About Alexandra
Alexandra was raised in New York City, where she attended the Spence School and Friends Seminary. She then went to Princeton University and graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Politics. Subsequently, she earned an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts.
Alexandra has been tutoring for 10 years, both in California and New York. In a market full of tutors and tutoring companies, WHAT MAKES HER SPECIAL?
Alexandra brings three unique qualities to her tutoring:
Personal History: Once a New York City kid herself, Alexandra understands the myriad pressures facing the city's pre-teens and teenagers. As she says, "I don't have to imagine it, I lived it." This means she can immediately identify with her students, and they with her.
Intellectual Curiosity: Alexandra has always loved to learn. At Princeton she took 5 courses a semester instead of 4, just because she could. This love of learning affects how she teaches and helps the student enjoy the process as well. She is also prepared: Alexandra routinely takes all the tests her students take, continues to study the same subjects as they do, and tries to make her lessons as stimulating as possible. In other words, she loves what she does.
Performance Experience: This may seem an odd quality to include, but it is vital for two reasons:
- Her lessons are fun. Alexandra knows how to make people think and laugh. She finds unusual and entertaining ways to explain things and as her students already know, it's the classes they enjoy that make them want to learn and work.
- She helps reduce Performance Anxiety. A frequent problem students face is that no matter how well they do at home, on the actual test day (whether standardized or in school) they panic, freeze or lose focus. Alexandra calls this "performance anxiety" and she is intimately familiar with it: she faced that same challenge in school and is now literally trained to perform on cue, regardless of how nervous she may be. In consultation with
learning specialists and psychologists, Alexandra has created tools and
exercises that help students overcome their test-day nerves. Whether they are suffering from general anxiety or severe ADD, students can have a better test-taking experience and achieve better results.
