What is your teaching philosophy?

I would credit the education and the scores that I achieved in standardized testing to the help of my mom, who used to be a college psychology professor before immigrating to the U.S. and became my first teacher. The methods she used to help me learn and drive my curiosity still influence how I think and learn concepts today. From her, I learned that a meaningful education requires more than just knowing facts and how to find the right answers – it includes the process of helping students recognize their individual learning styles, discover any flaws in their foundation knowledge, set reasonable goals, and look for deeper meanings behind why a problem is best solved a certain way. I understand some kids can pick something up more easily, but I truly believe that motivation and how dedicated you are will ultimately decide your success. I think that teaching is more similar to coaching than just lecturing and assigning work. Looking back to my mom, she taught me the importance of concise communication, organization and empathy when teaching and I hope to impart the same on my students whether it is tutoring for the SAT or the GMAT. From her, I learned that a meaningful education requires more than just knowing facts and how to find the right answers – it includes the process of helping students recognize their individual learning styles, discover any flaws in their foundation knowledge, and look for deeper meanings behind why a problem is best solved a certain way. As a teacher, she taught me the importance of concise communication, organization and empathy.

What might you do in a typical first session with a student?

If the student hasn't done a diagnostic test yet, I would have him or her complete one and bring any work/scratch paper they used for it. Otherwise, I would require the student bring their most recent exam taken. Based on the review of exam and work, we would work together to go over a list of concepts that need to be learned and create reasonable goals for achieving them. While reviewing the work, I would also start going over strategies for solving the problems so that going forward students can quickly apply the concepts they learn more quickly to achieve the results they want. It’s important for the student to both assess their own knowledge, as well as for me to look for patterns of error in their work, so that I identify any gaps or inaccuracies in their foundation knowledge and be sure to address them prior to teaching new concepts.