Fairfax Tutoring and Test Prep - a Local Service Provider

Quality education for our children provides a foundation for lifelong learning and success. Student coaching, tutoring and test prep services can be an essential component in delivering successful educational programs. Many pupils struggle with organization, time management and study skills, and without proper coaching, they can fall behind. Thankfully it’s never too late to help them find an approach that works, and now is the perfect time to start.

On sidewalks throughout Northern Virginia and the Washington D.C. metro area, shopping bags are being replaced by backpacks as students wrap up their holiday break and return to classrooms for the second half of the school year. The New Year also brings the perfect opportunity for a new start—a new approach—to test prep and studying. In the fiercely competitive systems of Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria and the surrounding areas, it’s particularly important that students have the skills required to excel. Educational Connections Inc. (EC) tutoring helps build those skills and the confidence required to implement them.

EC’s trademarked in-home student coaching, test prep and tutoring services have helped thousands of local students from kindergarten through high school. With over a decade of experience tutoring, EC identifies three key areas that are imperative for student growth—and the tactics to ensure proper development.

• Organization: Students who are chronically disorganized tend to feel overwhelmed and thus avoid homework and procrastinate studying. Disorganization also makes it easier to make careless mistakes and harder to retain valuable information. Student coaching helps such pupils create and implement a system that keeps all school materials, binders, bags and lockers organized and clear. Coaching also helps students prioritize daily homework assignments and other tasks so they can better achieve their educational goals. Tutoring enables challenged students to set up routines and build structures that guide them, and to use tools like assignment notebooks for support.
  
  
• Time Management: Students are incredibly busy. Between extra-curricular activities, complicated social lives and demanding school days, academic demands can easily fall through the cracks. In some cases, looking at bigger projects becomes too overwhelming and students don’t know how to manage the various steps. Student coaching helps pupils complete long-term projects by breaking them down into manageable chunks, and it teaches them to schedule homework time in a realistic manner. Tutoring helps students identify what time of day and environments are ideal for them. Other tactics include tackling difficult subjects first, taking breaks, and studying in several smaller time blocks instead of diving into overwhelmingly long sessions.
  
  
• Studying & Test Prep: Like it or not, scores matter. A lot. Course and exam grades heavily influence a student’s future, so if he or she struggles with test prep, the consequences can be dire. Student coaching provides valuable studying and test-taking skills, including memory techniques, note-taking that reinforces lessons, and active reading strategies.
  

Students who struggle are often bright and capable. With tutoring and test prep, their true potential is revealed. Sign up for EC today!

Sponsored Post: Occasionally we’ll post a message with supporting references from a local service provider that’s entirely consistent with this blog’s focus on providing useful, family-centric community, business and education news and information.

For additional assistance and information on helping your child or student achieve their academic goals, check out these additional Northern Virginia tutoring and test prep articles from Fairfax's own Ann Dolin M.ED. and Educational Connections, on "How to Help with Math", "Calming the Homework Rush", and many others.

Does your child need advanced or differentiated full-day instruction in lower and middle school, consistent with recognition of gifted and talented students in many school systems? In addition to coaching and tutoring services from services like EC, the Nysmith School in Herndon offers extremely low student to teacher ratios along with individually-paced educational programs for advanced learner. Contact this popular local private school in Fairfax for more information and to schedule a tour.

Nysmith Students Take Odyssey of the Mind Honors - District 13

This week's Odyssey of the Mind competition for District 13 (Western NOVA) featured some pretty incredible displays of teamwork, ingenuity and downright hard work on the part of the students, coaches, and supportive families. Nysmith School in Herndon sent 3 teams to the State Finals, and 2 teams received 3rd place finishing honors. The teams ranged from Elementary to High School students, from very experienced to first-timers - like the Nysmith 6th grade team pictured below (comprised of students from both Loudoun and Fairfax Counties). This team, coached by Jen Hogan and Kelly McLaughlan, truly reflected the spirit of comaraderie and inventiveness of the program, and all the children thoroughly enjoyed working together - and are looking forward to next year!

#fail Washingtonian - Why You Should Love This School - Thomas Jefferson

Our blog title is actually a carefully chosen phrase, since we're prone to using Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization techniques around here in Northern Virginia. This latest issue of The Washingtonian features a really good, insightful and factual writeup of the very best high school in America, Thomas Jefferson. But the magazine's front cover is a horrid, nasty and insulting dig at the greatness of the school and its hard-working, motivated students - for which the editor quite literally should be fired (or at least counseled on the impact of search engine marketing).

While the reviews of fascinating, very likeable students and the world-class opportunities made available to them are motivating reading for all those parents in this area striving to offer their children educational opportunity, this stupid attempt at politically-tainted humor simply squashes the hard work and sacrifice these students and parents have made to rise above the sludge that is our local and US public educational system and politics. The magazine content is an incredible dichotomy of the inane and vapid vs. intellectual, with the TJ article immediately following some pure DC fluff and flotsam about "the most stylish people"....something we sincerely hope none of our children or those in great schools around the region ever aspire to.

From a Northern Virginia online advertising, marketing and reputation management perspective, this is a pure slam-dunk for the Washingtonian, and pure horror for TJ and its students....the article has generated plenty of controversy and reader reaction, probably selling many more copies and generating increasing traffic to its site (we're guilty of supporting this, simply by posting this blog...though we'll not include any page-rank enhancing backlinks). The online marketing inanity comes from the search engines....simply search in Google for "Northern Virginia Most H$%ed High School" - you'll see what we mean (again, we're not going to actually post these despicable phrases).

As the tweeters say, #fail Washingtonian.