Ahh yes. My favorite kind of review - lending a helpful hand to those small, one-man-do-it-all businesses out there. Imagine the following: Your son/daughter comes home from school for the 4th or 5th time in a row, with a C or D on their chemistry exam. You can hardly blame them...it's chemistry for goodness sakes!! You talk to their teacher, you work with them at night (or watch them work at night...again, this is chemistry), you ask friends for suggestions...but nothing seems to help. How are they ever going to get into that ivy league now?!? And the most frustrating part - their friends don't seem to have any problem with the chem AP material!! How is this possible?? So you put on your investigator hat and figure out that their friends are all signed up for four hours a week of private tutoring at their local tutoring centers. These places charge about $100 an hour, but apparently the parents deem these costs worthy. So now your son or daughter is in a terrifyingly difficult chemistry class, competing with students who are getting private help every day of the week in order to pass. Well, yelp world, if this sounds familiar to you, hopefully this review can brighten your day!! I found Dana on yelp, listed as "chemistry, math, and english tutor" (charging wayyy less than $100 an hour, I might add!!) During the first session, Dana cleared up a lot of confusion my son had with practical problem solving. At the end of her first session, she brought me into the room and explained to us exactly how my son should study, how often he should practice the material, and different test taking tips to help him out in the future. She was extremely confident that if he followed her steps, he would get outstanding scores. Apparently, these tricks helped her out in college. That week he had a mini chem quiz, and completely aced it!! We called her that night to come in the following week. The next session she came with 2 binders full of old exams she took in college, and gave him terrifyingly advanced chemistry problems. Teachers at Monta Vista, she said (same high school she went to), usually go over and above the level of difficulty they supply students with in homework problems. So it's very important to practice applying the concepts you know to solve advanced problems. This had exactly been our experience!! My son's teacher would give them homework problems of a certain level, which he would usually understand, and then the problems on the exam would just wipe him clueless - they were so much more difficult! Well, practicing the advanced problems helped tremendously!! My son received an A as his final grade - something I didn't even imagine possible (this is CHEMISTRY!!!) - and we feel we owe so much gratitude and thanks to Dana! Also quickly want to add - after this amazing experience, I signed my daughter up for Algebra 2 help with Dana. Dana was completely booked, and had hired other tutors to help her (now called Thrive Tutors). I had another tutor who was just as great, and used Dana's study principles to help my daughter out as well! Throughout the tutoring, my daughter learned to organize her work, create study sheets, and learn to study efficiently (doesn't mean study every hour of every day - just study the RIGHT things!!). Her confidence in herself and her ability to succeed soared, and that is something I deem priceless. The level of dedication and effort in this business is something I rarely see, and I am so absolutely thankful that we found Dana and her tutors! I would highly recommend giving her a call and seeing how she can help you!! *Phew. I'm done writing now, I swear!!* **note: ithis update is the same as the original, yelp filtered the original bc I wrote it at the local library instead of my blackberry (different ip address, I'm guessing). Just to clarify for those who are confused why I updated a review with the same exact post :) ** read more

So I feel kind of stupid....I finally re-found this yelp site after giving up my search a month ago and creating a new site to review Dana at. You can't say I'm not dedicated to the cause!! Anyway, I'm just going to copy paste that review: I've worked with a lot of tutors and tutoring companies in my recent years as a high school parent, and I absolutely love working with Dana and her newly-hired tutors. We started our relationship with Dana after going through a few different tutoring companies that were charging us a fortune (OVER 100$ an hr) for mediocre tutors that didn't seem to care about my kid's progress in the subject. When my daughter reached 10th grade and was taking Chemistry Honors, we knew these tutors just weren't cutting it. I actually found Dana on yelp - people raved about what an excellent chemistry and math tutor she was, so I decided to try her out. She connected with my daughter very well, and really was a great, encouraging tutor. She worked extremely hard on improving my daughter's study skills - something no other tutor had ever done. This was, in my opinion, the magic trick that got my daughter the A at the end of the semester. She finally knew how to study for exams, AND her confidence in her test prep abilities shot wayyy up! I honestly couldn't have asked for more from a tutor, and this for less than half the cost I paid for my other tutors (Sorry, just have to mention that. Why on earth do those companies charge so much???) I also want to add that since I began working with Dana, she's expanded her business and started hiring other tutors. She's developed a great business plan and spends a lot of time training her tutors to focus on study skills and other methods to really help students improve in their courses. I absolutely love her system - its like I have the big company support that gives me a tutor in any subject I want, with a small company feel that doesn't charge me a fortune. I am very happy to recommend Dana and her growing business! Good luck in your tutoring search! :) read more

