Award-Winning Test Prep & Academic Tutoring in Calistoga, CA

"The student and I reviewed for his test that would take place on Monday. The test will cover knowledge regarding the determination of the perimeter and area of certain shapes. These shapes included regular circles, triangles, and quadrilaterals, and regular polygons. The easier problems tested the ability to direct compute the area/perimeter of single-type shapes while the harder problems expanded the computation to amalgams of different shapes or related the areas of similar shapes. We highlighted the important formulas needed to find the areas/perimeters of the shapes. Some were easier to memorize than others so for the harder-to-memorize ones I tried to teach him derivation methods that would make remembering them easier. We focused on starting with the "big-picture" and worked our way "down" in terms of details and what we needed to complete the problem. We also worked on recognizing hints regarding the way problems should be solved by analyzing what information was given. The student did not have much difficulty completing the review problems. His main difficulties mainly involved problems that required trigonometry to determine triangle areas so we drilled those often. He also has a habit of completing the easier steps "in his head" which I tried to change by telling him to write down all thought processes. His habit allowed him to complete the easier problems faster but led to confusion during the more complex problems. If he focuses on analyzing the "big picture" first and then asking himself what he needs to solve the big picture, he should do well and not have a problem completing long tests. "

"This was mine and the student's first session. His class is technically Pre-Calculus, but they're getting into some pretty solid Cal I stuff. We did look at the review for the exam. He had a pretty good grasp on those. After that, we got into more standard Cal stuff. First we talked about the product rule, which he gets. Then we just did a string of standard questions: find-the-min, graph-the-function type stuff. There were also a couple problems involving limits, and he didn't remember a few important formulas. I wrote them down for him and explained how to use them, and he picked it up pretty fast. As long as he remembers what the rules are, solving problems with them shouldn't be hard! After that, it was time to go, so I gave him some general instructions for studying (he should work backwards from Test 12), and when we meet again we'll probably go back to the beginning of the class and work forward to review for the final next week."

"Tonight we covered some social studies homework on root words, suffixes, and prefixes related to remembering or memories. We have done packets like this before so we had a strategy from the start. As usual, I opened up a conversation with the student during the studying to reinforce things and to make it seem less formal. If we talked about "commemorate" I would give examples of how we commemorate veterans, or I would ask him what he would commemorate. In fact his responses were the funniest, and even probing him further with questions like, "Okay, so why would you commemorate your dog?" he had an excellent response ready. This reminds me of doing improv with my comedy friends. He can take a prompt and run with it!"

"The student and I reviewed basic geometric shapes and various methods of calculating area. I went over many methods and techniques for different shapes. She seemed to pick up on the techniques. I also briefly went over solving for correct units using the gravitational pull between two objects as the example problem."

"We used Bingo to practice vocabulary. The student has no problem creating his own sentences with a great variety of words from the flashcards. He is expanding his vocabulary to give room to math and science terminology."

"Today we covered solving cubic functions by grouping, factoring, and using synthetic division. It was interesting to see the way that the student solved the functions based on the algorithm that her teacher taught her and compare it to the way that I used to solve it back when I was in high school. I taught her the way that I used to do it and it seemed to be a bit faster. I continue to let her try each problem before I step in to help. She is doing extremely well and I want to help her continue to do well on her understanding. "

"The concepts we covered were utilizing the lens equations in computing distances of images with given object distances from diverging and converging lens, computing magnification of images with these types of lens, and working some problems on convex mirrors. The student needed some help with working out the problems in computing image distances and magnification of images with diverging and converging lens. She was committed to learning the concepts. She seemed to get a better understanding of the concepts at the end of our session."

"During this session, we covered square roots and solving them in various equations. Once he sat down and focused, he was able to complete the problems with no problem. "

"Today, the student came home with pictures of her previous test that she had to take after her a week of break. It seemed that she missed a lot of the problems because she was not there for the lecture, but after I explained all the trigonometry and provided her with all the equations, she was able to solve the problems correctly. "

"We focused on DIBELS preparation again today. We had two more excerpts, which we went over about 5 times each. Before we sat down to read, we came up with a mutual goal to read up to 150 words per minute. She got 156 on one passage, and 101 on the other, which is still pretty impressive because she made very few mistakes today. She is getting much better at striking a balance between fluency and accuracy. She will sometimes add or omit words in the text while she reads (usually an "a" or "the", or she'll make words plural by adding an "s" to the end of a sentence where it doesn't belong). By the end of our session, she was barely doing this, but it is still something that she should be aware of while reading because they are easy mistakes to make. "