I come from a holistic teaching background. I think it's as important to address study skills, test anxiety issues, and self-confidence challenges as it is to teach straightforward material to students. I see what I do as mentoring as much as tutoring, and I live that philosophy with my students.

One word: inventory. I want to know the student's level of familiarity with the subject at hand, whether it is SAT, GRE, German, Spanish, etc. I want to know if they have a sense of what works for him, how she likes to learn, what her academic history looks like, how busy his weekly schedule is, and lots more. I want to spend time getting to know the student, and to give the student an opportunity to learn about me. Toward the end of the first session, we can dip our toes into some exercises in the given topic, and agree on homework for next session, if applicable.

I focus primarily on empowering my students to achieve from within themselves. If I function as a crutch, I'm not doing my job. Empowerment starts with honest self-evaluation on the student's part, along with my assistance. The student and I need to identify her strengths, weaknesses, goals, deeper motivations for wanting to achieve academically, or on a given standardized test. I can teach a student all the content in the world, but if he's not building mental structures to house the content, or developing organizational systems to schedule time to work on the material, then we need to go back and work on the basic foundations of achievement: self-belief, confidence, and internal drive for success. I'm there to coach the student, to mentor him, to bring across difficult concepts in a way she can understand, to listen to her, and to support him through the tutoring process.

When progress stalls, it's easy to feel down, lose motivation, and want to quit. If they're being honest, most people have experienced this feeling sometime in their academic or professional life. I know I have! When a student experiences a dip in motivation, I like to remind her of the bigger picture: that she's likely improved tremendously since the start of her studies, or that he's feeling frustrated because he's confronted the boundaries of his current knowledge. Pushing beyond those boundaries comes with some anxiety and frustration, and that's completely natural. What I can do is help the student maintain perspective, stay focused on long-term goals, and support her every step of the way.