My child attended Juku for the better part of a year in preparation for the private school kindergarten admission circus (iykyk). Admittedly, with our older child, we did not go this route because we thought it was a bit ridiculous to send a 4 year old to tutoring to get into kindergarten...esp a child who is very well behaved and academically advanced. However, despite that, the older child had difficulties going into the interview rooms and feeling comfortable working with unfamiliar adults at the interviews. The outcome wasn't what we had hoped and dreamed for her. We decided for our younger child that we'd bite the bullet and pay the hefty price tag to do all that we could to help her feel more comfortable and prepared for the interviews. And it worked! She got into our top choice after having a very easy (and fun, as she said) time at the interviews. The schools don't seem to be looking for the brightest student, but rather the student who can adapt to new environments, situations, peers, and adults. They seem to be looking for children who feel comfortable engaging and communicating effectively in these new environments with new people. Juku not only prepared our child academically, but socially with peers and adults. This was done through both the mock interviews and also switching up who the children work with 1:1 each time. The tutors are all very kind, fun, and encouraging. My child really enjoyed going! Though it can be shocking to feel the need to send a child to a tutor for a kindergarten interview, the way we looked at it, is that we are providing her with all the tools we can to help her succeed. If it works, great, and if not, we know we did all that we could to help her. read more

My son attends a public school that offers K-5th grade. We were undecided about continuing in the public school system for the 6th grade or moving on to a private school but we wanted him to have options. Understanding that the SSAT is one of the metrics by which applicants are measured, we decided to take him to Juku to see how he would fare. After the initial test, Dr. Takahashi suggested that he would benefit from tutoring so we had him spend 2 hours twice a week starting in May with some breaks during the summer. To my surprise, he really enjoyed Juku! I have never heard him label school as fun so I had to ask how Juku was different from school. His reasons were "one to one" attention, "learning at my own pace", and learning from tutors who were "fun and eager to teach". He actually likes it so much that he wanted to continue tutoring after taking the SSAT! He took the SSAT in November, performed above the target range for the most competitive schools, and was ultimately admitted to all of the schools to which we applied. I can't say how much of a role his test scores played in his acceptances, but I think test-taking is a kind of skill useful for any student. He learned specific test-taking strategies for the SSAT, like skipping questions to avoid losing too many points. We also felt the practice tests at Juku helped him familiarize himself with the exam setting. Finally, Juku was available for any question about the application process along the way, a valuable resource in and of itself. read more

Simply put, this school doesn't care about your child. They are worried about their money and put little effort into your child's education. The headmaster Takahashi is the problem. He's elitist and selfish. The part time teachers from our experience are fine. Our daughter enrolled, we payed a large sum roughly 100 dollars an hour. We took 2 lessons. We requested homework to be given on weekly basis. Takahashi denied us, wouldn't work with us, refunded the money for the remaining lessons and of course, took the assessment money. What if our daughter was close to the entrance exam. We would've have been left high and dry. Terrible school. Never send your kids here read more

Two stars for the way this place is run. What a shame. My kid was a student who took classes during the summer and am glad that I can write this review sharing our experiences spanning the 3 months we spent at this place. Tutorial centers on the island are limited - which means that options are few. This "juku" is a money grab- they care less about education and more about fees. Is it surprising? Probably not. The time they respond to inquiries promptly is when you want to sign up, pay tuition with a credit card, or sign up for practice tests ($200 a pop). After all tutoring centers exist to make money. They have rules to keep parents away from asking questions - by charging $60 for any question that exceeds 5 minutes. While it is understandable that boundaries should be in place, there's nothing noble about what they do- other than providing a service that feeds on parents' desire to send their kids to elite private schools on the island. Lessons don't start on time- but surely end on time. For $100-ish a class- that's shortchanging parents by at least a few bucks each time. And the founder? He looks like an older gentleman who is transparently interested in keeping his wallet full than upholding a mission to teach. All the other 5 star reviews reflect nothing but the kids' and their teachers' hard work, but it says nothing about the person who runs and owns this place. If I could pick all over again, I would choose another tutorial center that cares about PEOPLE and not just the THOUSANDS of dollars they squeeze from parents. If this tutorial center were on the mainland, they would've been out of business ages ago. Nothing to rave about. read more

sent both my kids here at ages 3-5 years to prep for kindergarden interviews. they both got in to the 1st choice. Now getting ready to send the third, so we will see how it goes. read more

