Mike

Certified Tutor

The major focus during tutoring the student is working on his school homework material and providing detailed explanations, where needed.
Next point is solving the end of the chapter quantitative problems (e.g. thermodynamics, kinetics, equilibrium, ideal gas laws, atomic structure, quantum chemistry, chemical bonds, etc). The student achieves good understanding of the material.
Next step will be connecting the new material with relevant chapters already mustered - in order to have him understand the topic in full, get the full picture. After chewing it down in the tutoring session, I give the student similar kind of problems to solve independently, at home, for the next tutoring session.
This active approach will rapidly improve students school performance.

Preparing the student to take test requires similar, but not the same strategy. Despite the apparent and real difficulty of the test, it is teachable and can be learned in a way that will dramatically and consistently improve the students score. By focusing on the logical inferences and patterns which are repeated over and over in the test, I will help my student achieve mastery of the test which will vastly improve his confidence and his score.
Specifically, I seek to improve the skill set of my student so that the test becomes an exercise of well trained understanding of the material and the ability to really handle it.
I use a practice exam to diagnose strengths and weaknesses, and then I follow the plan that will raise my students scores as much and as quickly as possible. This entails teaching specific strategies with which to approach each different question type.
In addition, I teach pacing and guessing strategies, so that the student will never again leave easier questions unanswered at the end of a section. If there are any gaps in a student's background (general chemistry, physical chemistry, organic chemistry, I help to fill them in.
Going forward, each session will include a review of homework and techniques from the previous session, introduction of new content and new strategies, Once all the sections have been covered, the sessions will then start to include more practice tests and timed sections.
This active approach will rapidly improve students test scores.