Award-Winning Test Prep & Academic Tutoring in Grain Valley, MO

"During our second session, the student and I reviewed what we did earlier in the week. When asked to provide feedback, he said that it was helpful to have tutoring support to re-write test material to improve his score that we had discussed. Additionally, he said that he saw the practicality of improving his study and organizational skills. His statement provided the perfect transition for us to continue using the SOAR Curriculum. Having briefly explored Chapter 1 through discussion of multiple intelligences and identifying his own, we then proceeded to read and discuss the next 2 chapters on prioritizing, identifying, and taking action needed to complete goals. The student completed a series of questions and statements. That process led to writing specific action steps to complete his 4 goals. He seemed engaged and was able to converse and respond verbally and in writing. His homework includes reading chapter 4, which covers assembling and using a daily planner. At the close of our time together, he, his mother, and I explored the amount of time appropriate for his twice weekly tutoring sessions. At this point, we agreed that an hour long tutoring session seems to meet his educational needs. There maybe occasions where a session may organically extend to 90 minutes. For example, if he needed additional support and help in completing upcoming homework assignments and long-term projects. My recommendation is that we take this approach in upcoming sessions, being flexible to have sessions run from 60 to 90 minutes."

"Today we covered topics relating to substitution reactions. Specifically we discussed reactivity, stereochemistry, and distinguishing between SN1 and SN2 reactions. For reactivity we related it back to stability. Stereochemistry was clear after discussing reaction mechanisms. Distinguishing reactions was accomplished by examining nucleophile strength, nature of the solvent, and substitution of the substrate. The student seemed confident in the application of these concepts. "

"Today the student and I went over SAT Math Reading, and Writing. Her reading score lately has been consistently high, so I expect to see dramatic improvement on the test she takes next Saturday. I assigned her some work for next session."

"We covered circles and geometric sequences in this session. The student should come to sessions with an open mind and should be willing to learn the material conceptually. I feel like she is following formulaic methods from her instructor strictly without understanding the overall concepts. I look forward to working with her further to improve her grade in algebra II. "

"The student had a test last week that went less well than he had hoped. Today we worked on test corrections. The test was 30 problems, multiple choice. For the most part, his difficulties on the test were borne of difficulties in spatially understanding the problems and forgetting to reverse the direction of magnetic forces on negatively charged particles. Upon review of the test, it was clear that he understood all of the problems, but just had difficulties performing well for whatever reason. We will continue to work on this disconnect. "

"The student reviewed surface area and volume of cylinders and cones. She had to apply the formulas in several different real-world problems from her book, as well as a couple that I made up. Because she is starting spring break, I gave her a little bit of math homework (solving systems of equations) to keep her sharp. "

"We mainly looked at an in class essay that she had to write this week in class. Mainly, we worked on writing a thesis based on the question. We looked in the supporting text for appropriate or the best evidence to back up her thesis. "

"Today we continued to work with logarithms and their properties. We went over difficult questions from a test and worked toward understanding what went wrong. For unpredictable problems, we looked for clues that would hint toward what strategy to take. "