Tame the Math Demon

My junior year of high school, I failed Honors Algebra 2/​Trigonometry at Bishop O’Dowd High School. Math has always been a struggle subject for me, and actually failing the class made me lose confidence in myself. To make-​up for my bad grade, I had to complete a tutoring course over the summer and finish it with a passing grade. I was sent to Michael, and that was the best math learning experience I’ve had in my entire life. Michael is cheerful, upbeat, endlessly patient, and understands how to teach math to students who have trouble with even basic concepts. He’ll explain things from multiple angles and go over it with you as many times as you need to understand. I went from a D to an A-​, which was immensely confidence-​boosting. To this day math is still my least favorite subject, but if I had the opportunity to take another tutoring session with him I’d do it in an instant. For all the students out there struggling with math: It’ll be hard to find a better, more patient, more understanding teacher than Michael.

Back in 2011, Michael was recommended to us by my sister who enlisted his help to tutor her son who attended Head Royce High School. She said he was excellent and could tutor in any math or science subjects. Because I had a special needs child, I asked if he would allow me to sit in on a couple sessions with my son and he obliged. I was immediately taken by how meticulous, patient, and tuned in he was to what the student needed. With his help, our son did great in Algebra II and Geometry. We then sent our daughter to Michael for Biology, Algebra II, Geometry, and Honors Chemistry. Due to her fondness for math and hope to be competitive when applying for a computer science major at a good college, she felt she needed to accelerate her math curriculum. Therefore, over the summer between her sophomore and junior years at Piedmont High School, she was able to accelerate her math level by a year by taking Pre-​Calculus at a community college while being guided by Michael’s expert tutoring skills. He is now tutoring her in AP Calculus AB and Honors Physics. Michael has helped our daughter gain mastery in all these subjects and get the highest grades possible in these subjects. Both my children have found Michael funny, helpful, friendly, extremely smart, gentle, encouraging, gives relevant additional work if he finds they needed more help in a certain area, and a pleasure to work with. In addition, I have recommended Michael to nearly a dozen friends that have asked me if I know of a good tutor and they have all been very pleased. We feel very fortunate that someone with such incredible expertise in so many subject areas lives only 5 minutes from our home.

I found Michael through Head Royce’ tutor list when my son was in 9^th grade. My son saw Michael once a week for all four years of high school. Michael is smart, encouraging, and reliable. He tutored my son in various math classes, chemistry, biology, and physics. I’ve referred Michael to family and friends’ children and they have all been pleased. I can’t thank Michael enough as he has contributed to my son’s success in high school, and now in college. The best thing is that my son really liked working with Michael!