Award-Winning Private HSPT Tutoring in Garden Grove, CA

The student did very well in her first placement exam prep session. We started by going over general info about the test, emphasizing the need to respond to every question and the importance of identifying questions she can answer quickly. She informed me that the verbal section gave her the most difficulty. We went over the different question types and useful strategies for answering these. She did well on the logic questions and analogies, applying the strategies well and making strong connections between words. She needed help with synonym and antonym questions. We went over different ways of identifying meaning and "mood" of a word. I also gave her a list of root words, prefixes, and suffixes that she can go over to help her recognition of novel words. We discussed the various question types on the quantitative section. She had little trouble with algebraic word problems, and she understands to work on these and series questions first as they take less time. Her biggest problem is timing, so we went over some estimation strategies in order to reduce the amount of time she spends on calculations. If possible, she knows to complete some practice problems I gave her before our next meeting. In our next session, we will review our strategies and begin practicing the other 3 sections of the test.

The student and I worked on math most of the session. I'm still trying to get her to default to writing her math rather than leave it trapped in her head! My goal is to open up the concept of averages problems to allow her to generalize with it. To that end, she'll work on an averages problem and a few others past it for Monday's session.

I went over the homework I had assigned her initially and noted that she needs some improvement on verbal. When it came to math, I noted significant improvement. I assigned her some more homework. She has definitely been improving over time, and I look forward to her improving in verbal these next couple of days.

The session went better today. The student paid more attention and seemed more eager to learn. She did very well on her English practice test, so we will be focusing more on math the next few weeks. She has two practice tests to do this weekend.

The session went very well. The student had worked on two mini-quizzes I had assigned. The second mini-quiz was significantly more difficult than the first, so the majority of our session was spent on those questions. We progressed into the third mini-quiz and he was able to tackle 4 out of 5 of the first problems (very challenging problems!). We discussed the best strategies for guessing on the exam, how to minimize calculator usage (since time will be his biggest obstacle), and how to deal with fractions within fractions. He is coming along very well and I will say again that my only concern for the student will be finishing the exam in the time allotted. We will continue to work on this next session.

The session went very well. We reviewed certain aspects of stoichiometry, thermochemistry, colligative properties, resonance structures, redox reactions, oxidation states, diatomic gases, combustion reactions, and molarity, molality, and concentration. The student seemed to do well with all the concepts I presented to him, and he asked good questions during the session. I would recommend that he memorizes the polyatomic ions and their charges. He will look over the sections in the book about organic chemistry and the laboratory (focusing on lab safety) for our next session.