Award-Winning Test Prep & Academic Tutoring in Elma Center, NY

"This was the student's seventh Algebra 2 tutoring session. It was very successful and very revealing. He tends to have a more difficult time answering Algebra 1 type questions than the Algebra 2 questions. In past sessions, he was able to zip through the most challenging questions involving logarithms. In this session, he initially had problems graphing linear functions, finding the slope of a linear function given the equation in standard form, and using the intercepts method to graph a linear function. But after a lot of practice and patience, he was able to complete his assignment. He asked a lot of great insightful questions and began to realize that some problems, although simple, can take a long time to solve, therefore, persistence and focus are the keys to success. "

"The student and I worked through approximately 10 SAT grammar questions, 15 SAT math questions, and two reading comprehension passages. She struggled some with the grammar. I would recommend reviewing vocabulary over the next few weeks before taking the SAT, but she showed significant improvement in the other sections of the test. In math, she understood what the problem was asking and was frequently about to reason her way through the problem, although she still had a little trouble setting problems up. We will focus on this next session. In reading comprehension, she understood the author's tone and argument and did well with detail retention and returning to the passage to find evidence supporting a particular answer choice. She sometimes struggled with context, but generally did fine when she remembered to read the short "background" (in italics) at the top of most passages. This was her final session, as she will be taking the October SAT."

"Today, I worked on comparing fractions and decimals with the student. We also did some work with putting fractions that do not have the same denominator in order from least to greatest. She did really well with these concepts. When looking at fractions with different denominators, she was able to find the common one easily. Also, she was able to take decimals and percentages and order them along with fractions. We also spent a little bit of time on multiplication facts, which she also did really well on. "

"When we began our session, the student wanted to start with her homework assignment. She was confident and worked quickly to finish the 4 problems. I had to remind her about details that she had forgotten or been unsure about. Later, we practiced reading the decimals all the way through and also splitting up the decimal value when expanded form was expected. She needs to slow down when she is working on these types of activities. She would have more success. She has the skills to be more consistent, but must remember to take her time and check her answers for sense. We had time to work on changing decimals to fractions and a few fractions to decimals by dividing the numerator by the denominator. She needed more help understanding how those simple fractions such as 2/4 and 3/4 lead to the decimal. She hasn't seen much of this yet, but I know 5th graders will. I am trying to keep her understanding how decimals and fractions relate. Next, we put 6 fractions in order from least to greatest and had time to play a comparison game with our fraction cards. These have pictures on them, so it helps if she forgets. We also tried a similar game using a regular set of cards without the use of pictures. She seemed challenged by this, but because it is a game, she was willing to think further about it and decide for herself which fraction was larger. When she made a mistake or decided too fast, I asked her to think about it and she changed her mind. This is a game described on the internet site under fraction games. I do have some fraction story problems, but I need to see if her mom is wanting any extra work for the student. "

"We reviewed all of this week's homework and reviewed family and food vocabulary. We then started on places/location vocabulary. We also did some listening comprehension exercises, where I asked the student a bunch of questions. He did very well understanding and answering the questions."

"The student had a quiz on Wednesday, so we had a session yesterday to prepare for that. The quiz was covering compound interests and exponential and logarithmic functions. I provided additional problems that she worked on after we reviewed the material her teacher had given her. It was a great session and I'm wishing her the best of luck on the quiz! I know she can get that A!"

"The student was preparing for an exam dealing with Kirchhoff's rules and RC circuits charging and discharging. We tried to focus on remembering which equations to use when by remembering that, for charging, the capacitor charge starts at zero, and for discharging, it starts at a high value. This seemed to help organize some of the information, but more practice will definitely help."

"The student and I continued to work on writing a paragraph. He is becoming much more relaxed and comfortable as we develop a relationship through jokes and getting to know each other. He is demonstrating improvement already. He is easily able to list the parts of a paragraph and make sure they are there in his writing. Sometimes he makes mistakes, but he identifies and corrects them after reading over his work. His sentences are also well constructed. In other words, there is nothing wrong with his writing that cannot be fixed; he simply needs practice and refinement of his skills. Confidence will come naturally with his own improvement as well as encouragement. "