FAQ
Questions parents actually ask
Including the awkward ones. If yours isn't here, ask it on the call — a question I can't answer well is useful information for both of us.
General
This is the most common thing I see. Students can explain the concept but have no repeatable test-taking process, so they lose points to inconsistency rather than ignorance. It shows up as silly mistakes and grades a letter below what they actually know. The first session is spent figuring out whether the gap is knowledge or method.
Physics most (AP Physics 1, 2, and Honors). Math from Algebra I through AP Calculus, plus multivariable and linear algebra. Computer science: Python, Java, AP CS A. Chemistry is offered through a second tutor. Test prep and college applications are not yet open.
I sat these exams in 2024. Before that I spent two years as a mentor in my high school’s math mentorship program, meeting a student weekly through the school year, and I have been tutoring one-on-one since early 2026. I study electrical and computer engineering at UT Austin and work in a research lab there. For the specific problem most of my students have, understanding the material but losing points anyway, recency is the qualification that matters: I built a method for it myself under the same conditions, and I can still show my work. There is also a practical point. Most sixteen-year-olds will talk honestly to someone close to their own age about what they do not understand, and will not do the same with an adult they have filed under teacher. If what you want is twenty years of classroom experience, that is a reasonable thing to want, and you should hire for it.
No. No student names, schools, or traceable results — and I won’t ask you for a testimonial. There are none on this site at all, which is deliberate rather than a shortage of them. At a competitive school, needing a tutor gets treated as information about your kid, and I’d rather it stay yours.
Not published ones — that’s the discretion policy, and it applies to your student too. Ask on the call instead and I’ll tell you plainly, including the ones where I wasn’t the right fit.
$65 an hour, and it is the same rate for every subject. A family taking more than one subject pays one hourly rate for the whole engagement rather than a separate rate per subject. Three subjects isn’t three engagements. It’s one person carrying three threads, and the rate prices the carrying. Billed weekly by Zelle to Hebbalae LLC, after the sessions have happened. There are no packages, no minimum number of hours, and no term to commit to. If a week doesn’t work, we skip it. The first 15-minute call is free.
Sixty minutes — long enough to move through a concept and drill it, short enough that the pace stays tight. Sessions run weekly on a standing evening slot, and some families take two a week.
One-on-one over Google Meet. Each session opens with a check on work since last time, moves into the concept currently blocking progress, and then the student works problems out loud while I watch where the thinking breaks down. This produces the useful information, so I keep lecturing to a minimum.
Scheduling & Logistics
Fill in the form on the Get Started page with your student’s grade, course, and what is prompting you to look. I reply within 24 hours to book a free 15-minute call. If it looks like a fit after that, we schedule a first session and a recurring weekly slot.
Evenings, scheduled around school and sports. I keep a limited number of recurring slots so students can hold the same time each week, which matters more than it sounds. Consistency is most of what makes tutoring work.
Tell me as early as you can. Sessions are billed after they happen, so a week we skip is a week you are not billed for, and there is no package sitting there losing value while your student is away.
All sessions are online. I am based in Austin and work with students anywhere in the US. Online removes the commute on both sides, which is what makes a consistent weekly slot realistic during a school year.
Teaching Approach
After the first session you get a written note on the problem. Then brief updates every few weeks. Often shifts within two to three weeks; grades typically move four to eight weeks later, depending on how heavily earlier work is weighted. By week six, if nothing has moved, I’ll tell you the plan is wrong.
The first session is diagnostic — I watch the student work to see where the thinking breaks down. From there, most of the session time is the student working while I watch, rather than me explaining. Explaining feels productive and mostly produces students who can follow a solution but not start one.
Yes, and it is deliberately short — usually under thirty minutes. Long assignments do not get done, and an assignment that does not get done teaches the student that the plan is optional. We review it at the start of the next session.
Students who need a crash session the night before an exam. Students well below grade level who need daily classroom support rather than weekly tutoring. And students who don’t want to be there—I can work with reluctance, but not with parents as the only participant. I’ll say so on the call rather than take the booking.