Award-Winning Test Prep & Academic Tutoring in Duke University, NC

"Today the student and I focused on math and preparing for her upcoming cell biology test. She continues to be a wonderful student to work with. She has a very positive attitude towards her learning and is eager to be successful and try new strategies. We started by double-checking her math homework, which focused on adding and subtracting positive and negative integers. She has absolutely no trouble adding two positive integers but got confused about what to do when adding or subtracting a negative number. We used a number line to model how to add and subtract negative numbers. We spent about 30 minutes on this concept, and she seemed to have a strong grasp by the end of 30 minutes. During the second half of the session, we discussed how to prepare for her upcoming assessment. She is working on creating a "study guide" by rewriting her notes in her own words, creating flash cards, and using the online resources her teacher has to test herself on identifying cell parts. The idea behind these techniques is that she will spend 15-20 minutes using the resources to study each night until the test next Thursday. Note: We started to create our study guide on the computer but switched to paper because it seemed like it would be faster for her. I don't know if her school offers a typing course but it might be worth while to get her into some sort of typing program (there are free ones online like "type to learn") so that she can learn to type efficiently as many middle school teachers will start to request that her assignments be typed."

"The student and I focused on algebraic story problems, equations of a line, and probability. I took note of where she struggled so we would know where to focus during the next session. We also worked on strategies for what to do if you are not sure how to start a problem. "

"We covered the ISEE essay in detail. We read the instructions carefully, and talked about how to set up a good essay with a thesis statement, good examples, and a strong conclusion. We looked at 4 sample essay questions, and she worked on thinking of good examples from her reading and her personal experiences. We went over the verbal and reading sections one more time, and the student completed a timed section of both areas. We went over her incorrect answers and discussed strategies for questions with difficult vocabulary."

"My session with this student today focused on helping him study for his upcoming biology quiz on the process of mitosis. He had a study guide, which we went through, and we also used his notes and worksheets from class to help him put together all of the material. He had a pretty good understanding of the sequence of events, but his biggest challenge was describing what happened specifically in each phase (prophase, metaphase, etc.). We also reviewed some vocabulary words that were tricky to him because they sound similar: centromere, chromatid, and chromatin. I had him draw and label pictures to help him actively review the material and then had him explain to me verbally (as if he were teaching me) how each process works. He had another day before his quiz, so we talked about what he should do the following day to prepare as well."

"Reviewed concept check problems for 5.1-5.5a. Practiced adding and subtracting fractions, multiplying mixed numbers, and estimating fraction addition and subtraction equations. The student has a good handle on the information. Also discussed homework and review questions in preparation for tomorrow's concept check."

"Today the student and I reviewed material for chapter 13. This included going over the unit circle, deriving values for the unit circle, converting between radians and degrees, and other topics. At the beginning of the session, she said that she was confused because her teacher had gone over the material quickly. I explained everything to her and we went over a few examples together. By the end, she said that she understood that material better. We had a few extra minutes, so I gave her a brief preview of material from the upcoming section. Overall the session went well. She will let me know if she needs additional help and another session, but I feel confident that this session clarified many topics for her."

"We continued working with R-controlled vowels and the student did very well. When he encountered r-controlled vowels he was unfamiliar with while practicing with our game and during our free reading time, he did an excellent job of sounding them out. Next week we will work on CVCE words, like "take," then progress to multi-syllable words."

"The first student listened to the story of The Tortoise and The Hare. He then traced letters t and r, for the words turtle and rabbit. Action steps include math exercises. The second student listened to the same story as her brother. We reviewed the meaning of a fable, and after the reading we discussed the various lessons that could be learned from the story. Then the student wrote summary sentences for the lessons she learned from the story. After completing her summary sentences, the student reviewed various vocabulary words and completed exercises for combining consonants to make new sounds. Action steps include exercises for math and basic geometry, as well as counting money. "

"We continued on working on the practice set that the student has been going over. We started where we left off and got into calculating the divergence and curl of vector fields. We were able to complete a number of these problems and began work on finding tangent planes given parametric equations of surfaces. "

"The student and I continued to work on varying sentence structure. We worked on dependent and independent clauses and combining sentences with relevant meaning. We also discussed hooks, beginning with quotations, questions, and sound/sensory words. "