This review is long overdue, as I needed the time to assess the entire experience and fully process my feelings. Sometimes we're quick to post a review after an excellent (or terrible) experience, and I didn't want to rush this one. Long story short, we made a very, very last-minute decision to submit an application to Punahou for 4th grade. It was supposed to be a "let's see how it goes" experiment, with no expectations whatsoever--if he is accepted, great, if not, we'll try at 6th grade. But the more I thought about, it made sense to give this one shot our all. I thought I could borrow some SSAT books, use the winter break to tutor my son myself, but I quickly morphed into a tiger mom and sought professional help before things went crazy. The good news was, his initial assessment showed it wasn't an impossible task. The bad news was, he still needed a lot of tutoring. After a week of deliberating, during which I made another attempt at tutoring him, we bit the bullet and purchased a package (I think it was 20 hours). (We also signed up for a practice SSAT but we totally forgot about it!!! We were allowed to make up, but by then it's a little pointless... ah well.) He had intensive tutoring (2-3 hours a day) the week leading up to the first SSAT in January, then we spaced out the remainder of the sessions until the second SSAT in February. I found out Dr. Takahashi Juku's team also offer coaching for the group assessment, so I requested to divide the remaining sessions between "interview/social" skills and his weaker subject. I also learned that students don't work with the same tutor two sessions in a row (keeps things fresh, I think?). My son enjoyed his tutoring sessions, although like any typical kid, he'd rather be playing. He said all the tutors were super nice, but his favorite was the one tutor who kept rewarding him with jokes! As I said, I needed to process my feelings about the entire experience. In the beginning, after signing the credit card slip, I was equal parts skeptical ("I don't believe that the SSAT is going to be so difficult!"), bitter ("It's so expensive! He'd better be accepted!!"), and hopeful. You probably can guess that he eventually made it. But even then I still felt like maybe I could have saved all that money by tutoring him myself (so what if I become a raging tiger mom!?) It's not until the last few weeks, after having seen him enjoy his new school and the facilities, seeing him thrive in the first semester, and driving through the beautiful campus, that I realize just how valuable the peace of mind and all the insight that was shared with us first-timers was. Dr. Takahashi Juku and his tutors have seen their fair share of hopefuls, and they were frank but tactful about my son's weaknesses, but also very encouraging and sincere in their praises. I can honestly say this was a worthy investment in preparing our son for his Punahou application. (And saved me a lot of grief, which is priceless!) If you are in a similar situation, and it feels right to you, and within your means, you should consider it. Best of luck! read more

We've been coming to Juku for several years. Not only that Takahashi Juku helped my children score high on their SSAT in such a short amount of time, they've also helped us transition and bridge summer school for the following years to come. Now my kids are in highschool, we continue to use them for PSAT and bridge again for math and English. The staff are awesome as well. I've dealt with Nobu, Gilbert, Zach to name a few, but they're all great dealing with if you have any questions or concern. We highly recommend Takahashi Juku. read more

Details: Located off king street right across from Ross. They have dedicated parking spaces and technically you're not supposed to use the open Ross parking spaces. Instead overflow is directed to the Ross parking garage and you can simply take the Ross elevator down and walk across to Juku. They are located on the second floor of the building above the tech support shop. Currently due to COVID, kids are required to be dropped off and picked up downstairs and be walked up with a teacher. I think they are doing an excellent job keeping these kids safe so they can benefit from the in person tutoring. Communication is also very easy either by email or over the phone. Zachary manages the front desk and is always prompt and helpful. We started sending my daughter here to help her transition to a classroom setting and get her used to other teachers. She was terrified at first, but Mr. Jason worked with her so patiently that after about a week she was ok to go in without tears. After another week I could leave her just fine without waiting there for class. This is huge progress and definitely thanks to the hard work and genuine, kind nature of all the teachers there. They did a great job rotating teachers and having them interact with other students (pre-Covid). Ms. Karen, Ms. Kelsey, Mr. Kalani were other teachers my daughter interacted with and they were all very, very good. We attended a few practice tests before kindergarten placement tests started and they were extremely helpful in preparing her for the actual tests. Even after, we have decided to let her continue here because of the positive impact it has had on her and her confidence. read more

