Math Tutors for College Students
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Archived Q&A and Reviews
Need tutor for college algebra
Nov 2013
Looking for a math tutor for college level algebra. Must have patience, and some experience with ADD would be helpful although not required. At your home or the local library or other meeting place. For my grandson who lives in Mill Valley. If interested please respond with resume or summary of experience and your availability. Appreciate hearing from those who have had good experiences with local math tutors at this level. Anxious Grandmother
Dear anxious Grandmother, Best tutor we ever had Mario (liao) Quiet, Patient, nice, just great. 510 936 4534 Tracy
College son's math skills have deteriorated
Feb 2010
My son is in his early 20's and although he is in college and doing well in a very experiential program, his math skills, which were never good, have deteriorated completely. Somewhere along the way he self-identified as ''bad at math.'' Although many people describe themselves this way, he freezes at the thought of measuring anything, figuring out 10% of a bill, the simplest and most elementary calculations that one must know to get along in life. I'm looking for someone who is not only a tutor but has some added skills to deal with the fear that's taken over his ability to conquer this situation! anon
Have you son checked for dyslexia, which can make math a total nightmare. I was well into my mid twenties before I realized that I have the condition. I could never understand why even though I clearly understood math concepts, that I always got the wrong answer. I thought that I was an idiot. Turns out that I tend to flip pairs of numbers. I'll read the number 68, and my brain will say 86, things like that. 68, wait no, 86 not 68, wait 68, yes 68
dear parent of mathphobe,
My 14 year old son has been working with a magical guy for over 6 months. While he was not a mathphobe, his rudimentary skills were completely insufficient, and we feared he would never be able to pass a high school exit exam.
David Plafker has turned his world around. He now gets As in math, can read a word problem and decode it into the math equations he needs to solve it, and is making it through 8th grade Algebra just fine. David is calm, caring and funny when needed, and my son has bonded with him such that he will work for far longer for David than he ever would for anyone else.
All that said, David will require a time commitment to make these kind of fundamental breakthroughs. He wants to see pupils twice weekly for 1.5-2 hours each session. He needs that length of time to get a student into each new competency, and it WORKS.
I can't recommend him highly enough. I would tell anyone who wanted his or her child, spouse, or anyone else to talk with him to see if he can help.
His contact info: David Plafker, 510.486.0693. His office is at 2550 9th Street in Berkeley.
No matter how inconvenient the time commitment or location may be for you, I would strongly recommend him!!!
good luck. - mom of a former math struggler
My kid did math with Leslie Bryan at Abelian Math for years. She's very gentle, very bright, and loves math. And she can communicate that love, explain why something is nifty. Do you think he'd be up for a weekly tutoring session? just something to get the concepts clear. I don't know for sure that this is something Leslie would do, but if she would I think it could really help. (You can find Abelian by googling.) laura
We had a very good experience with Robert (Rob) Tunney. See his posting in BPN tutors. He worked with my son on an as -needed basis at the start of pre-calculus. He's patient, smart, adaptive and affordable. robert.tunney [at] gmail.com (robert[dot]tunney[at]gmail[dot]com).