Andrew Isom

Background

About Andrew Isom

My passion in teaching is to help students supersede all hurdles that keep them from reaching their goals. I have found that this often includes experiences of self-doubt and anxiety. With a degree in psychology, I specialize in helping students overcome the debilitating effects of test anxiety. My teaching emphasizes taking the optimal approach to addressing a problem, which often entails learning strategies and tactics. My students learn to approach standardized tests differently from classroom tests. They come to understand how the test was created to trip them up, and how to circumvent these traps. With over a decade of teaching experience, both standardized tests and classroom math, I have found ways to render even the most abstract concepts understandable, by connecting them with everyday, concrete experiences and understandings. My tutoring helps students improve both their confidence and their grades. I engage students with interesting facts about math in terms of its history as well as applications, and I find ways to make learning fun. This means that students retain the information better. My success is seen in the success of my students, both in the classroom and on standardized tests. Over four SAT prep courses taught to inner-city students, most of whom were from low-income homes, I've had an average score increase of 150 points, with some seeing nearly 400 point increases. A student with several congenital learning disabilities increased her ACT Algebra score by 3 points. My most recent GMAT student went from a 700 (89th percentile) to 770 (98th percentile) in a few short weeks. Another recent student failed the same college Algebra course three times before working with me, but just received a 93% in her course. My work has included students from a diverse range of skill-levels, ages, socio-economic backgrounds, racial-ethnic backgrounds, and countries of origin. Irrespective of their background, all students make leaps and bounds.