In an engaging interview on Tests and the Rest, Dan Cozzens shares his nearly 20 years of expertise at Bespoke Education. Starting as a Tutoring Associate, Dan rose to COO, today leading tutor management, family relationships, and curriculum development.
Dan was interviewed by Mike Bergin, president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright, and by Amy Seeley, president of Seeley Test Pros and LEA.
Dan explained how we redefine test prep at Bespoke Education by focusing on factors that affect performance in addition to content mastery. Success on standardized tests is about more than knowing the material; it involves reducing stress, managing time, and building mental endurance. He detailed how our approach is based on these “other variables”, like pacing, anxiety management, and strategic test-taking technique.
These skills allow students to take exams with greater confidence and control. Tutoring that builds such skills, paired with a robust academic tutoring in subjects from STEM to humanities, ensures well-rounded preparation that cannot be achieved with traditional content-focused methods alone.
In discussing Bespoke’s guiding principles, Dan shared how tutors create individualized paths for students by asking questions, listening first and talking less than their students in order to understand their unique learning profiles. This ensures our programs cater to all of a student’s strengths and challenges, from curricular background to cognitive skills to emotional resilience, and it allows our tutors to customize study plans to individual learning styles.
Dan also highlighted Bespoke’s flexible learning options, with offerings like in-person sessions, online tutoring, and practice testing known by tutors throughout NYC as an environment that accurately replicates test-day conditions. He explained how, when test prep is most successful, it helps students develop skills, endurance, and cognitive self-awareness that last far beyond any given test.
Catch the full interview with Dan on the Tests and the Rest podcast here.
