I've hired a few other tutors before hiring Planting Seeds with Chris. My son has always been…read morechallenging in wanting to study and complete his homework. His English grades have mostly been close to failing. However, Chris has found a way to motivate him and got him on track to put some effort in. Chris is the most organized, encouraging, and well rounded tutor I've hired for my son. Because of this, my son's study habits and grades have significantly improved. Currently he is making an A in English and I'm grateful to have hired Chris to help.

Prior to Planting Seeds Tutoring & Test Prep, my younger brother struggled with reading. Despite…read moretrying out several methods, nothing seemed to work for him as his teacher informed me that he would only answer 2 out of 38 questions correctly during his mock STAAR reading tests. During that time, he would take up the whole day whereas everyone else completed their assessments within 4 hours. Fortunately, my mother and I found Planting Seeds Tutoring & Test Prep on Thumbstack. Chris was very quick at responding back to my emails. Within a few days, he introduced us to India. She served as my younger brother's tutor for a month up until the day before the actual STAAR reading test. Within the first meeting, she assessed my brother and determined how many hours per week he required to gain maximum help. During the tutoring sessions, she tried her very best to make it fun and interactive for my brother to learn new reading and writing skills. She also communicated with the teacher in order to accommodate her lessons with his reading performance in school. Within the third week, he successfully answered 27 out of 38 questions correctly during another mock STAAR reading test. While going over his exam, I noticed all the analytical notes my brother took alongside each reading passage. He then proceeded to tell me how they greatly helped him answer the more difficult questions. Overall, there were several aspects that I greatly liked about Planting Seeds Tutoring & Test Prep: 1. Chris informed my mother and I about the financial matters behind their services prior to the first session with India 2. India always informed me whenever she was running late and always made up by staying in a few minutes extra 3. Compared to the more expensive tutoring services in Houston, their prices made it easier for my mother to afford additional tutoring sessions with India 4. My mother and I found it very convenient that they offer at-home tutoring sessions. India provided consistent tutoring sessions that worked well around our schedules 5. India usually supplied additional homework that further helped my brother gain reading tactics necessary to pass the STAAR test 6. Everyone from Planting Seeds Tutoring & Test Prep are very professional and courteous. Even though we are not currently utilizing their services, they are more than willing to help out my brother during the remainder of the school year and beyond! We are currently anticipating my brother's actual STAAR reading results from TEA. We're truly hoping their services aided my brother in attaining a passing grade!

Liz is amazing! I am…read moreworking with Liz Pack and it has been such an amazing experience. Even though I haven't started the college application process quite yet, Liz has helped me feel prepared and grow as a student. She always has the best advice and I can't wait to work with her through my junior and senior year!

Our son Lucas is a senior at LASA and just accepted one of several admission offers he received…read more Liz Pack supported us during the last 18 months or so. From test prep to college selection to the application process, it was soup to nuts. It really helped us because Lucas was our first child to hit college-age and everything is so different these days. A service like that can feel like a luxury right now. Things will pass and hiring a counselor really helped us (and Lucas!) a ton. Liz has been an all-around awesome person and resource for our family. Thanks for reading this review. Gunnar

Ann Connally is a Godsend to our family. I will spare you all the details of our 3 year learning…read moredifferences saga ,but in short, Ann was the third professional to evaluate our daughter in a 3 year period. I will also add she is the only professional who actually gave us accurate and helpful information.Ann has the amazing ability to pinpoint the exact learning "breakdown" in your child. Once she identifies the areas that need work,she will design an individualized therapy program for your child's specific needs. There is a reason it's called Austin Learning Solutions, she offers brilliant solutions!!! As parents isn't that what we all want??My child's confidence has soared,and she has truly been transformed under Ann's guidance. Book your evaluation today!!

