Teaching Philosophy

CJ's teaching philosophy is based on three key tenets:

• Student strengths: Every student has natural strengths - helping a student apply these strengths across sections or subjects is often as effective as mitigating weaknesses, and helps keep students confident and engaged. For example, CJ worked with one student who scored in the 99th percentile in English but struggled to break 70th percentile in Science. The student learned to apply their strength in critical reading to science passages, and eventually earned a 99th percentile score.


• Data-driven learning: Test prep programs are short, and it's important to maximize every lesson. Diagnostic exams, homework sets, and checkpoint exams allow students and tutors to track progress and provide data to guide sessions. Data-driven tutoring ensures that the each session features content that will impact scores.


• Practice: The best way for students to boost confidence is to solve real problems. Too often, tutoring sessions become focused on explanations, leaving the student to fend for themselves when it comes time to complete homework or take exams. In CJ's sessions, students have the opportunity to implement what they've learned through practice sets, which both highlights misconceptions and ensures they will be ready for the real exam.