David
Certified Tutor
I'm a 2014 graduate of Princeton University and an aspiring law school student. At Princeton, I majored in International Affairs, and received a certificate in theater from the Lewis Center for the Arts. I also combined my passions for those two fields and my love of comedy to create a sketch and variety talk show, where I got to know amazing students and professors from all kinds of different fields. I'm excited to carry that energy forward by working with students of all backgrounds who are preparing for the next big phase of their lives.
As a tutor focusing on Standardized Test prep (particularly for the LSAT), I emphasize practicality and flexibility above all. Tests are stressful enough; your preparation process should be all about developing the skills you need in the way that works best for you give your background. In a lot of ways, you've been preparing for these tests your whole life, especially in areas like Reading Comprehension - my job is just to guide you to some tools and tactics that will enhance your own knowledge and bridge any gaps between you and the exam. I'll work to make sure you feel confident when you attack the test, even in tricky sections like Analytical Reasoning (Logic Games).
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Undergraduate Degree: Princeton University - Bachelors, Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs
- LSAT: 175
Hobbies include games (especially strategy), yoga, writing screenplays and short stories, doing improv comedy and drinking tons of coffee. Interests include politics, theater, and dogs.
What is your teaching philosophy?
My goal is to make sure you feel confident in "running your own race" when you head into the test room. Testing shouldn't be about hitting some arbitrary number; it should be about you giving the test your all and having the best test day you can reasonably have.
To that end, I emphasize practicality and flexibility when teaching. You can drill lists of question types into your head and memorize silly acronyms about how to approach a question from a test prep book all you want, but if the methods you learn don't fit with you and your background, then it's not going to help you on test day.
Rather than focus on byzantine methods, I want to help you develop brick-by-brick the logical and analytical skills you'll need and build upon your existing skills to make you comfortable on each section of the test. I'm there to support you by working from your baseline, showing you how to hammer through even the most convoluted questions, and taking what works for you and chucking the rest.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
Getting a "baseline" so that the student can track their progress, and I can diagnose areas to work on is key. The LSAT is a large and highly structured test, which is both good and bad. While the complexity often makes the test an endurance challenge, the structure (both in terms of question types and sections) means that you can carefully plan a course of study such that you can increase your score with even very short notice.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
Whether it's the dense material full of technical jargon, or the weird and reductive questions, reading comprehension can be a pain. I love reading (even technical stuff), and still had my trouble with these questions.
However, like with every other part of these tests, there's a way to break each passage down into its components. By focusing less on understanding the content of each passage and more on understanding the structure, reading comprehension is just another little puzzle to solve. You don't have to love reading or have any background knowledge once you learn that everything you need to solve each question is hiding in plain sight in each passage.