So our family has become very good friends with Dana. She is a caring, dedicated tutor that works hard to help her students. I have two stories to share because both my kids work with her. The first is with my son, who works with Dana for his Chemistry honors class. My son has struggled with this class (as every human adolescent does who doesn't take hours of tutoring a week), particularly with knowing how to study and improving his confidence in the material. In the beginning, when he learned something new in class, he would immediately get frustrated and not know how to move forward in that chapter. Dana would come and within 2 minutes he would understand. But Dana wouldn't stop there - she would test him to make sure he understood everything. And after testing him on the normal material, she would make it harder and test him again. And after testing him on harder material, she would time him and test him again. This had an amazing impact on my son's performance. I think this improved his test taking skills in subjects other than chemistry as well. And most importantly - she improved his confidence! She was so encouraging during their lessons, that he started getting confident and ask her to test him right away. And when they were done testing his knowledge, they moved forward to a new chapter and start from there. All of this helped my son in many aspects of chemistry and other subjects (one aspect - he started asking questions in class! His teacher even noticed his improved understanding and performance!) My daughter works with Dana on Algebra 1 (she's in 8th grade), and she adores her. Every week, they go through the lesson, work on homework, and prepare for her upcoming quiz or exam. The study skills my daughter learned has helped her tremendously in this class, and will definitely continue to assist her in high school and college! I would highly recommend Dana for your tutoring services! :) read more

Dana has been an extremely helpful aid and mentor for my son. He was way over his head taking Chemistry Honors at Monta Vista. We were so confused how the students in the class were managing, and only after asking around did we realize they were all getting outside help. As in, serious outside help. 2 - 3 days a week working with high priced tutoring companies (try $100 an hour...). This seemed ridiculous to me. I looked around and found this yelp site. I decided to give Dana a call, and she was so nice and friendly on the phone that I decided to book a session with her. For right now, I'll ignore the obvious payment upside - she charges half what other companies charge. I want to focus on my experience with her personally, because I really felt she did (and does) a great job with my son. My son is not the most motivated individual. Lets face it - he's a normal 10th grader, which in Monta Vista terms places him less than average in the motivation category. And this subject is HARD. Its hard to understand, and really hard to get help in. But Dana did more than answer questions. She went through EVERYTHING with him. And when they were done, she didn't stop. She began the next chapter, even if they weren't going to start that for a few days. And thus my son's motivation began to grow. He began to realize he understood the material as the teacher was explaining it. He started asking questions in class. He started answering questions in class. He started becoming confident with himself and his ability to succeed. So what I wanted to share here is, that I found Dana to help my son and our family out a lot in many aspects of academia. The study skills my son was taught will be extremely valuable in his future. The explanations he received were extremely helpful. But the motivation he acquired all of a sudden - well, thats just amazing! Thanks Dana, and of course I highly recommend her. :) read more