Started taking my Grandson there before he was even 3 years of age since his parents worked. Although I have read most of the reviews mention the academic prep side of the experience, I noticed more on how well my Grandson's social skills improved. He went through the process and was accepted into kindergarten at both Punahou and Iolani. His parents chose Punahou and he has thrived. He is in the 2nd Grade now and I am impressed everytim I speak with him. read more

My son calls this "cram school", and that's exactly what it is. I'm not a pushy parent, but if your child needs to or wants to get their grades and/or SAT scores up then this tutoring really gets results. IMHO I think there is only one other school that has a program that is comparable. Hint: It's a private school that starts with "I" :) Dr. Takahashi's school is located across the old stadium park by Longs. The parking is horrible (not enough stalls for the amount of students), tuition is expensive - but I like to think of it as an investment - cause he needs to do well and be a billionaire to support us ;) Edited to add that we were pleased with the results. After only 1 summer his SAT results went up 50 points in both English and Math. read more

Just take a walk into this knowledge filled library and you'll see how organized this place is! They have so many resources, some of which I can recall using as a DOE teacher and others that I have never heard of before! Everything seems to be color coded and alphabetized. It has an exact place it belongs to! If you have OCD like me, you'll really appreciate their organization. Okay - enough about their organization but let's discuss the quality of their education here. If you look outside and inside, you'll see all of these students with Punahou or Iolani acceptance signs! There are so many that it looks as if every child who went to Punahou or Iolani had been seen by the Takahashi Juku! For their assessments, I was impressed by how detailed it was and the unknown types of questions they asked my son. He attended their private school pre testing initial experience where they did an individual testing and group observation. It was nice that they did this because it calmed his nerves for the real testing. I really appreciated him getting the opportunity to try it out here. The school is located across from Stadium Park. I've parked at Ross so many times.. Have not gotten towed yet! There is also street parking and they have a small little lot. Try this place out. You will be pleased with the results. Don't just read the 1 star reviews just because their kids didn't get in D: It matters what you do at home to support your child's learning, too. Okay, just saying 0=] read more

we have been there over 1 year and In my opinion, it is ok to waste money but not ok to waste your child's precious TIME! There tutors are not well trained and "Dr." Juku is not even speak fluent English. HONDA is much better. Diana is on top of every students and their tutors are well trained. read more

Aloha Readers! Thank you for taking the time to read my personal testimony. I have much good news to say about Dr. Takahashi Juku. I sent my daughter here at age 4, just last year, Aug 2017. I saw his advertisements in that Hawaii children magazine- the ones you get free at the supermarkets. I've heard about his school too, but I didn't have any close friends that took their kids there for tutoring so I really didn't know what to expect. I called them up to inquire and to ask what the process was. They said to come in for an evaluation. You must pay for the evaluation which is around $30. Since my daughter was 4 years old, the eval was based on things they would cover in their tutoring classes. We found the results very helpful since as parents, we are not really 'professional teachers' and we tend to forget to teach them basic things like- greetings- Hello, my name is xxx. How are you? And shake the person's hand. After the evaluation took place, they gave us an overview of what they tested for and how she did. What areas she could improve on. It made me realize that she could definitely benefit from their services. Not only for academics, but for general knowledge too that we don't take the time to explain to our children. (For me anyway..) I was already working with my daughter about one year prior to enrolling her into Juku at home. Doing numbers, alphabets, etc. But when my second child came along, it was hard to focus my time on her studies and she wanted to just play with her brother. So enrolling her into tutoring also made her focused for that one hour. And not to mention, she really enjoys tutoring anyway, so it worked out well for both her and I. The practice tests she took really helped her prepare for the private schools individual and group tests which was held in Jan and February 2018 for her. I had her take the Juku practice tests in Nov and Dec of 2017. But again I continued to work with her at home as we asked for homework which was their worksheets. At the end of the day, after completing the individual and group tests for the three private schools, she was accepted into Kindergarten for both Punahou and Iolani and waitlisted for Mid-Pacific Insitutute. Those were the only three schools we applied to. Our daughter was the most excited when she opened up her acceptance letters! We are very grateful for the services that Dr. Takahashi Juku and his staff provide. His years of experience tutoring the kids to learn what they can while enjoying their time there was really invaluable. Yes, it is not cheap for the hours you pay for, but I think whether your child is accepted or not, or waitlisted, you still gave them the opportunity to be taught in a classroom setting, with other kids and learning new skills which will only enhance their learning. Note- it is quite busy with other kids of all ages. To some parents, they might not like this set up. I was concerned in the beginning because it is noisy. You have one teacher to one student, and everyone is sitting right next to each other on long rectangle tables. But as she went to Juku, my daughter didn't seem to mind. I think it actually made her focus more and to teach her to tune out the noise. Another note- Dr. Takahashi will most likely not be teaching your child if you are like us and are applying for Kindergarten at the private schools. I believe his focus is on math for older students. (Please inquire with them) You will have his other tutors and if your child prefers a certain tutor, you can request for that tutor. My daughter still attends Juku, we took the summer off and will be back next month. No.. we don't have tons of money as the costs add up so after her hours are used up, we will be sad to stop. Essentially she would be there for a total of a year and a half. But again she really enjoys learning from them! Thank you to all the staff there. We appreciate your services and kindness in taking care of our daughter! read more

