Zhenrui

Certified Tutor

I am a BS/MS student at Columbia University studying Electrical engineering and also following the premed curriculum. After my undergraduate, I hope to pursue an MD-PhD and work in a teaching/research hospital as a physician-engineer.

I am committed to teaching and tutoring for the satisfaction of making a difference in someone else's education. I have over four years of experience tutoring, starting as a volunteer when I was still in high school. Many students at my high school came from lower-income families and didn't have expensive test prep classes or professional tutoring agencies within their means, yet still aspired to some of the best universities in the country. To help them achieve their dreams, I started my own six-week ACT prep program after school, free and open to everyone regardless of background or socioeconomic status. I ran this program for two years, working with over 100 students personally in the process. The program is now in its fourth year, and is currently run by my former students. It is also in the process of being made districtwide, not just restricted to my high school.

I took all my standardized tests my sophomore year of high school. Since then, I have tutored test prep for the PSAT, SAT, ACT, and SAT IIs as well as for AP and IB exams. While I have tutored a broad range of subjects, my concentration lies in test prep and math, physics, and chemistry. The area I have the most experience with is test-prep tutoring. Let me be completely frank: reading and math are fun; standardized tests in reading and math are not. My philosophy is to make the process as easy and painless for my students as possible, by sharing tips and tricks that have worked for me and my other students - so you can get back to what you do enjoy.

When I'm not tutoring, I'm reading, playing the piano (poorly), sleeping, or learning a new language (I speak English, Mandarin, French, and Spanish). In that order.