Once of my first tutoring assignments was a group of three boys, all of whom were prepping for the PSAT and the January SAT (always the one juniors should start with!). One of the boys wanted to continue past January both to increase his SAT score and to work on the ACT. By the time I finished with him it was June. We had started in the previous July. Saying goodbye to him was hard, as if I was wishing a friend farewell.
Another student of mine, perhaps the most polite young man I've ever met, worked with me for about 8 months, eventually increasing his score by 400 points from hisPSAT to his final SAT. It's tough to say goodbye to any student, but it's particularly difficult to say goodbye to a student whose performance is outstanding, because you know he or she listened closely and worked hard.I've taught in all types of school and I've tutored almost every type of student you can imagine. To this day, I still find each and every student illuminating in some way. As much as tutoring benefits the student, I also find that working with the students leaves an impact on me. I go away not just with a greater understanding of what my students go through, but also with an increased appreciation for young people in general. When I
assign a student as essay to write, such as a SAT essay on whether authority should be questioned, I've received every possible answer you could imagine, some of them quite thought-provoking. One student will write about an obscure book he read, while another will write about an incident where she stood up to a teacher who was being unfair to her. I never know what I'll end up reading when I have a student's essay in my hand (although, I sure got a lot of essays on The Hunger Games when the last movie came out).
I can always tell tutoring is going well when either the parent or the student asks my advice about other subjects or about the specifics of applying to colleges. It's beneficial for me because it tells me I'm doing my job well, but it's also touching that my clients are eager to hear what I have to say.
One of the aspects of Method Test Prep that I enjoy is how well the company matches tutors with students. Because MTP likes to find out a lot about students ahead of time, tutors are always matched with students that click both in terms of teaching styles and in terms of content specialty. Since I come from a literature and writing background, I often take on students who struggle with reading comprehension or writing. I tend to be laid back, but engaging, so I will also have a lot of students who might not be super eager for tutoring, but come around after a session or two with me. The importance that MTP places on matching tutor and student cannot be stressed enough it is one of the qualities that attracted me to this very job.