If you want targeted results or to get your kid into a good school, Juku has the formula to do it. They have excellent 1:1 tutors and a proven methodology to advance your child through math and English quickly. Juku may cost more, but you will regret time wasted on things like Kumon. My son was accepted into 6th grade at Iolani, Punahou and MidPac last year. We now have my daughter at Juku to prep for 4th grade admissions. read more

I went here during the ninth grade for SAT tutoring. The tutors here were hit or miss, although I will say I was impressed with the academic qualifications of some of them. Most of the tutors were friendly, and one of them even bought snacks for the students. Another tutor inattentively didn't realize that I didn't have work to do for the first 10 minutes of the tutoring session as I was just sitting there, staring at her. Most of the times I went, I got a different tutor (this may be a good or bad thing, depending on how you see it). I'm giving one star because of a bad experience. I was given work to review pre-algebra for "review" when I was already starting algebra. I didn't need help in the former as I did this for a few years already. I got irritated and walked out. In hindsight, I should not have done that and will admit my lapse in judgment as a kid. However, the learning center didn't do anything, except the owner sternly lectured my mom (basically giving her a guilt trip) about me. How rude! I should mention that other than walking out, I didn't make trouble there. He didn't even express concern about me (e.g. wondered where I went), didn't even try to call my mother after I left (he told her only when she came to pick me up an hour later), or even wondered why I got upset and just focused on what a horrible student I was. My mom even told him why I got upset, but he didn't do anything to rectify my issue (or their lack of teaching and professionalism) and just scolded her. I don't know if how he acted was a result of being raised in a Japanese culture decades ago, but we were in America. I'd be OK if he were to scold me, but the situation of him trying to make my mom ashamed of her child was unacceptable. Yes, walking out was bad behavior on my part, and I would get mad if I had a kid doing that. But he obviously didn't care about my safety, and he should have just focused on telling my mom what happened and not make the situation personal and try to make a paying customer feel bad. read more

Very organized. We really like our tutor and they've helped both my children accepted to Punahou in the fourth grade. They help with math, reading comprehension, and writing. Expensive but worth it. read more

Just ask around and you'll hear that this is where everyone sends their kids for private school prep if they can afford it. It's a cute small school that got our kids into Punahou and Iolani and us through major stress. Our son started in the preK program and our older son started in the SSAT program. He went from scoring 13% to 99% in every section of the real test. We were shocked. They also prepped him for his group interview and essay. On the big day, he went in confident and came out SO happy. He said it was the best day ever. As parents, hearing that is a huge relief after all the efforts. We got the same tutors every time and they adapted the programs to our boys. They gave us detailed advice for work at home after each lesson and we made appointments if we needed more time. They even helped us prep the confusing applications. They really are full service. The best part as a parent is that both our boys loved going so much that we never had to push them. They also LOVED the prizes they could score. Juku is worth it for their experience, customized education and workshops. 90 acceptances went to their students last year and our boys got to start their new schools with their juku friends. Parking is free but we parked at Ross for shade. Parents can wait inside the school and enjoy the free tea and coffee while waiting. read more

