For returnee and international-school students · Fully online
Learn whyyour score isn't improving.
Then fix it — with rules, not grind. SAT, TOEFL, AP, essays and applications — everything you need to get in.
Book a free 1-hour trial
Atsuto Deguchi8+
Years teaching
18
Years in the US
5
Subject areas
¥0
Trial lesson (1 hr)
Our approach
Understanding how to solve beats grinding more questions.
How most prep works
Drill a set, check it against the answer key, read the explanation, move to the next mock. Do that for months and you get slightly better at questions you have seen before — then freeze the moment one arrives in an unfamiliar shape.
How we teach
As rules and procedures. Where to look in the prompt, what conditions the right answer has to meet, and how to decide. The goal is being able to say why the other three options are wrong.
Start from the rule
Students who read English by feel are the ones who stall on questions they cannot explain. We rebuild grammar and method as a system.
A procedure per question type
For each type of question, fix what to look at and in what order. That alone removes most of the time lost to hesitation.
Say the reasoning out loud
Why the right answer is right, and why the others are not. If you can explain both, you can repeat it under exam conditions.
See a real lesson
Try one question
before you read on.
This is SAT Rhetorical Synthesis. It appears more often on the digital SAT than it used to, and it is the format that eats the most time.
This is a question we actually use in lessons. Before reading any explanation, solve it the way you normally would.
The second question shows the procedure we teach first.
SAT Reading & Writing · Rhetorical Synthesis
Solve this the way you normally would.
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
- Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold.
- The practice was already in use by the 15th century.
- Repaired pieces retain visible golden seams along the breaks.
- Some collectors deliberately broke pottery so that it could be repaired with kintsugi.
- The technique treats damage as part of an object's history rather than as something to conceal.
The student wants to emphasize the philosophy underlying kintsugi.
The same thinking, applied elsewhere.
Work out what the examiner is asking for, then answer in a form that satisfies it. The steps change from subject to subject; the order of operations does not.
Work backwards from the rubric
College Board publishes scoring guidelines for every subject. We establish what actually earns points, build the shape of an answer that meets those criteria, and only then start practising. Far quicker than writing first and fixing later.
Cut before you add
The most common way marks are lost is padding — sentences that restate a point in different words to reach the word count. List what the prompt asks for, delete anything that does not answer it, and spend your words on what survives.
Replace instinct with rules
If you process English by feel, you can be right without knowing why — and that is exactly what collapses on test day. We give you a stated reason for each decision, so an unfamiliar question is still the same procedure.
What we teach
Everything between here and an offer.
SAT
Both sections. The work is organising grammar into rules and building a repeatable procedure for each question type, from diagnosing your current score to planning what to study next.
See how we solve oneTOEFL
Full mock exams in real time, scored section by section. You get the breakdown, where the marks are going, and then the method and habits for each part of the test.
See a score reportAP
Subject content plus the exam format itself. We move between understanding in Japanese and thinking in English, so nothing rests on memorisation alone. Tell us which subjects you need.
Essays
The Common App personal essay and school supplementals — from finding the material through structure and revision. The writing stays in the student's own voice.
Applications
Planning that keeps both US applications and Japanese returnee admissions open. We set targets that are realistic given where you actually stand.
English itself
Before test prep, the foundations: grammar, reading and writing. We take the parts you handle on instinct and turn them into something you can explain.
TOEFL
A mock exam is only useful
if something happens after it.
We run full mocks in the real format and score them section by section.What comes back is not just a number: we identify where the marks went and why, and decide what changes before the next lesson starts.
Score report by section
Sample96
/ 120
Total for the submitted mock exam
Speaking · Feedback
Using the preparation time
The content is there. Without a fixed way to structure an answer in fifteen seconds, you end up deciding while speaking and leaving time unused. One reusable structure fixes this.
We don't hand back a number and stop. We work out where the marks went and why, and only then decide what the next lesson does.
The real format
Same timing, same order, same length — including how tired you are by the end.
Scored by section
A score for each of the four skills, and where the losses are concentrated.
Method, not just marks
Scoring is the start. The procedure for each part becomes the next lesson.
Teaching English is not where this ends. We build a study plan the student can actually keep to.
Instructor
Atsuto Deguchi
Founder and Head of Teaching
- Years in the US
- 18
- Years teaching
- 8+
University of Tsukuba, School of Medicine — via returnee admissions
Taught in both Japan and the United States
I spent eighteen years in the United States and learned English as a native speaker, then returned to Japan and entered the University of Tsukuba School of Medicine through returnee admissions. Having been through both education systems, I understand from experience where students get caught between them.
I have been teaching for more than eight years, in Japan and in the US. Most of that work has been with returnee and international-school students, and with the specific places they tend to get stuck.
The aim is to move between understanding in Japanese and thinking in English until a student can explain why an answer is what it is.
About our tutors
Every tutor has been educated overseas. Before taking students, they complete our own training and we confirm they can teach using the same procedures I do.
Pricing
Pricing
Per hour, tax included. SAT, TOEFL, AP, essays and application advice are all covered at these rates.
Lessons with the founder
¥9,900/ hour
Taught directly by Atsuto Deguchi.
- SAT, TOEFL, AP and essays
- Study planning and progress tracking
- Applications and course advice
Lessons with a tutor
¥8,000/ hour
Taught by a hydeSolution tutor.
- Tutors educated overseas
- Only tutors who completed our training
- Teaching reviewed by the founder
The first lesson — a full hour — is free. We run it exactly like a real lesson, then tell you what you would need and roughly how many sessions.
FAQ
Before you
get in touch.
Anything not covered here, just ask during the trial lesson.
Book a free trialA full hour, run exactly like a real lesson. We ask where you are and what is giving you trouble, then work through actual questions. You can judge teaching far faster by sitting in one than by reading about it. It is not a sales call, so there is no pressure at the end.
Yes. Everything is online and we teach students both inside and outside Japan. Time zones are expected rather than an exception — tell us the hours that work for you.
Yes. Nothing has to be bundled with SAT prep. Essays only, a single TOEFL mock, or just over the summer are all fine. Start with the part you need and decide about continuing later.
What is worth doing depends on how long is left. Rather than building an unrealistic plan and calling it achievable, we will tell you plainly what is realistic from here. If it is tight, we prioritise and decide where the marks are actually winnable.
Either Atsuto Deguchi directly, or a hydeSolution tutor. Our tutors were educated overseas and complete our training before taking students. The procedures and approach are the same as the founder's, and he reviews the teaching. Rates differ, so tell us what you need and we'll advise.
It depends on the universities and the application route. Once we see the breakdown of your current score and how long is left, we'll tell you what is realistically within reach and what it would take. Target scores are worth setting after you know where you stand, not before.
Yes. We run mocks in the real format and score them by section, and you get more than a number — we identify where the marks are being lost. It works fine as a one-off if you just want to see where you are.
No. Most of our students are, but if you are working toward the SAT or TOEFL or applying to universities abroad, the school you attend does not matter. Start with a trial lesson and tell us your situation.
Start with one free hour
We run it exactly like a real lesson. Tell us what is giving you trouble and see how the teaching works.