Smart Minds Tutoring is a unique platform because we believe in the power of the student/teacher relationship. Only learning rote test-taking techniques without building rapport between the tutor and the learner is like trying to fly an Airbus A350-1000 without fueling up first—it isn’t going to work.
We have rules, theorems, and motivational tricks we want to teach you. However, before all this comes rapport, the foundation upon which all success is built.
We make sure that the tutor works on developing a relationship with the student before a single strategy is taught. This activates the student’s own internal drive to succeed because she’ll have an engaging and likable mentor who will inspire her to do her best.
This way, the student will flourish both academically and intellectually. The tutor can then start to formulate an individualized plan that takes into account the student’s learning style, strengths, and weaknesses. This way, the tutor can start to get at the root cause of a student’s problem.
This not only makes our curriculum flexible and adaptable to the needs of the student—it also helps our platform to constantly evolve as we take into account students’ ever-changing needs. This ongoing process helps us to keep adding tremendous value to our programs.
Before we proceed with our program, we’ll do a baseline assessment of where the student is currently at in terms of understanding key SAT concepts. We’ll see what kind of score they would like to achieve, and then give them a rough idea of how many sessions they’ll need.
We also emphasize the importance of work/life balance. Students who continuously push themselves without having any free time whatsoever are going to burn themselves out.
We put our computer analytics background to good use by using the latest computer software to recognize patterns. SAT problems are constructed in a similar way from test to test—almost like a formula-like template that the designers follow.
Since the SAT is multiple-choice, you can use pattern recognition to choose a solution that has a high probability of being right. All our tutors are experienced in recognizing these template-like formulations and will teach you to spot them too.
So many companies merely teach students the skill of being good test-takers. Some big companies rattle off a bunch of dry techniques but don’t really connect with the student. Like other companies, Smart Minds Tutoring helps students boost their SAT and ACT scores.
However, we do SO much more than that.
We want to inspire students—to get them to (in the words of Tennyson) “follow knowledge like a sinking star, beyond the upmost bounds of human thought.”
For some of these students, this might be the first time that has ever happened in their entire lives!
