Susan: Medford tutor
Certified Tutor
I am currently a graduate student at the Rutgers Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences - New Brunswick/Piscataway campus. Although I am pursuing a medical career, I am a firm advocate of education. In terms of how my belief meshes with my interest in medicine, patient education should play a large part in patient care. Education leads a greater understanding of underlying health issues, causes, and risks which leads to a greater chance in patient compliance.
However, before I even came to be where I am now, education has always been a priority for me. My parents are immigrants from a South Korea that was still developing. Thus, they work and struggle in the United States for the sake of their children's education though they themselves do not have more than a high school education - if even that. I was raised to pursue higher education, but once I graduated college and started working during my gap year, I truly came to realize the importance of education and appreciate the academic opportunities I have had thus far. Without education, without a solid foundation in the basics that are later built upon in college and university, there is no personal or societal progress.
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Undergraduate Degree: Emory University - Bachelor of Science, Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology
Graduate Degree: Rutgers University-New Brunswick - Master of Science, Biomedical Sciences
- ACT Composite: 32
- SAT Composite (1600 scale): 1480
- SAT Verbal: 770
- SAT Writing: 710
- GRE Quantitative: 156
- GRE Verbal: 162
Reading, writing, running, watching TV, cooking
- Algebra
- College English
- English
- Essay Editing
- High School English
- Math
- Pre-Algebra
- Trigonometry
- Writing
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
I would get to know them and try to get a feel of their personality, interests, study habits, and background. I would also give them a diagnostic test to measure their current level of knowledge and standing in their coursework.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
Rather than giving students the answer, I would walk students through the concepts, work on a few sample problems, and let them answer a few more sample problems themselves. Then, we would go over the problems they worked on together and address their weak spots. Furthermore, I would encourage a student to develop long-term study habits that suit them best, rather than cramming.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
Ideally, based on my initial assessment of a student, I would try different methods. If a student is already intrinsically motivated, I would remind them of their goals and encourage them. If a student is extrinsically motivated or short-sighted, I would offer them rewards - either through a point system that can be applied to a big reward or through small candy rewards.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
I would try and explain the skill or concept in a variety of ways (i.e. verbally, visually, physical through the use of real/3-D objects, etc.).
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
I would work slowly with the student. First, I would have them visualize the scene sentence by sentence. Then, I would have the student summarize what he or she just read after each paragraph, then after each chapter.