Award-Winning AP English Literature and Composition Tutors
serving Olympia, WA

I'm a current PhD student in the history department at Georgetown University who is also an experienced instructor with Varsity Tutors. As a recipient of several degrees, the most recent being a BA in history from Hillsdale College and a MA in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from Stanford University, I have long sought to make teaching my profession. Meanwhile, as a volunteer grade school teacher and a tutor with this company, I have many years' experience helping students reach their full potential. I am capable of teaching students in many subjects, including reading, mathematics, test prep, Latin, and especially writing, history, and literature. In practice, I am comfortable adapting to different learning styles and specific student preferences. Outside of my academic and career endeavors, I enjoy cooking, reading, and listening to and making music.

AP English Literature asks students to do in a timed essay what Alex has spent years training to do at the doctoral level: construct an argument about a literary text using precise evidence and sophisticated analysis. He digs into the specific skills the exam rewards — reading poetry for structure and figurative language, writing thesis-driven essays under pressure, and choosing the right passage for the open-ended prompt. His PhD research in English means students are learning from someone who lives inside these texts.

Update: I completed a two-month full-time guest teacher assignment teaching World Languages Spanish to high school students (9th-12th) Spanish 1/2/3. By utilizing a student-centered learning approach, cultural competence, and equitable teaching, I support students with pedagogy rooted in inquiry, hypothesis, information gathering, problem-solving, and action. I encourage all students to adopt an open-minded approach, and provide support to gifted students, students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and Multilanguage Learners with equity. "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." James Baldwin I am in my second year of grad school, pursuing a dual master's degree in K-8 Elementary Education and K-12 Special Education (Mild to Moderate Disabilities). With my education grad studies and BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), I synthesize creativity and best practices in education to find creative ways of supporting learners. My pursuit and purpose is to guide with compassion and enthusiasm. I encourage students to take ownership of their learning. By promoting student agency, students empower themselves to achieve in academic, social, emotional, and behavioral development. As an ADHD adult, I enjoy working with ADHD students and adults experiencing anxiety + depression. What is effortful for our neurodivergent brains is also our superpower! In my career, I have lived and worked in NYC as an editorial photographer, actor, and dancer. I lived in Berlin and pursued performance art + music while honing my communications skills in digital art + copywriting in Marketing. In Los Angeles, I succeeded as a commercial and theatrical actor. My skill set is suited for collaboration with all students to support and develop their passion for learning, exploration, and critical thinking. I live in southeastern Washington State and teach in northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington State public school districts. I support students in the following subjects: Elementary School Reading Elementary School Math AP English High School English Middle School English Middle School Math Digital Media & Graphic Design Fine Arts & Filmmaking Creative Writing Study Skills & Organization German 1/2 Spanish 1/2/3 Spanish Language Arts English Language Learners English Language Development Algebra 1/2 Special Education (all subjects) High School Math "We all have ability. The difference is how we use it." Stevie Wonder Thank you for reading! Ms. Anna C.

AP Lit asks students to do something most haven't practiced: write a polished analytical essay about a poem or prose passage they've never seen before, under time pressure. Antonia digs into the skill behind that — teaching students to identify literary devices like shifts in tone, unreliable narration, and symbolic imagery, then turn those observations into a coherent argument within 40 minutes. Her work founding a dual-language tutoring program sharpened her ability to make complex textual analysis accessible to students at different comfort levels with close reading.

AP Lit demands more than knowing what a poem or novel is about — it requires writing about how literary choices create meaning under serious time pressure. Rebecca's English degree from Notre Dame, paired with her deep reading background in comparative literature and philosophy, gives her a sharp eye for the kind of close-reading analysis that earns high marks on poetry and prose essays.

AP Lit asks students to do something genuinely difficult: read a poem or prose passage cold and build a convincing argument about how it works in under 40 minutes. Jack's theatre training at Northwestern gave him a performer's instinct for close reading — he knows how tone shifts, imagery, and structural choices create meaning because he's had to inhabit texts from the inside. He teaches students to move from noticing literary devices to actually arguing what those devices accomplish.

AP Lit asks students to do something most haven't practiced: write a persuasive literary argument under time pressure, using textual evidence with precision. Olivia teaches the difference between summarizing a poem or passage and actually analyzing how its language produces meaning — the skill that separates 3s from 5s on the free-response questions. She's particularly strong on poetry analysis, where students tend to freeze up without a clear method for unpacking imagery, tone, and structure.

AP Lit asks students to do something most haven't practiced: write a polished literary argument under pressure, using textual evidence with precision. David breaks down each essay type — the poetry analysis, the prose fiction analysis, the literary argument — and shows how to build a thesis that goes beyond plot summary into genuine interpretation.

AP Lit asks students to do something genuinely difficult: read a poem or prose passage cold and produce a polished analytical essay in forty minutes. Hasan studied Literary Arts at Brown, where his coursework ranged from contemporary American fiction to ancient Indian classics, giving him the interpretive toolkit to teach students how to unpack imagery, structure, and narrative voice under exam conditions.

AP Lit essays live or die on how well a student can connect a specific literary device to a work's larger meaning — not just identify a metaphor, but explain what it's doing. Sophia, an award-winning creative writer with a Vanderbilt humanities background, teaches students to build that kind of argument under timed conditions, whether they're tackling a poetry analysis or an open-ended prompt. Her own writing practice gives her a sharp eye for the difference between summary and genuine literary analysis.

AP English Literature asks students to do something genuinely hard: read a poem or passage cold and produce a coherent analytical essay under time pressure. Kahini earned her English degree at Brown, where close reading of literary form — meter, narrative structure, figurative language — was the daily expectation. She teaches students to build an argument from a single textual detail outward rather than summarizing plot.

AP Lit asks students to do something genuinely difficult: read a poem or prose passage cold and produce a polished analytical essay under time pressure. Noelle unpacks literary devices like imagery, tone shifts, and narrative structure by showing how each one serves the author's larger argument — the kind of close reading that earns high marks on the free-response questions. Her love of reading and writing gives her a natural ear for the nuances the exam rewards.

Studying English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago means Davis spends his days doing exactly what the AP Lit exam tests — building interpretive arguments about how writers use language to create meaning, then defending those arguments with precise textual evidence. He brings that daily practice to teaching students how to read a poem or passage for its deeper mechanics rather than just its surface narrative. His comfort with both canonical and contemporary literature gives him range across the full-work essay question, where choosing the right novel and framing a sharp thesis makes all the difference.

Earning a Secondary Teacher's certification while studying English means Hailey is learning not just how to analyze literature but how to teach that analysis — breaking down why a particular stanza's enjambment or a narrator's shifting reliability matters, then coaching students to articulate those insights in timed, thesis-driven essays. Her 32 ACT and 5.0 tutoring rating back up an approach rooted in making the leap from 'I noticed something' to 'here's my argument about what it means.'

AP English Literature asks students to do something most haven't been trained for: write a polished literary argument under time pressure about a poem or passage they've never seen. Maddy wrote an honors thesis on art criticism at Harvard and spent years analyzing fiction, poetry, and Shakespeare — she teaches the close-reading instincts and essay structures that earn high scores on the free-response section.

AP Lit asks students to do something genuinely difficult: read a poem or prose passage cold and produce a coherent literary argument under time pressure. Rob taught English at Choate Rosemary Hall and holds degrees in English and Philosophy, so he digs into the mechanics of close reading — how meter, diction, and narrative structure generate meaning — and then drills the timed-essay skills that turn that analysis into a 5.