Heart-warming personalized and non-commercial immersion approach of The Open Classroom helps bring out the goodness and creativity in our child as we watched him grew leaps and bounds to reach greater heights. The private lessons definitely reinforced critical skills in exhibiting his best at the primary school interviews and assisted our son in getting into his dream school.
“When I first started tutoring with Agnes my SSAT scores were very low. I started doing private lessons with her for two hours twice a week. She gave me a lot of homework and review for me to study. Throughout the year I saw my SSAT score rise slowly. Agnes would push me in class and teach me many different math concepts and vocab words. I would learn new strategies to help me on the SSAT. I can honestly say that I have learned more with Agnes in a couple sessions than I have in school. She is constantly giving me new words to study and new test sections to complete. Agnes believed that I could succeed in my SSAT when I didn't. She was not only a tutor but a friend. Whenever I was at her house, the time went by so fast. Agnes made learning and studying for the SSAT so enjoyable that I would look forward to seeing her and her dogs. When I finally took my SSAT in December I got a 94%. Agnes helped me surpass my goal for my SSAT.”
I was introduced to Agnes by a friend 2 years ago when we found Annika needed help with her SSAT to target some of the US top notched boarding school. At the beginning, both me and my wife don’t have high hopes but just to aim at those second tier or less competitive schools after my daughter receive 70ish percentile in her first SSAT trial exercise. She just completed grade 7 at that time. After Annika spent 2 lessons per week over a one-year period, I can see a progressive improvement on her, not only just her academics but also a complete change with her personality and mindset. I was so surprise of how Agnes can help Annika excel so well with the SSAT percentile. From 70ish, to 83, then 92. These are just result from the unofficial trials. Until the school begin to accept score, Annika managed to score a 96 percentile over at her first attempt with the SSAT exam. As Annika's parents, we were so impressed with her achievement. Thanks to Agnes. She is the turn key to Annika's success when she plays an important role as both mentor and tutor to make Annika become more capable and competitive than she thinks she is. Besides SSAT, Agnes was able to strengthen Annika's social and interview skill based on numerous role play, and rehearsals. Today Annika received the acceptance from Choate Rosemary Hall as a freshman in this coming fall 2019. I'm unable to describe in words how I fulfilled I am, but I can wholeheartedly say this experience goes beyond my expectation by far. I highly recommend Agnes without hesitation, a very devoted person especially when offering one to one session, that's the main attributes to your child's success. At last, my candid comment is never under-estimate your children only because you have yet to find the right person to cultivate their potential.
“My son studies in an international school with British school system. Although we approached Agnes in the later stage of the test cycle, she was able to help him to improve and achieve very good test results in a relatively short period of time. Agnes helped my son to get familiar with the SSAT system. She taught him the exam techniques and strategies. Most important, my son learnt the necessary skill set to apply his English knowledge on the reading section of the test. Agnes is nice and communicates well with kids. She will also be tough at time. She will clearly let her students understand that adequate preparation between lessons is a must to achieve a good outcome. Agnes is a very pleasant person to work with. I am also glad that she was flexible to find time slots to fit my son's lesson although she was already very busy at the time. The SSAT result has helped my son to receive offers from several top junior boarding schools in the US including The Fay School and Fessenden. I got similar success with my daughter’s SSAT results with Agnes later on (admitted to first choice The Faye School).”
As a teacher, I definitely see the need to promote critical thinking skills in our youths today. And life skills include so much more than what is included in the basic school subjects! From my daughter's reactions to the modules she took, I can see her interest brimming over after each class.
‘I first decided to pursue the idea of applying to boarding school at the end of 7th grade. I started working with Agnes to improve my SSAT scores, unaware of the amount of work it would actually take to get the scores I wanted to have on my applications. It was apparent from our first meeting that she would do everything in her power to help me achieve the best score I could; pushing me to work harder than I ever had before. Agnes was constantly optimistic for me to get the scores required for the schools I considered to be a reach, which only motivated me to put in an equal amount of effort. I ended up taking the SSAT multiple times, resulting in a score much higher than my original. I credit the greatest majority of my improvement to the coaching provided by Agnes regarding the understanding of topics as well as helpful memorization tactics. I [got accepted into a few boarding schools including Loomis Chaffee, Tabor, Brooks and Middlesex] and am going to be attending Middlesex in the fall, a school which I thought was a big reach at the start of my boarding school search. Agnes developed my knowledge of the mathematics requirements for the SSAT, my vocabulary knowledge as well as techniques for the reading section; helping focus on my areas of struggle in addition to advancing in the topics I considered to be my strong suits.”
The process of SSAT was very fruitful, prolonged and has lasted for months. With the help of Agnes, I have learned many different skills and techniques that I would be able to utilize not only on the SSAT test but also at school. With the abundant amount of vocab, I have been able to apply them into my writing in my daily life. She taught me shortcuts to many of the complicated math questions. Even though she can sometimes be strict, the final results were very positive and encouraging. I have never hesitated to ask Agnes a question that I didn't understand. Although I have already finished the SSAT, I have continued to go to Agnes's regularly to build on my foundation for future academics. I am grateful to have Agnes as my teacher, and I would recommend her to anyone who is going to be doing the SSAT in the future.