My husband and I cannot say enough positive things about Ann. Our son struggled with learning to…read moreread in Kindergarten. Learning sight words was particularly problematic for him as was identifying rhyming words and following multi-step directions. I am a former teacher, and my bag of tricks was not helping him. Ann evaluated our son in March of his Kinder year and quickly identified fundamental areas that we needed to address. We also began a Listening program using sound therapy to target sensory motor issues. Ann is the ultimate professional, but she is also a great motivator and coach. Although my son had started to shut down at school and with us at home, he was willing to work for Ann. She is just the right combination of no-nonsense and positive encouragement. She knows her stuff. I immediately felt that my son was safe in her hands and that our money was well spent. As a parent, I learned so much from watching Ann work with my son, and she gave me the confidence to implement what she was doing with my son at home. My son worked with Ann throughout the summer after his Kinder year on reading (in addition to doing a sound therapy program). The progress he has made with reading is truly remarkable, and I cry when I think about the difference in my boy in less than a year. We were already beginning to hear him make comments that he wasn't smart and that reading was too hard for him. Under Ann's guidance and instruction, our son's confidence has soared. Not only is he reading, but he views himself as a capable learner and reader -- HUGE!!

Not to be confused with The Prince Revue, which is an all-male strip show featuring the likes of…read moreme, Tatum and McConaughey, and we dance to When Doves Cry and Kiss and all sorts of other Princely Prince songs. TAFKAPFTW. Who doesn't love the Princeton Review? But it's not actually based in Princeton apparently? Or at least maybe for this region, it's based right here in this mall, just seconds from UT campus. Pretty interesting. Pretty cool actually since it's basically on campus. It closes earlier than the rest of them though so most of the times I've been here I haven't been able to check it out. Anyway it's more Barbie's thing than mine because she went to the Ivy League and is actually proud of it, whereas I went to Oxford and am indifferent to it at best.

Update 5/26/11: my daughter just finished her first year at a top Ivy League university. I…read moreguarantee the Princeton Review, which upped her score considerably, was a big part of her getting into a class with a 9% acceptance rate. Not to mention, the university offered her super financial aid, so it ended up being very, very affordable. Our investment in the PR course ended up paying off in a huge way. Original review from Feb 2010: My kid took the SAT prep course, and it made a substantial difference in her score. I'd bought several test prep books that helped a little, but there is something about the in-person experience that really makes the info sink in, so this is absolutely worth the time and effort. It's expensive, so look online for promotional codes which can save some money. It does involve homework, so be sure to budget time appropriately. The only caveat is their system for the essay - though she's a particularly skilled writer, she followed the PR instructions to the letter for this test section (instead of doing her usual thing) - and it actually cost her points. If we did it again, I'd tell her to ignore them on the essay bits but pay close attention for the rest. Overall, we enthusiastically recommend Princeton Review.

Dr. Amar was an excellent tutor and his class was extremely helpful to me while studying for the…read moreLSAT. The personalized teaching style is awesome to help students think through their mistakes and understand what specifically makes the right answers correct. The class is taught to help students understand how to approach each type of question, which made me feel like the LSAT was learnable since the questions have recognizable patterns. I improved 10+ points in only a short amount of time, making the class great for students and those in the workforce or with busy schedules. I reached my goal score for my exam and I couldn't have done it without Dr. Amar's help!

Dr. Amar's class is a great tool to learn the fundamentals of logical reasoning and reading…read morecomprehension needed for the LSAT. He does a great job with explaining concepts and takes the time to thoroughly review answers. I will say, you get out of the class what you put in. I believe that you need to participate in class discussions and vocalize when you got something wrong in order to learn. The class helps you stay accountable to a study schedule as well, but you have to put time in effort in outside of the classroom to get the most out of the class. You spend 6 hours in class a week, and you should spend at least that amount of time outside of class studying as well. I put in a lot of effort in making sure that I paid attention to Dr. Amar's lessons, but I also came to class prepared and went over my practice tests before going to class as well. All in all, I'm very thankful for this experience. I was able to score a 172 on test day, and I don't think I would have been able to get there as quickly without Dr. Amar's assistance. Thanks Doc!

Zero stars It's the second time I schedule my tests and…read morenobody showed up To administer it Horrible business ethic!

