Marcella

Certified Tutor

I graduated from Boston Latin Academy in 2005, with a Boston Scholars Full Tuition Merit Scholarship to Boston University. I graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in Political Science, and a minor in Religion. In May 2013, I received my J.D. from American University Washington College of Law and took the Massachusetts Bar Exam in July 2013. During my time at American University, I excelled at legal writing, and my work was published in the Administrative Law Review.

My older brother is autistic and my younger brother is seven years younger than me, so I grew up helping them with homework and various other challenges. Additionally, I was a senior camp counselor at the Hyde Park Municipal Building from 2002 to 2006, and oversaw and directed junior staff members. During law school, I was an Articles Editor on the Administrative Law Review, and managed a staff of 5 to 10 people, as we edited pieces to be published in the journal. In this capacity, I oversaw all editing on my pieces, provided guidance and feedback to staff members about their editing skills, and trained staff members. I am very passionate about writing, and I really enjoyed the training and feedback aspects of my editing job.

I tutor Advanced Placement, LSAT, Essays, Editing, Literature, ISEE Verbal/English, SAT Verbal, SAT Writing and Beginner Latin. I especially like to tutor writing, because it is my belief that with a little guidance, anyone can write. I also enjoy tutoring beginner Latin because as someone who took six years of Latin including AP Virgil, I understand how challenging Latin can be at first. Finally I also enjoy tutoring for the LSAT because my experience at law school and taking the bar exam has taught me that the questions on the LSAT, particularly the Logical Reasoning sections, are very similar to the questions on the MBE portion of the the Bar Exam, and I feel confident in my ability to teach reading these questions with a critical eye, and explaining test taking strategies.

Since I have taken several standardized tests, including the ISEE, the MCAS, the PSAT, the SAT, AP Literature, AP English, AP Vergil, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, the LSAT, the MPRE, and the Massachusetts Bar Exam, where applicable, I incorporate a lot of test taking strategies into my tutoring sessions. On standardized tests, test taking strategies are crucial to helping students grapple with intimidating questions that may cause students to freeze up, and I make an effort to address test anxiety when I tutor.

Aside from tutoring, I like to run, do yoga, read, cook, travel and I enjoy Irish step.