Beginning the process... The process for finding a coaching match went very well. We are still in the process of learning all the executive function skills that my college aged child with ADHD needs, but so far so good! Love the ease of the portal.

Beyond Booksmart was a life-saver for… Beyond Booksmart was a life-saver for my daughter during the first few years of high school. They matched her with a coach that was just perfect for her and helped organize herself, her schoolwork and her thoughts so she was able to tackle her challenges head-on. And early in her senior year, we brought BBS back on for a few months to help with the college application deadlines and they made it so simple for us to jump back in and then cancel when the services were no longer needed. I can't recommend them enough.

Yes, try it. I have had two of my kids use Beyond Booksmart within the last few years. The staff and EF coaches are responsive and caring. BBS was an integral part of my daughter learning to work through her challenges. With her coach's perspective in the mix we were able to see the situation more broadly. My daughter changed from the prep school she was in to a voc tech. She is now a high school junior, an honors student, takes AP English and last summer did a two week precollege program at Harvard University. A long way from wondering if she was going to have to repeat eigth grade. My son is in college and was having executive functioning challenges. He's only been using the program for a few weeks, but seem to be getting something out of it as well. In his case he was not enthusiastic about his first match from our initial interview. BBS worked with us to find another match that he's much more responsive to.

My Granddaughter Loved Her Coach My granddaughter loved her coach and learned so much from her and, in the beginning, we saw really nice improvement. She learned lots of strategies to get started with her homework and school projects; since she was a procrastinator, this was extremely valuable. Along with the other Executive Function strategies, she was doing her homework in a timely fashion and managing her time much better. Then Covid came, school fell apart because vitual learning happened so poorly and she stopped applying what she learned. The coach always stayed connected with us by sending information on what they had worked on and what was expected from my granddaughter. She also texted my granddaughter weekly to check that she was following through. We really couldn't ask for more.

Hit or Miss The effectiveness depends on who the coach is, rather than the BBS system per se. BBS does have a pre-match process, but it is not possible for prospective clients to get a good feel for the competence of the coach. We got a coach for my son the summer before going to college and he had the same coach through the first half of the Fall Semester - there was no discernible improvement and the session reports by the coach were generic (even though our son had signed for us to have access to it), making it difficult to figure out what's not working. I will give this coach a ZERO STAR. Then he got a new coach (this time we knew how to evaluate better), and within a few sessions, the difference was like night & day. In addition, the change continues to improve. This 2nd coach deserves FIVE STARS.