Five Stars!!!!!!!!!! Our third grade daughter was just accepted at a great private school in Honolulu.....her first choice, and that would not have happened without her hard work and Juku's excellent tutoring. We paid them a lot of money and they were worth every penny of it. Their tutors are smart, kind, funny, patient, and personable and notwithstanding the tedium of the tutoring our daughter enjoyed all of it, and, of course, her test scores on the ELSAT improved dramatically. read more

This is a CRAMPED space. The priority here is obviously to squeeze every penny out of you. I believe the tutors are hard working and are kind. However, I think that the way the business is run is horrible and a gimmick. I'll give you an example, I took my child there, and the tutor was late, so obviously they didn't start on time, the worker told me to return in 45 min( while my child was tutored) in order to discuss what he learned. I returned and spoke with his tutor about what he learned. The tutor told us that my child needed to work on phonics, discerning vowels and middle letters. I told her that my child is reading at the first grade level. (i'm thinking ok, maybe my child wasn't in the mood to focus? But i thought it was rather odd, she then pointed to BOB books and said, maybe we can have him start on those? I told her that he had already read all of those as we have them at home) As his tutor was talking to us, the worker rudely interrupted and said to my child's tutor, " Your next student is here." and that next student sat right next to the tutor while in mid sentence, the tutor turns to the next student and greets her. I was dumbfounded as we were still in our conversation but at that exact moment, our conversation had ended. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! read more

My daughter has been working with Juku since June last year, she loves this place. The teachers are very nice, and patience with kids, they make sure kids understand fully to move to the next step. My daughter is very looking forward to the class every week. read more

we have been there over 1 year and In my opinion, it is ok to waste money but not ok to waste your child's precious TIME! There tutors are not well trained and "Dr." Juku is not even speak fluent English. HONDA is much better. Diana is on top of every students and their tutors are well trained. read more

A great example of cafeteria tutoring. Cramped and noisy space with tutors talking over each other. The tutors have neither top-notch academic credentials nor high test scores. Nonetheless, they have created a system that is effective for boosting SSAT scores and improving your chances of getting into local private schools. Beyond this, they have very little to offer. For PSAT, SAT, ACT, and higher, this place should be avoided as they do not have tutors who possess mastery of these tests. Pretty expensive and part of the marketing is an affinity scheme, targeting insecure and nervous Japanese-Hawaiian parents in need of educational assistance for their children. Takahashi's calming and concerned demeanor provides no insight into the quality of the services, which are pretty weak compared to others. read more

For the prices that they charge, I am not entirely sure that my children or others are getting their money's worth. The practice work that they provide are based on repetitive and route memorization. There is little to NO INITIATIVE to promote critical thinking or problem solving. Though this may be enough for grade school level learning and thinking, such will not be enough for education past the middle school level. (You should check the spectrum level work they provide for math and should see how it is just repetitive learning.) The homework they provide is from a practice work book. Much of it is practicing problems and very few word problems in comparison. As education reach higher and higher levels, such as the SAT and the PSAT, over 90% of the problems given is in word problem based format. The child have to learn to discern pertinent information and set up the problem to solve. Unfortunately, the tutors at Juku do not teach such methods. I sat in once during the first few days of my child's sessions there and observed how the atmosphere was. While most of the talk and conversation was about how to solve a problem, during classwork my child was assigned a page while the tutor just sat there and waited until either my child was done or had a question. I have another older child going in for SAT practice. I was surprised to learn that their method of tutoring is just to assign practice packets printed out from SAT practice books such as Barrons and Princeton. I have the exact same books with the exact same work!!!! The tutors just assigned sections of work and waited until my child hit a road block. There was little in the way of timed sessions (such as the real SAT is) or any tips, tricks, or techniques. I talked to one of the tutors that worked there. Our conversation was very insightful. He told me that the SAT was designed to test only what my child should know. Nothing more. What makes the SAT so tricky is the twists and traps that the test makers include into what is a simple problem. Once the answer and how to solve the problem is revealed, it seems so simple and obvious. Besides this tutor and one select other, my child told me that the rest of the tutors did not seem up to the task. I was furious about this! But aside from the education, there are other issues that made me a bit vexed. Finding parking is definitely a hassle. Their parking lot is shared with the business downstairs so there are only a few parking spaces available. Few of which are open at any time. Drop off and pick up is not a problem but parking for waiting is tricky. Their prices would be reasonable if I didn't find their education a bit under-par. When I talked to them about finishing my child early, I was told that my child's hours are not refundable and my money not refundable. This really angered me because I would have to continue watching my money go into time-wasting hours where my child may or may not learn something. Luckily, the hours are transferable where it would go to my younger child instead. If I were you, please look elsewhere. read more

