Beyond BookSmart Avis 136

My coach, Rachel S., was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and supportive. I gained several crucial executive functioning skills which are helping to propel me forward in my career.

Spent a lot of money & time but my child’s grades & skills didn’t improve.

1. This business might normally rate a 2, since my child felt the sessions were useful even if his grades did not improve, but their service is more expensive than other similar ones, so I rated it a 1 for poor value. Also we didn’t get to use all parts of our contract (ie, work sessions) since our coach wasn’t familiar with it & did not incorporate it into skill learning or assist our child in learning to use it.

2. BBS promised a team of experts ensuring our child’s progress but we did not see evidence of this. When we communicated with our coach, nothing changed. When we communicated with his supervisor, nothing changed. When I sent emails to the team of people who had helped intake my child, I was told to communicate only with our coach. Besides our intake appointment, no one interacted with our child or provided input to us on goals, progress or skills assessments. No evidence of monitoring of progress or grades compared to coaching sessions content. No evidence of oversight to indicate a team of professionals ready to help our child. Same with administrative staff.

3. Coaching sessions were sometimes cancelled/rescheduled yet our credit card was still charged for them until we asked for a refund. We were not told by our coach when meeting times were changed or cancelled. Not really effective to expect our child who needs executive coaching to remember to tell us these things especially when no coaching was provided on rescheduling or communicating schedule changes. Not a great way to manage a schedule and extra insult that we were still charged for sessions that didn’t happen. Again lack of oversight, poor accounting of time cards/billable hours & lack of internal coordination.

4. There were no automated email messages or reminders about sessions or results, which would have been helpful since the only way to get them was via a portal we had to log in to. Nice to have a record of the session notes in one place in the portal but it would be helpful to be able to read notes and session reminders via email so we could respond & ask questions. Other tutoring services provide these notices & updates via email.

5. There is no guarantee of results, so if your child’s skills or grades (like ours) did not improve, there is no recourse. There is also no evaluation of results or monitoring skills or goals addressed during coaching sessions to provide any guide or updates to parents. Other tutoring/coaching services offer this, whether it is free extra classes or a refund. Other tutoring businesses also have results or data (grades, internal evaluations) to show that their coaches and methods are effective for their customers, but not BBS. One thing that did happen like clockwork was automatic billing of my credit card though. They did not listen to my concerns or provide proper oversight to ensure my child’s skills & grades improved or that coaches consistently attended sessions, but they didn’t fail to bill my card $600+ per month. I didn’t even see evidence of a plan to ensure that holidays, school breaks or vacation time for coaches was addressed properly in terms of not billing for sessions that didn’t happen. We had to continually ask & we are still uncertain that our child got all sessions we paid for.

6. It appeared that coaches were not informed of new policies or contract features..training, software, documentation and coordination issue. When we asked our coach why we were billed for sessions that didn’t happen, he said it was due to the new business model. In past, families were only billed for sessions they attended. Same with work sessions we paid for but didn’t use: coach wasn’t familiar with them, so he didn’t incorporate them into my child’s plan for learning new skills. There was no plan except take my $ and pass the buck without addressing our concerns.

7. First satisfaction survey? 9 months into contract.

As a child and family therapist, I am always searching for trusted companies to refer my families for resources on executive functioning and coaches for their kids. The professionals at BBS are incredibly knowledgeable in their field and I appreciate their commitment to providing psychoeducational resources for families and other professionals. Most importantly, my clients that have worked with BBS coaches have only positive things to say and their progress shows how impactful the work they do is. I will be continuing to refer families to Beyond BookSmart for any and all executive functioning needs, thank you for all you do!

Beyond BookSmart is one of the most professional companies for whom I have ever worked. Their dedication to the training and development of their coaches, in order to best serve their diverse clients, is remarkable. There is a depth of understanding of EF issues as well as unlimited approaches, tools, and strategies that make their work effective. I highly recommend!

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.

Explained the program very well and took the time with jacob.

Beyond Booksmart, and our specific tutor, have been an invaluable resource in helping our child to navigate the many asks high school has had for her. Thoughtful, resourceful engaging and responsive, can't say enough.
Thank you!

Absolutely incredible company. I have a struggling college student and there is 100 percent commitment from our coach and from the company as a whole. They are very receptive, communicative and compassionate, while still maintaing structure, boundaries, and respect.

Great service and one that is really useful for helping my kids organize themselves and focus on what needs to be done, when.

Extraordinary organization providing desperately needed services. Would definitely recommend and will likely work with again :)

We signed on for coaching from Beyond Book Smart this year for our daughter who is in 10th grade. She looks forward to her sessions, has a positive rapport with her coach, and appreciates the strategies she offers. Forearmed with these tools and mindsets, my daughter has decided to sign on for honors and AP courses next year. Junior year at high school is stressful enough, but the capacity to curb distractions and manage one's assignments and goals is a huge asset, well worth the price.

I have the most impressive Executive Coach. She is patient and understands what I am trying to say even when I don't know myself how to state it.

Very informative intake process. Answered all my questions, and provided a detailed overview of the coaching services.

I have not used Beyond BookSmart myself, but as a psychologist and presenter on the topic of executive skills, I frequently refer clients and have met a number of the BookSmart staff. I have found them to be knowledgeable about executive skills and skilled at working with both students and adults who want to improve their executive functioning as it applies to school, work, and their life goals.

Beyond BookSmart has been a life saver for our son. While medication helps his ADHD, it doesn't help with his serious executive functioning issues. His psychologist who did his testing recommended Beyond BookSmart and we couldn't be more pleased with the results. He reports that his coach is easy to talk to, flexible, helpful, completely non-judgmental, and provides a number of solutions to assist him in his short and long term planning. Our son's time with his coach not only assists him in planning and staying on top of school work and other commitments, but he is now far less anxious and far more confident, not only in his ability to do well in and manage his college courses but also to self-advocate. While it's him who's done the work, it's Beyond BookSmart that has provided him the tools, support, and caring encouragement to confidently take control over what had often felt like an out of control life to him. We are forever grateful.

When my child with autism started with BBS what I wanted was for her to succeed in college. But that was what I wanted, NOT what she needed at this point in her life. She and her coach figured out together what she really needed right now, which was to find and succeed at a job she loved to build confidence and responsibility. Her coach taught her how to make that happen by building EF skills like calendars, goal setting, incremental steps, checking in, follow-through, and time management. If a parent asked me what I thought about Beyond Booksmart coaching services I would say they should plan to make the investment to keep their kid with BBS long term, because it doesn't work overnight, but it really does work! And I honestly believe that when she does go back to college, my kid will be able to succeed.

We have had two children supported by Beyond BookSmart. The coaches have been extremely helpful in guiding our children to become more confident in their skills and improving learning skills. Both of their grades improved significantly as a result of the coaching. Very impressed with the team.

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.

My daughter’s coach has mad such a difference in her confidence and her ability to organize herself. We have seen positive results and tangible growth. Thank you!!