So both my son and daughter have been getting help in Chemistry and Algebra from Dana, a local independent tutor, this past year. She has a lot of experience teaching college level Chemistry courses, and has been tutoring privately on the side for the past 4 years. Recently she told us she was starting a small tutoring business where she hires local tutors, trains them in her methods, and has them help her tutor clients with various needs. I am absolutely in love with this company and I will the reasons why: 1. The rates are as low as they are with independent tutors (at least, the good independent tutors). That's right, no more $100 an hour tutoring services, hurray!! 2. They still focus on the same skills she emphasizes in her sessions. This means study skills, help with overall motivation, and organization will all be covered in a session. This is really what helped my son out most. He would understand the math chapter as he went over his homework, but when it came time to take his test he would blank out and not do as well as he had hoped. Dana's strategies really helped him out in this sense. 3. They keep you updated with the studen'ts performance and what they need to continue working on. I would get emails from Dana or the other tutor every other week on what they think my son or daughter needs to do to get an A. This means that even though they may have explained to my daughter that she needs to practice the problems a few times that week, I could be there to facilitate and remind her :). I really admire Dana's talents and hard work. I am very happy to write this recommendation, and hope it helps others find the help they need! read more

Dana has been tutoring my daughter, a sophomore at Homestead High School, for the past year and a half now. We have developed a great relationship with Dana, and as much as I hesitate recommending her for selfish reasons (we want her all for ourselves!), she has been so great to us that I feel this is the least I could do. As most parents know, many times students run into "academic emergencies", whether it be a quiz or exam they have the next day, project overload, or any other major school-related crisis. We've had our fair share of those, and each time Dana has been there to save the day. I mean, literally save the day. We've had Dana come to our house at 9:00pm the night before an exam, with a calm, understanding smile on her face, and leave an hour later with plenty of tips and words of encouragement for my daughter. My daughter responds very well to Dana's encouraging style of instruction, and always goes to her exams feeling confident after tutoring sessions. I've also noticed my daughter's study habits improved dramatically since we started working with Dana. She is a lot more organized and knows how to approach difficult concepts - something she has always struggled with. Last point - I've worked with tutoring companies where we've paid 80 - 90$ an hour for a tutor (which I find ridiculous), and I feel as though Dana does a much better job for half the price. There you have it - 5 stars for Dana! :) read more

I wanted to update this review with my own personal experience, instead of just a friend's (although she really did say it perfectly): Although my friend's raved about Dana's chemistry expertise and teaching technique, I used her to help my daughter with Algebra 2/Trig. My daughter studied for hours and hours, and never seemed to do as well as she hoped on exams. Dana not only cleared up particular difficulties my daughter was struggling with in Algebra, but worked on study skills to help her prepare for exams more efficiently. My daughter started having more of a life - she knew exactly what to study for, and when/ how often to do it. Her exam grades began going up, and with it her confidence. I think that's really what I'm so thrilled about - my daughter, who just classified herself as a "non science/math person", now believes in her ability to do well in any class. All the options this opened for her!! I'm just so happy we had such a fantastic outcome from our experience with Dana, and I would highly recommend working with her or any of her tutors. :) read more

My daughter needed help in chemistry honors, and Dana came to the rescue!! We pay half as much as we did for local companies, and the tutoring methods were so helpful!! Dana sat with my daughter and not only explained the chemistry principles that were so unbelievably confusing, but really worked with her on study skills so that my daughter learned exactly how to most efficiently prepare for her exams. We really loved working with Dana, but now she only tutors part time because she started law school. She hired other excellent tutors to take over, however, and one of them worked with my son on algebra 2 and was very very helpful. I'm about to hire another to prep him for the SATs, so I will leave feedback for that later as well. Thanks Dana! Highly recommend! read more

I have been using Dana's services for a long time from when she was still tutoring herself. She was always pleasant and helpful. Now that she opened her business she has been sending me tutors to teach my kids at home. The fact that the tutoring is done at home is a great plus for me. My kids have advanced a great deal since they started the lessons and I am very pleased. Payment is also very convenient using paypal so I do not always have to prepare cash beforehand or write a check, and the price is very affordable. Overall I would recommend her services. read more