Dr. Takahashi Juku has been a major help to my academic career. I became a student at Takahashi Juku my ninth grade year and worked with Dr. Takahashi on Algebra to Calculus throughout the four years. I also received high quality tutoring in AP level English. The instructors here are very generous and cares about your academic development. Thanks to Dr. Takahashi and the instructors, I was accepted into Nagoya University. I believe that the interview practice and advice for Nagoya University that I was able to receive at Dr. Takahashi Juku really contributed to my success. Nagoya University is ranked fourth out of the 950 universities that are ranked in Japan, thus stands as one of the highest ranking institution in Japan. Receiving the letter of acceptance was truly a honor and I was pouring with gratitude for Dr. Takahashi and the instructors that cannot be comprehended in this review. If you're thinking or looking for a tutoring institution, I will definitely recommend you to try Dr. Takahashi Juku. read more

This is a great tutor center I've come here for 3 years. They got me into Punahou and tripled my SAT scores.

The tutoring center is a terrific place if you or your child is planning to apply to the private schools in Hawaii. They seem to have many resources available against their walls full of books and binders. My child loved two of her teachers, while the other two didn't seem to benefit her at all and could've just assigned her the work and told her to come back. She'd come home asking me how to do certain problems and reading Q&As. If I am sending my child to get tutored, I expect for them to learn at least one thing or clarify their understanding on a subject at the end of the hour. If only she had spent all her hours with the two teachers who put effort into helping her understand each lesson.....Too late for that now. I was told by a woman manager that my daughter would not be able to have those preferred two tutors. However I had the understanding that we were allowed to make decisions as to who we want our child to be taught by. When I asked why, she had no explanation and told my wife and I that our child would need to work with other teachers as well. This is tolerable....but please understand that I was clearly told I could have my child request a teacher if she had a preference. Later, we found that there was a misunderstanding. I am leaving this review with a mere 2 stars is because of the experience I shared with this young lady. I was told she was one of the managers, but she seemed flustered half the time we spoke with one another. Professionalism in this individual was lacking in numerous ways. She had not introduced herself as I had to look at their online website to figure out what her name was. The other two managers, who both introduced themselves and greeted me, are very helpful each time I walk in and have a question as are some of the staff/teachers. With the teachers, they seem to always send me to the managers sitting up front which is not a problem when they are not busy up there. Usually they are either busy or I have no choice but to speak with the young woman manager. In that situation, I usually walk out and call the office later or I'll ask a teacher who is willing to give me a better answer. If you are looking to prepare your child for private school admissions, this is definitely at the top of my list, but please please avoid speaking to the young lady. She will either leave you with more questions or have you wait around to speak with another manager, sometimes taking up to 15 minutes. I notice that calling them gets the job done quickest. Also, if your child works well with a certain teacher, you should wholeheartedly request them. I do not want anyone to go through the same mishap I had encountered. I believe the young manager is also a teacher as she has taught my daughter a handful of times. I honestly do not suggest this young lady as a teacher either, but a friend of mine said she works decently with preschoolers. My daughter is in elementary school and commented that this lady is very nice and a smiling machine, but was unable to thoroughly explain things. My daughter had asked for another way to define a word and this young lady just read off of the vocabulary list word for word. Not what I'm looking for in a teacher. Excuse me for the rant, but if you want to make the best out of your experience here, please talk to Jeff or Ian. They will take care of things in a quick and sincere manner. Simply put, they know what they're doing! Dr. Takahashi sits in the front as well, but I have not had the chance to speak with him as he is usually busy. Hope this helped some parents out. read more