RECO Reads Sr.

Build advanced knowledge in any subject area by analysing with complex texts in your field, including classic and recently published works. Ideal for students in Grades 10–12 who are ready for real depth.

Write 2000+ words | 8-12 live hours | Custom Schedule | Individual mentoring

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Tackle complex texts.

Colleges admit students who are prepared to tackle complex academic texts. Unfortunately, schools typically do not equip students with these skills.

RECO Reads Sr. is designed to address this gap. Students read and write about high-quality scholarship curated to their interests, culminating in an Annotated Bibliography (AB).

Start building your own Annotated Bibliography!

  • Imagine writing an essay on each academic text you read. In your essays, you summarise the authors’ arguments, evaluate their methodologies, and reflect on your key takeaways.

    In academia, a compilation of such essays is called an “Annotated Bibliography” (AB). It is formatted as a list of citations, where each citation is followed by an essay – the “annotation”. See Cornell University’s page on AB’s.

  • AB’s are widely recognised academic documents that most scholars prepare to document their engagement with scholarship in their field. Applicants with AB’s appear well-read in their domain and prepared for college-level work.

    Showcase your AB by including it as a research activity, publishing it on your personal website, adding it to your portfolio, and discussing it in your college essays and interviews. See how Purdue University encourages students to personalize their AB.

  • Over time, an AB grows into a record of one’s intellectual journey, documenting one’s reading and evolving research interests. Scholars frequently revisit their AB’s to support ongoing projects and brainstorm new research.

How it works

  • Choose your course length — 8, 10, or 12 sessions — depending on your goals.

  • Complete a discovery call with our founder to brainstorm and co-create your course topic.

  • Connect with a mentor with similar interests, who will curate a special curriculum for you.

  • Before each session, you will be assigned a selected reading and writing tasks. During your session, you will workshop your writing into material for your Annotated Bibliography (AB).

  • In the last two sessions, you will compile all your responses into a formal AB and edit and polish your writing.

Sample 8-session journey of a student in Grade 11 applying to the UK and US for Psychology programs:

  • The student begins the course with a Discovery Call with RECO’s founder, Paritosh Kanoria. They co-create the course topic and goals, which inform mentor selection and curriculum design.

  • Based on the student’s interest in social psychology, leadership, and management, the following readings have been curated. In each session, the student analyzes one of the following readings, formatted formally as citations.

    • Carstensen, L. L., Isaacowitz, D. M., & Charles, S. T. (1999). Taking Time Seriously: A Theory of Socioemotional Selectivity. American Psychologist, 54(3), 165–181. 

    • Dweck, C. S. (2006). Chapter 1: The Mindsets; Chapter 5: Business: Mindset and Leadership. In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (pp. 1–44, 97–140). Random House.

    • Smith, W. J. (1977). Behavioral and Nonbehavioral. In The Behavior of Communicating: An Ethological Approach (pp. 127–168). Harvard University Press. 

    • Higgins, M.C. and Thomas, D.A. (2001), Constellations and Careers: Toward Understanding the Effects of Multiple Developmental Relationships. J. Organizational Behavior, 22: 223-247. 

    • Pinker, S. (1997). Chapter 2: Thinking Machines. In How the Mind Works (pp. 59–148). W. W. Norton & Company.

  • Edit and polish your annotated bibliography.

Freya’s journey with Reads Sr.

Freya Shah (Grade 11, Chatrabhuj Narsee School) focused on Economics and Management to support her applications to UK, US, and Singapore universities.

In her annotated bibliography, Freya analysed texts by Daniel Kahneman and Thomas Piketty — recommended by Oxford and LSE — as well as research papers published in the world’s most prestigious journals such as Management Science and American Economic Review.

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