Esperanza

I consider myself a mentor and push my students to think critically while they learn. I earned dual bachelor's degrees in English and developmental and family studies from the University of Houston and I tutor grades 6-College.

My tutoring style:

I require a lot of engagement in my lessons, and focus on ways to retain the information. I approach with the intent to impart lasting knowledge, rather than just a band-aid to get them through a rough patch. My goal as a tutor is to ensure all students are confident in the subjects they are learning. I focus on fundamentals and learning skills, so that students will eventually be able to thrive on their own. As I have been tutoring SAT for nearly 10 years, I have developed strategies for the reading and writing sections that all students can benefit from. These strategies are specifically designed to help students who struggle with the timing aspect of the test. They also assist students that struggle with basic reading comprehension and grammar. I consider these strategies my “secret weapons”. I am extremely experienced in teaching math from the ground up, so students who are failing their academic math class can easily learn SAT math, and take what they learn back to class to improve their everyday grades.

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Success stories:

M. J. had a PSAT score of 1100. When she first came to me, she had not taken the SAT, yet. She received a 1290 on the June 2023 SAT. She needed significant support in the SAT math section of the test. She had never studied for the exam before but was extremely happy with her outcome. Along the way, she informed me that her biggest struggle was stressing over the test's time limit. She would freeze up knowing that the timer was looming over her. We worked diligently to eliminate this anxiety by doing timing exercises, and changing her perspective on what aspects of the test are important

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H. T. had a PSAT score of 1200 be fore he took the SAT, and she received a 1350 on the June 2023 SAT test. She dramatically improved her math score from a 530 on the lower level PSAT to a 740 on the college level SAT. H was a very diligent student, but she lacked the ability to critically think about the problems and get to the root of what is being asked of her. We worked on her math literacy, connecting topics and formulas to the knowledge she already knew, but had forgotten. She informed me that the work we did on SAT translated well to her classwork, and even helped to improve her final exam grade in precalculus.

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Hobbies and interests:

I am up to date on most television shows/movies, but I tend to drop more scientific/historical facts. Many students ask “When will I use this in the real world?” and I like to inform them of all of the possible applications of their studies.

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