Examples
Emily Redwood High School, Sophomore, Geometry
Background:
Emily was an enthusiastic student with a consistent record of top grades. She was talented athletically and played for the varsity basketball team. For the first time in her life, Emily's grades fell significantly during basketball season - most notably in her Geometry class. Problems surfaced when she recorded an "F" in the biweekly class assessment test.
Approach:
Upon review of the problematic assessment test Mike discovered Emily had little knowledge of anything covered in class during the prior two months.
Mike initially conducted tutoring sessions twice a week. During these initial sessions, he uncovered the extent of Emily's missing knowledge and brought her up-to-speed on the most urgent topics. Emily made good progress and, after four weeks, sessions were reduced to once a week. Mike continued to review homework to make sure no new problems were encountered. He also administered sample tests to improve Emily's speed and proficiency in time for the final exam.
Result:
Emily's grades rebounded quickly after tutoring began. She finished the semester with an "A" overall, eliminating any long-term effects of the problem assessment test.
Nick SF State University, Senior, Algebra
Background:
Nick was a gifted college Communications major, who had experienced difficulty with math since early childhood. As part of his college degree, he needed to achieve a "pass" grade in Algebra to fulfill the college's general education requirements.
Nick's parents contacted Mike with only six weeks left in the semester. At that time, Nick was failing badly and losing confidence fast.
Approach:
Mike conducted tutoring sessions three times a week for all six weeks leading up to finals. Nick's knowledge gaps were deep and dated back several years. In light of the time constraints, a conscious decision was made to build high proficiency in the easier topics and to ignore the tougher topics completely. In Nick's case, this meant re-teaching some fundamental arithmetic techniques which should have been mastered back in middle school.
Result:
Nick succeeded in achieving the minimally required "C" grade to pass his Algebra class. He received his degree in Communications and immediately started work at a local radio station.
Holly Tamalpais High School, Freshman, Advanced Algebra
Background:
Holly was an accelerated math student who fell ill in the second half of her freshman year. For the rest of the semester Holly's grades were inconsistent as she struggled to regain full health. The Advanced Algebra readiness assessment test (taken in the spring) resulted in Holly's initial placement in Intermediate Algebra for her sophomore year.
Holly knew she was capable of more and she wanted to minimize any impact on her future college plans. As a result, she elected to re-sit the readiness assessment test during the summer break. Holly's parents contacted Mike to help her prepare for the summer placement test.
Approach:
Mike used the graded results from Holly's spring assessment test as a diagnostic for identifying her strengths and weaknesses. Mike found Holly was very strong in some topics, but a bit fuzzy on others.
Tutoring sessions focused completely on the specific topics that caused Holly difficulty. Holly responded quickly as Mike refreshed her memory and explained topics clearly. Holly readily completed practice test questions as she worked with Mike on rebuilding her confidence and on fine-tuning her test-taking skills.
Result:
Holly scored an "A" in the summer placement test and was upgraded to Advanced Algebra for the sophomore year. Despite her extended illness, Holly continued her impressive "strength of schedule" into the sophomore year.
