Purposeful tutoring that goes beyond teaching to the test
Math, Chemistry, and Physics help is just a few clicks away with a simple request form that takes less than 5 minutes
Introduction
Welcome!
I’m Al, an online tutor who has been helping hundreds of students for over a decade! I mainly teach the AP courses for Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics, as well as some early college courses. My students often come to me in the late summer, but there are plenty who come along later in the school year after hitting a snag. Students typically end up working with me for at least 2 years and they usually have an interest in becoming doctors, nurses, scientists, programmers, or engineers.
I've tutored as a volunteer, as an employee, and as a freelancer, so I've seen it all. I primarily assisted with regular homework assignments until I got to know courses so well that I could teach them from A to Z, and my clients noticed. As a result, requests for teaching full courses to students became more frequent and I decided to focus on homeschooling. I still help those students who have the usual short-term needs, but I've grown accustomed to planning out lessons, assigning homework, and giving out practice exams to students with long-term needs. Because of this, I often end up with students who continue seeing me for as many as 4 years, typically in their late high school to early college years.
My approach to tutoring is focused on high, but fair standards. Although I can be lenient and understanding, my students know when they haven't met my expectations. They know that I want them to understand the material and not just memorize it. They know that I value depth before breadth and accuracy before speed. Most importantly, they know that I care about helping them become independent, resourceful learners. I frequently encourage students to utilize free resources and tools that are available to them online and I make use of the psychology and neuroscience that I read about in my spare time to help them understand the most suitable ways for them to train their brains.
Services
I provide the services shown below. If your needs fall outside of this, feel free to describe what you’re looking for and I will let you know if I can do it.
Unless otherwise stated, all services for new clients are provided at a flat rate of $75/hr.
AP Exam prep
Teaching the AP courses for Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry is my specialty. Whether you want me to teach the whole course from A to Z or just some review at the end of the year, you can count on my experience to help you go in for the big exam feeling as prepared as possible!
Homeschooling
Is there a course you want to take that your school won’t offer? Or perhaps you have a general interest in a subject and just need some structure? If it’s a subject I teach, I will handle lesson planning, lecturing, assigning homework, recommending a textbook, and all the rest!
Homework help
For students falling behind and needing to catch up, the sooner we start, the better our chances at avoiding the need to repeat a class. What starts off as a marathon to get caught up on homework often becomes a sprint to get ahead of the class.
How it works
1. Complete a request form
Fill out a simple tutoring request form to help identify the kind of service you’d like to receive. You will be asked for basic information such as the subject(s) you want covered, as well as contact information which will be used to get in touch with you. I typically respond within 6 hours, but please allow up to 48 hours.
2. Schedule a free consultation
I will go over your submitted request form and contact you as soon as possible. I will send instructions to set up a meeting with you and your student to go over questions, expectations, policies, and procedures. This also serves as a test run to make sure we don’t have any difficulties relating to technology.
3. Book your appointment(s)
At the end of the consultation or shortly after, you will let me know what time you’d like the lesson(s) to be held. I will place you on the calendar with the appointment(s) you’ve requested.
4. Complete your lesson
After the appointment is completed, you will receive an email with instructions on paying for the lesson. This email is typically sent a few hours after an appointment, but it can sometimes be delayed until the next day. Payments are due one week after a lesson, unless you choose to sign up for autopay.
FAQs
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I offer appointments that can be anywhere from 1 hour to 2.5 hours long. For students who simply need help with a homework assignment, 1 hour is usually enough. Most of my students need me to introduce/review concepts, which often requires a little more time. This makes 1.5 hours the most commonly requested appointment length.
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While most of my clients tend to prefer a weekly schedule, you can do either. And in fact, you can also do both! I’ve had clients who choose a regular appointment, but will occasionally schedule an extra appointment or request an extension to the one they already have (usually when they have an upcoming exam). Don’t feel obligated to schedule more than what you actually need, but do try to plan ahead; appointments are reserved on a “first come, first served” basis.
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This depends on a student’s needs and their ability to learn independently between tutoring appointments. Some students only need me for 1 hour a month to review for exams. Some need me to teach them an entire course by the end of the school year and need 2-5 hours per week (this is especially true for homeschoolers). Some will do just fine with 1-1.5 hours because they make sure to properly study throughout the week and achieve their own progress by the time they see me again. If you’re not sure, we can start off with something like 1.5 hours per week and change it later if it turns out to be too little or too much.
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No. Payments are only made after a lesson (or group of lessons) is completed. I don’t accept advance payments and I don’t require clients to save a credit card on file. After the first appointment, you will have the option to save that information if you choose to do so for your own convenience. While this does put me at risk of not getting paid by a client acting in bad faith, I have found that to be very rare. Anyone planning to do that will only get away with it once, because that will be the last time they see me. The overwhelming majority of my clients are those who have a long-term need, so even the rare few who have bad intentions know that they can’t afford to lose me.
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All you need is a microphone and reliable access to the internet. No webcam is necessary on your end. As long as you can see and hear me, and as long as I can hear you, we can hold lessons without issue. (Even if I can’t hear you, you could always communicate with me by typing in the chat window. It’s not ideal, but it has helped in cases where a student’s microphone malfunctioned.)