Madeleine B.

As an educator hailing from Ojai, California, I can proudly say I am a product of my environment; if one has heard of Ojai, then they have likely heard of the town’s fondness for both art and academics. Although the town’s penchant for hiking didn’t quite stick for me, a love of reading, music, and ceramics most certainly did. After graduating from Nordhoff High School, I attended the University of California, Davis, where I spent my undergraduate career voraciously devouring the offerings of the Peter J. Shield’s library and hunting for the best Earl Grey latte in town (my winner is Mishka’s cafe, if you’re curious). As a person who works in academics full-time, one might think my hobbies of reading and writing would have been stymied by my professional workload, and they would be right; I also now crochet between books.

Although I had tutored prior to 2020, mostly while working my way through my own degree, it was then that I decided to move into the tutoring field full-time. Since then, my subject matters have ranged from subject test prep such as AP English Literature and Language to college entry exams such as the SAT and ACT, as well as intervention tutoring for students who are academically behind their current grade by a minimum of one year. Both test prep and intervention tutoring have taught me important lessons in working with students for a wide range of material levels and current academic standings. My ultimate goal as a tutor is to ensure that students meet the academic goals necessary to set them on any path they want to follow, whether that’s earning college course credit with a high AP score, attending their dream college through a desired entry exam score, or earning recovery credits for a subject that they had a turbulent start in.

I am first and foremost an interactive tutor! Many of my students are accustomed to lecture-style rote learning, which discourages making connections and applying ideas in context. To combat this, my sessions are predominantly focused on the student’s input, such as asking questions and doing example problems. When more explanation is needed, such as when it is a concept the student is unfamiliar with, I continue to ask questions as I explain to ensure that the student and I remain on the same page.