What is your teaching philosophy?

I have three main points that make up my teaching philosophy: 1) There's no one method to success -- we will focus on figuring out the best methods that fit your learning style and the subject. I'm willing to adapt and be flexible to different students. 2) You have to understand your own strengths and weaknesses. In the same way that you identify patterns in SAT questions and develop strategies to conquer them, you have to also figure out how you learn and where you tend to struggle. Only then can you figure out how to best improve. 3) You have to work hard. You can't be successful unless you put in time and effort. 4) Success, always. We will set goals and achieve them!

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

In a typical first session, I like to get to know my students. We'll talk about ourselves, where we might have common interests, and in general getting a sense of each other. I also like to know how students learn -- how they study, what is easy versus what they struggle with. Then we'll focus on figuring out what we want to achieve with our tutoring sessions, our timeline for our work and set clear goals for what we want to learn and accomplish. Then we'll dive in.