Abby

I am an enthusiastic educator with more than 8 years of tutoring, teaching, and mentoring experience. I work with students in grades Pre-K to adult in a wide range of subjects. I have a bachelor's degree from Skidmore College and am pursuing a master's degree from the University for Peace.

My tutoring style:

I am a passionate educator who uses my strong senses of empathy and creativity to personalize learning for each of my students. I strongly believe in the importance of building confidence and mutual respect in conjunction with meaningful teaching to see students truly excel. I enthusiastically cater to each individual and their needs, and I am intentional in both observing students as well as learning with them. I have the patience and understanding to work with students from all backgrounds, and I am especially motivated to help those who are struggling for reasons out of their own control. I utilize problem-solving skills, research, and creativity to understand the strengths and areas for improvement in my students so that each one can thrive in a way that embraces their individuality.

Success stories:

CZ was finishing her junior year when we started working together. She had taken one SAT with no formal tutoring and scored a 690 in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and 710 in Math. We met for just 2 weeks (4, one-hour sessions). When I met her, I made it a point to really analyze not just her scores and her knowledge, but also her learning style and personality to quickly come up with an approach for the exam that would work for her. I could see that she was incredibly smart, but she lacked self-confidence and did not know the proper approach for the SAT which made her second guess herself even more. I started off by implementing my usual reading strategies and tips for her, and we saw immediate results. She went from getting two or three wrong per reading passage to getting 100% correct almost every time. As she saw herself improve, I knew that encouragement and praise would be vital. She was incredibly capable but needed to see that in herself to do well. As her confidence improved, so did her scores. After the first session, I started to pick up on other strengths and weaknesses for her in the reading section in particular. I gave her some more specific strategies and tips to cater specifically to her learning style and needs. She was hesitant to trust me at first, but when she implemented them, her score jumped, and she consistently did well across the readings. I made sure to incorporate confidence-building and positive self-talk into every session. I corrected any kind of negativity I heard or saw throughout our sessions. Ultimately, she stopped doubting herself. After just four hours of working together, her reading score went from 690 to 760 (a 70-point increase). She was so proud of herself and appreciative of my dedication to her--she even told her mom she was going to miss me because she loved working with me so much. After such a significant score increase in a short amount of time, CZ decided to try one more SAT only if she could work with me for four more sessions and focus on math. I was thrilled to get to work with her further. She shared that she appreciates my creative approaches to the exam and attributes them, as well as my ability to boost her confidence, to her score increase. She told me that she really trusts me. In her own words, “Abby is an amazing tutor with such incredible skills in not only teaching but also in positivity. She has been a great person to work with to boost my confidence and ensure my readiness.”

When I first met IM, she was not sure if she wanted to take the SAT or ACT. It was March of her junior year. We started out discussing the major differences between the exams, exploring her learning style, and discovering her main strengths and weaknesses. We also did practice activities to pick the best exam for her. She ended up deciding on the ACT. She signed up for an April ACT because she wanted to see how she would do with just a little bit of reading preparation and wanted to get a sense of the exam in the full test-taking setting. We worked together on the reading section. When I first met her, my only benchmark was that she took a practice SAT and scored a 660 on reading and grammar (comparable to about a 28/29 on the ACT reading). We worked once per week for one month on the reading section of the ACT only. I taught her the specific approach and strategies and worked on boosting her self-confidence. We also worked on pacing and test anxiety. When she took her ACT just one month later, she scored a 35 on the reading section (almost a perfect 36). Even I was shocked at her improvement over such a short period of time! Her math score on that exam was a 22, but we had not done any math review, and she was feeling extremely motivated to get to work on the math. Her science and grammar scores were in range with her goals, so math was the main focus. We created a comprehensive study plan. We discussed her approach to the exam, and I shared strategies specifically catered to her needs. As I got to know her more, I came up with more personalized ways for her to strategically take the math section and succeed. We worked together for two and a half more months, once per week, focused on the math section. I noticed her lack of confidence in math and quickly came up with strategies for her to have more fun with math, instead of feeling intimidated by it. She was stubborn at first to learn new approaches to the exam, but as I encouraged her to try my strategies, she saw massive improvement on her practice tests and continued to lean more into our sessions. After two and a half more months of math review, IM scored a 36 on the ACT math section. I was so proud and overjoyed when I saw the score, I had chills. Her math score increased by 14 points. This student was a massive testament to the importance of having a tutor that understands your needs, and that understands how these exams work. She had it in her from the beginning, but once she started to utilize the techniques, believe in herself, and solidify her skills she ended up at a score she never even imagined was possible. This massively increased her confidence in school and opened up new possibilities in her college search.