After 13 weekly visits of taking my AWS Certifications here, this place almost seems like my 2nd…read moreoffice. Both Antisha and Iggy have made it so nice as they skip the non-sense and get right to it. While the test center is dated and could use some more TLC with a refresh, the 5-stars is how Antisha and Iggy take care of us, the test takers and do what they can to make it the best experience as possible. Location parking: 3.5 Location center size: 2.5 Location equipment: 2.5 Location decor: 2.5 Antisha: 5 Iggy: 5 Total Avg: 3.5

The LSAT was a true beast for me. It was so very hard. I was sitting at a 165. After working with…read moreRachel for half a year while working full time, I got a 173 on the real thing. I give Rachel a lot of credit for that. If you're like me, you take an online LSAT course, read several LSAT prep books, take a bunch of practice tests, then plateau in the low-160s. The LSAT did not come intuitively for me, and as all LSAT takers know, one question may translate to one or maybe even two points. So, if someone can give you a tip to help you get an additional question right, that literally translates to an extra point on the test. Below are several tips Rachel gave me specifically for what I struggled with: 1. A necessary assumption question's answer may also be a sufficient assumption; don't get confused. 2. For strengthening questions, Imagine you're giving a PowerPoint presentation trying to convince your audience of something. 3. Using shapes is a powerful method for attacking certain logic games. 4. Try doing LR questions backwards. For some people (like me), the psychological benefit of doing easier and easier questions as you move along may help. 5. For splitting game boards in LG, split them using rules that form the biggest "blocks". 6. For some people (like me), diagramming frequently in LR actually slows you down way too much. Rachel pointed that out to me; I never would've realized it. I never thought doing away with diagramming would actually increase my speed and accuracy. I imagine Rachel would give you different tips based on your specific weaknesses. After all, the tips above were provided to me based on my particular weaknesses she observed. Importantly, the LSAT is already a struggle, and you don't need a tutor who's just there to make some money on the side. Rachel is not like that. She shows up eager to help more than anything else. Thanks a lot Rachel; I owe you one!

Rachel is pretty unique compared to most other tutors/prep companies. When I worked with her, it…read morewas the first time that I was taught completely different (and more intuitive) ways of studying that weren't just derivatives of powerscore. All of the tutors that I discussed with before had their individual methods, but at the end of the day they were all just repackaged techniques developed by the big companies (like powerscore, manhattan prep, etc.) The thing about Rachel is that she doesn't fight the qualities that make an individual student unique; she embraces them and develops strategies that consider the quirks of a student & turns them into an advantage. For instance, when I was just starting out with Rachel my studying habits were all over the place. In particular, I had a tendency to hyper-focus on mundane/unimportant parts of the text. To combat this, Rachel didn't just tell me to "stop doing that"(which is typically what everyone else says); rather she worked with my bad habit and turned it into an advantage. She worked with me to utilize hyper-focusing for speeding up my processes with the easier material while also helping me form strategies to redirect this focus when things go south, which are all based on a very simple framework of attacking questions. I didn't have a very solid strategy for studying reading comprehension before, but now I actually have something that works for me that isn't one of the cookie cutter methods that most companies teach. I've been able to identify and break many bad habits, as well as learn to use my ADHD specific "powers" to their advantage rather than detriment. I honestly think I would have plateaued at 165 if it wasn't for her, her pin-point accuracy for detecting my problems were unreal. I've always been wary of tutors as a self-studier, but Rachel is just built different.

When I first talked to Varsity Tutors I was skeptical because it's online. However, I decided to…read moretry it because it was webinar based and my class was small (3 people, eventually 2). I got a very flexible instructor Marcela from Mexico City currently residing in the Midwest to teach Spanish. She had such a jovial disposition and a good understanding of not just her native language and culture but ours. She pointed out what words or phrases no one uses and easier ways to say things. We wrote, we spoke, we learned. I'd love to do it again. I just hope my instructor is Marcela. The next person has very big shoes to fill. The courses are twice a week for an hour and a half for 8 weeks. They're fun but there is no syllabus and your learning is catered to you not a piece of paper.

For my first session, the tutor was 20 minutes late to the online session. She did not introduce…read moreherself or provide clear explanations or expectations. She was distracted and disengaged. She seemed to be looking at something online that was unrelated to the tutoring session. I ended the session early because it was unproductive. I do not trust this organization to hire tutors of quality after this experience. They refused to provide me with a refund, even though this experience was terrible.