Award-Winning Test Prep & Academic Tutoring in College Place, WA

"The student had a quiz on graphing trig functions the next day that she was concerned about so we spent our time trying to establish a good foundation on which she could approach any graphing problem. There were several things she was confused about, including the location of the line of equilibrium, how to judge period, and how to visually check amplitude. We covered several examples together where I asked her to locate these properties, and together we developed memorization tools to help her understand the importance of the properties and locate them easily on a graph. For next week, if we have time, we will return to this subject and more thoroughly go through a process of visualizing the periodic nature of sine and cosine using a pendulum or some other tangible example. She understands where in a function the amplitude, period, and displacement are located, and after several examples we tried to approach a consistent method where she would plot several points using the x/y table by plugging increments in the function and evaluating the y value. She was able to grasp this method very quickly and used it effectively to solve many problems on her own. Her only remaining difficulty was lines in multi-step functions with both vertical and horizontal displacement AND a period shift. It is necessary in these cases to choose a proper x increment which she was able to do but sometimes forgets that each increment must be equal. With just a little more practice in choosing increments, I believe she will do fine in trig graphing. On another note, her most recent exam on trig she received a B+ which is a significant improvement from her previous scores. We will look to continue and extend this improvement."

"The student and I reviewed her vocabulary during this session. We also completed a packet that covered indirect object pronouns with present tense verbs, Ser vs. Estar, and Tener phrases that express condition or state, such as "Tengo hambre" and "Tiene miedo" or "Tiene que..." She did a great job with Ser vs. Estar vs. Tener. We also reviewed verb conjugations and the DOCTOR CLIF acronym for Ser vs. Estar. "

"We covered an exam the student was challenged by recently. The topics on the exam were parabolic functions, finding the vertex, axis of symmetry, and axis intercept points. She was struggling with understanding the relationship between the graph and the function, so we worked through those concepts, and she seemed more confident by the end. I suggested she try the word problems on her own to review with me next time. We also went over her homework, which covered various equations where she had to solve for x, including equations with polynomials, absolute values, square roots, and greater than or less than equations. She seemed to respond well to my methods, but it is too early to know her progress. I gave her some suggestions on how to approach problems when she is uncertain, and I will continue to instruct her on more methods."

"We went over diffusion and osmosis in preparation for an exam. We discussed hypotonic, isotonic, and hypertonic solutions and how they impact on plant and animal cells. We also briefly started on the next topic of energy and talked about potential energy and kinetic energy."

"Today, the student and I continued to work on her 'Cell Memoir' assignment. We discussed some of the roles, processes, and functions of neurons, and the consequences of their potential failures. She worked hard to pay attention. We later moved on to her math work, which consisted of plugging in values for equations with multiple variables and solving for the output, or determining the direction of an inequality between the two sides. The student similarly worked hard here, and was able to do much of the math in her head. Overall she was very pleasant. She has received high marks in nearly all her classes, but has some significant room for improvement in science, an area where we will increasingly focus."

"In this session we worked on math for about half the time, and then read for the second half. We did some measurement activities online, and then some worksheets with word problems. All of the word problems were of the type: "...there are X groups of Y items, how many items are there in total?" He was confused by the phrasing at first, but then got them all right once he understood. We read "It Could Be Worse" and "Three Little Wolves." "

"During this session I used Persepolis to highlight and have the student understand the importance protagonists and character development in texts. We began the session by jumping right into Persepolis and doing our best to analyze the protagonist (Marjane Satrapi) in depth. We used the Notice, Rank, and Focus tool to pick out certain characteristics of the protagonist (after taking time to define what a protagonist actually was) that were implied rather than explicitly stated. Here, she did a great job. She took the time to think through what Marjane's actions and desires said about her. She can be a great critical thinker when her attention is sharp. We spent the last part of the session discussing and thinking out loud about why we place importance on protagonists and came to the conclusion that the are constants in the story that allow us to eventually have an easier time making sense of a text's deeper meaning. "

"Today, the student and I covered concepts related to relative weight and size. Here, he had to understand how gallons were related to pints, and cups were related to quarts. Part of his math book also had a chart breakdown, so we started working on two or three step conversion processes to start to understand how to find an answer if the equation isn't simply handed to you. "