1. What is the most common thing you see in new students coming to Mathnasium for the first time?
A: Mostly that they aren't very interested in math so they get frustrated easily. Especially when they get questions wrong in a topic where they thought they were confident, it starts to show with how hard they try with those problems.
2. If there was one thing you could tell parents before they bring their student to Mathnasium what would it be?
A: Encourage their student to have an open mind and have them understand that they will be re-learning the basics if necessary, so it's not necessarily a bad thing if they're working on material that's too easy for them.
3. What things do the most successful students have in common?
A: They ask for help after trying a problem first and try to understand what was wrong with their initial ideas. They're usually open to learning from their mistakes, even if they don't complete a lot of pages in one session.
4. What are some of the ways you teach math to your students?
A: I like to ask the way in which their teacher at school taught them and manipulate it into a different way to see if it makes more sense. They usually start to get more confused if they're taught completely different techniques.
5. What do you think is the coolest thing about Mathnasium?
A: Seeing kids come in with test scores from a topic that they finally understood here. All the specialized learning plans are super helpful and it's definitely easy to see a change in their mindset when they start to get better grades.