After doing poetry workshops with Mr. William Wong, Christopher Chow participated in the annual Hong Kong Young Writers Awards. For his submission, he wrote a masterful and eloquent poem about the Pearl River Delta. His poem was selected as one of the award-winning works, and will be published in the upcoming HKYWA Anthology. We at The Open Classroom are delighted and would like to congratulate him on his achievement.
Although my son finds the course challenging, he loves the discussion topics and the fun atmosphere he shares with his classmates and teacher. The curriculum is well planned out with a wide range of interesting topics that are thoughtfully supplemented with constructive brainstorming, structured discussions, educational field trips and fun guest speakers. I'm encouraged with the amount of factual information he retains and the overall understanding he gains on the subjects. Furthermore, a disciplined approach in tackling different topics and putting thoughts on paper, has helped my son feel less intimidated and overwhelmed with writing. I see promising improvement in the way he approaches a topic, structures his ideas logically and communicates them through his writing. I genuinely appreciate the thoughtful progress updates on Lucas' development, which allow me to stay informed and work with him on his development needs in parallel with the class."
My son has been enjoying the kindergarten program at the Open Classroom immensely! It is one of his most favorite classes! He enjoys the small, interesting and topical approach classes, where he becomes active learner, inquirer and thinker. He loves writing and spelling in relevant context, and he loves the teacher, who is intelligent, creative, attentive and patient!
I really enjoyed learning at the Open Classroom this year for writing and SSAT prep. I learnt so much in the past few months here. One of the most useful studying tools that have been used to help me learn are the mock SSAT section tests I was given to take, which are just like the sections on the actual SSAT test. I enjoyed seeing my mock test math scores went from sub-par to slowly improving and hopefully will keep going up. I've also really enjoyed being taught by my teacher here. She's always really kind and helpful and is always coming up with creative ways to explain difficult ideas to me. I will definitely be coming back for more courses next year.
In this tutoring industry, there are so many different teachers that excel in teaching SSAT but to find one suited for my daughter’s needs was very difficult until I found Agnes. Agnes was able to inspire my kid to find her drive in learning both for standardized tests and at school. Furthermore, this has also led to an increase in her confidence and pushed her to perform better. Through hours of tutoring, it is evident that her hard work has paid off with her huge increase in scores in all sections of the test. Agnes is a teacher who can not only teach top students, she’s able to open up students who may feel discouraged by grades and unmotivated and inspire them to strive for success. Although my daughter was admitted to her dream boarding school, she has continued with Agnes’ classes to continue improving her foundation in English and math to prepare her for high school.
“I highly recommend Agnes to be the mentor for any student considering to apply for boarding school in the US. My son, and myself, benefited greatly from her in-depth knowledge of the admission requirements of the US schools. She has a keen sense in assessing a child’s strength and weakness relative to the targeted schools, and a well thought out strategy in preparing the overall portfolio for the student. Her help in preparing my son on his interviews, essays, and SSAT test [97 percentile] are indispensable for my son to be accepted by his first choice school – Choate. Moreover, I believe that her work has helped prepare my son for the challenges he will face at the boarding school and even beyond.”
“Agnes is well-known among students considering boarding schools in the US to be the best tutor in Hong Kong. In 7th Grade when I began to consider applying to schools, friends told me that I had to work with Agnes. I told my dad about Agnes and he was already familiar with her through another parent. I am so fortunate to have been able to work with Agnes because I went from being a very average test taker to getting into my top schools: Deerfield, Cate and Lawrenceville.
Working with Agnes individually, she customized a study program based on my strengths and weaknesses. The work was not easy but Agnes kept me focused, motivated, and eager to learn. In a relatively short period of time I was showing huge improvement. Ultimately, I went from an 84th percentile result on the SSAT to a 96th percentile in just two months.
In addition to preparing me for the SSAT, Agnes is an amazing mentor. She attended a top University in the US before working in finance. Her educational background and work experience enable her to provide guidance which I very much needed. She is familiar with the various boarding schools and was able to help me find one suitable for me. She understands the application process and guided me through it.
My journey with Agnes has shaped me into a more efficient student and has helped build me a foundation for making future academic and professional decisions. From a student’s perspective, I have no doubt Agnes will help others in successfully preparing for the SSAT and getting accepted to the schools of their choice. Working with Agnes has been one of the best experiences in my life and I am so grateful for all she has done for me.
“Agnes worked with my daughter throughout the boarding school application process, from SSAT preparation and then providing guidance on the application process and essays. Agnes’ depth of experience combined with her intellect and natural gifts as a teacher are a powerful combination. She became a trusted coach, collaborator and advisor throughout the process. Tests results were great [93 percentile], essays wonderful and admission gained to my daughter’s first choice school [Taft]. Thank you, Agnes!”
Prior to my time with Agnes & her team, I was completely lost. While I had my topic for my personal statement in mind, my essay lacked depth and was simply all over the place. Agnes helped me with my essay on content revisions and then paired me with a mentor who attends Columbia University, the school I plan to apply Early Decision for…They were there every step of the way and helped me reconfigure my thoughts in a way that would convey them more concisely. By the end of our fourth session my personal statement was complete. My personal statement was truly the one piece of my application that tied my entire story and profile together. Without this strong part of my application I believe that I would not have been admitted to the school of my dreams.
My daughter has always been a bookworm. However, her writing skills were not improving from reading books because her reading habit was to simply scan through a book to find out the ending of the story. After joining The Open Classroom programs, she was taught to take time to analyze the characters and content of different stories. Then I noticed that she started to read books in a different manner. Her reading habits have changed and her writing skills are improving. She has less grammatical mistakes in her written work. I am impressed that her writing speed has improved significantly under the teacher's guidance. I hope she can gain more from this program in the future.