Improve Grades......& Understanding

What I see daily is parents who are very cognizant of the fact that to get their children into the top universities top grades are a definite priority. Toward that goal I help students with test taking strategies, memorization techniques, and alternative problem solving approaches. But what I also strive to include is a deeper understanding of how math works so that what is learned is not promptly forgotten. Again, math's cumulative nature requires retention and an understanding of the pieces to the greater whole. To help in this regard, I utilize and encourage lots of visual diagrams in my tutoring so that a specific process is not just repeated to solve problems, but rather a picture of what is actually being described can be seen, interpreted, and remembered. The temptation is often there for students to hurriedly finish through many subjects of homework without thoroughly grasping the meaning of what they are doing and why I say, "to improve your grades you also want to deepen your understanding."