing thousands of students for the SAT, ACT, GRE and GMAT. A graduate of Columbia University, Jim has spent decades helping students unlock their potential and enthusiastically showing them that studying for the Big Test doesn’t have to be a chore.
MOONLIGHTS AS: An automotive fleet management consultant.
ALSO LOVES: Traveling with his wife, Lisa, especially when it involves a beach or visiting their children. Favorite destinations include the Outer Banks, Captiva, and, of course, the Jersey Shore.
Kaeti Stoss
Kaeti Stoss combines her interest in science with her passion for education. When not teaching students, she helps develop Chariot Learning’s research-based curriculum. Kaeti loves seeing the moment when things “click” in students minds, so they can reach their academic goals.
Kaeti is a native Rochesterian who attended School of the Arts and the University of Rochester. After working as an archaeologist in New York State, she switched fields and has been with Chariot Learning since earning her teaching degree in Earth Science and Special Education at SUNY Brockport.
MOONLIGHTS AS: Environmental educator with her work as the Program Director of Delta Laboratories
ALSO LOVES: Trivia (both competing and reading questions for MasterMinds) and the visual arts