Best Individual tutoring? Forum

[JazzOne]

Are you a professional tutor Tom or is it something you do part-time?

Right now it's my full-time gig.

You ever think about going to LS, Tom?

[tomwatts]

Yay, let's hijack the thread and make it all about me!

The thought has occurred to me before, but the problem is that I don't really want to be a practicing lawyer. I've also taken the GMAT, MCAT, and DAT, and I'm not applying to business, medical, or dental school.

[bostlaw]

Yay, let's hijack the thread and make it all about me!

The thought has occurred to me before, but the problem is that I don't really want to be a practicing lawyer. I've also taken the GMAT, MCAT, and DAT, and I'm not applying to business, medical, or dental school.

whaaaaaat?

[suspicious android]

Real score, years of experience, possibly educational background, possibly additional titles if at a company (e.g. at Princeton Review, "Master Trainer" and "Content Developer" are really good phrases to find in a tutor's bio), etc.

Yeah, that's what I thought you meant. Aside from a real lsat score and years of experience, the rest of that is not really important, especially marketing hype from PR like "master trainer".

[tomwatts]

the rest of that is not really important, especially marketing hype from PR like "master trainer".

You could not be more wrong. Our Master Trainers are selected extremely carefully from our (already pretty carefully selected) pool of LSAT teachers. Same with the content developers. These are not just titles that we made up. They're positions with responsibilities that we take very seriously. A Princeton Review LSAT Master Trainer is one of the top LSAT tutors in the country, bar none.

The joke titles on business cards are not so much, though. I don't think that "Tom Watts, Renaissance Man" adds a great deal to my qualifications.

[suspicious android]

You could not be more wrong. Our Master Trainers are selected extremely carefully from our (already pretty carefully selected) pool of LSAT teachers. Same with the content developers. These are not just titles that we made up. They're positions with responsibilities that we take very seriously. A Princeton Review LSAT Master Trainer is one of the top LSAT tutors in the country, bar none.

Oh, you're right, definitely not marketing hype.

[JazzOne]

Yay, let's hijack the thread and make it all about me!

The thought has occurred to me before, but the problem is that I don't really want to be a practicing lawyer. I've also taken the GMAT, MCAT, and DAT, and I'm not applying to business, medical, or dental school.

Nobody wants to be a lawyer. It's just a matter of money.

[JazzOne]

You could not be more wrong. Our Master Trainers are selected extremely carefully from our (already pretty carefully selected) pool of LSAT teachers. Same with the content developers. These are not just titles that we made up. They're positions with responsibilities that we take very seriously. A Princeton Review LSAT Master Trainer is one of the top LSAT tutors in the country, bar none.

Oh, you're right, definitely not marketing hype.

Tom is actually correct on this one. I have 5+ years of teaching experience. I have taught several different standardized tests including MCAT and LSAT. I have a 99th %ile LSAT score. And they still won't give me a sniff for Master Trainer.

[suspicious android]

Tom is actually correct on this one. I have 5+ years of teaching experience. I have taught several different standardized tests including MCAT and LSAT. I have a 99th %ile LSAT score. And they still won't give me a sniff for Master Trainer.

Does the title make you confident that he's a more effective tutor than you are?

[JazzOne]

Tom is actually correct on this one. I have 5+ years of teaching experience. I have taught several different standardized tests including MCAT and LSAT. I have a 99th %ile LSAT score. And they still won't give me a sniff for Master Trainer.

Does the title make you confident that he's a more effective tutor than you are?

It makes me confident that he is an effective tutor. Honestly, I'm in law school. Chances are he is a better tutor than I am. I think he outscored me too.

[AverageTutoring]

Tom is actually correct on this one. I have 5+ years of teaching experience. I have taught several different standardized tests including MCAT and LSAT. I have a 99th %ile LSAT score. And they still won't give me a sniff for Master Trainer.

Does the title make you confident that he's a more effective tutor than you are?

I'll agree with this.

[cowabunga85]

I highly recommend Steve Schwartz, who runs the LSATblog. I worked with him for quite some time and he helped me raise my score over 10 points; he is clear, articulate, and extremely well-versed in the test. Whenever I emailed him w/ questions, he always replied in a timely manner. I could tell that he genuinely cared about how well I did. If you want to know more, definitely shoot me a PM.

Edited for grammar fail

vsl89,

Can you give me some feedback on Steve Schwartz? I'm considering a private tutor and was wondering what you thought about him? With a price close to 200, I'd expect him to be amazing!

[vsl89]

I highly recommend Steve Schwartz, who runs the LSATblog. I worked with him for quite some time and he helped me raise my score over 10 points; he is clear, articulate, and extremely well-versed in the test. Whenever I emailed him w/ questions, he always replied in a timely manner. I could tell that he genuinely cared about how well I did. If you want to know more, definitely shoot me a PM.

Edited for grammar fail

vsl89,

Can you give me some feedback on Steve Schwartz? I'm considering a private tutor and was wondering what you thought about him? With a price close to 200, I'd expect him to be amazing!

Steve is pretty damn amazing - at least in my humble opinion.

he knows the test really well! for example, if I struggled with a particular kind of logic game, he would easily be able to name a couple more right off the top of his head for me to practice. his knowledge the test also comes in handy because, like w/ all tutors, you're paying by the hour, so the last thing you want is a tutor who needs a few minutes each and every time to figure out the answer to a question. Steve was pretty much prepared to answer anything on the spot. I can't stress enough how valuable this was

not only did I feel like Steve knew the material really well, he was very passionate about teaching it. our sessions were productive and steve was super helpful. like i mentioned in my earlier post, he was very prompt about emails and texts. i really appreciated the personal interest he took in my LSAT performance.

most importantly, though, steve knows how to explain the test well. i think because he has written so many blog posts and has so many students, he can adapt to different students quite easily. if you read his posts, you can see how he searches the tests for different kinds of patterns and he brings those ideas into play when you go over questions in sessions.

hopefully, this has helped you a bit, but feel free to post another question or PM if need be.

[Manhattan LSAT Noah]

I work for a company and I'm always surprised that people are willing to put down huge amounts of money for a tutor that they've never met just based on the promise of the company. I know that many companies post bios or whatever, but I really don't see how knowing that I love to travel and go on long distance bike rides gives anyone any insight into whether or not I'm a good tutor. I hate to admit it, but if I was a student, I'd go with craigslist and one of the tutors that gives a free or low-cost trial session. So far as I know, I don't think any companies do this (though most will let you switch tutors if it's not working out).

We actually do this. If a student is unsure whether they want to sign-up, we offer a trial - if a student thinks the first hour was lame, we refund the money. So far, nobody has taken us up on this.

Good luck, OP - PM if you have any questions that I can answer about our teachers.

(And, regarding the discussion re:teachers w/o JDs, we do have one lawyer among our teachers - not sure how she got past the guards.)

[framboozer]

I was interested in getting a tutor towards the middle-end of August to help me brush up some stuff. I already have a boatload of books (The LG and LR Bibles, Manhattan LSAT Reading Comprehension Guide, SuperPrep, a bunch of practice tests, a crappy Kaplan Book, and all the TestMasters Books," so I wouldn't need any of that. How much would a tutor unaffiliated with any of the test prep companies charge in NYC? I figure NYC might be expensive, but there's probably also a dense concentration of talented tutors here as well.