My Philosophy

The old adage is true: every student is different. But as a tutor who has worked with hundreds of students, I've noticed some common patterns that my videos are designed to address:

"The kid who never had to study until now" -- This student is smart and has a good memory, so things have always come easily and she never learned how to study. Then comes a point of reckoning, when suddenly this straight-A student is getting her first C (or worse). At that point it's time to work harder, but often this type of student won't even know how to work harder because they've never had to before!  That's where my videos can help: showing by example how to work in a more organized way.

"The kid who switched schools in fourth grade" Or missed half of senior year. Or had a bad math or science teacher way back when. This student lacks mastery of a basic prerequisite skill that's hurting his academic performance years later.  Because I'm so familiar with what parts of each subject usually give kids the most trouble, I give tips and reminders throughout my lessons which are designed to help kids with little gaps here and there.  And membership includes full access to all my classes, so you can go back and review prior years' material if you find out you have a weak spot.

"The kid who just does things a little different", a.k.a. Sloppy, Sloppy, Sloppy – I can’t reach out through the screen and fix a student's handwriting, but throughout the examples I work I emphasize "best practices" for how to keep work consistent and neat, if for no other reason than to get partial credit. With a good role model, even the most recalcitrant slop-artist can improve!

Hard teacher – I’m not a “blame the teacher” guy, so that’s why I put this last. Sure, there are teachers out there who either don't care, can't explain things, or don't speak English. Mostly, though, teachers just make their classes too hard because they think the material is easy, forgetting that it's only easy for them because they've been teaching the same problems for years. They can't remember what it was like to see it the first time! These well-meaning-but-oblivious teachers are hard to get good grades from because their expectations are too high, but good luck convincing them that it's super-mean to not round a 79.9 up to a B. If any of that sounds like your teacher, you're going to need outside help, and the sooner the better!