AJ Tutoring

Jared, through AJ’s SAT Prep class, did a great job in helping my daughter prepare for the test. She took the test once, scored so well that she doesn’t feel the need to re-​take this test, the upcoming new SAT or the ACT. We concur!

update: I still agree this is the worst tutoring company in the bay area. For practice tests, they squeeze 50 kids in one tiny room, it is a serious fire hazard! Spend a little more and go with Kaplan Test Prep, you won’t regret it.

Jared is everything you could ever hope for in an educator. He is professional, personable, engaging, encouraging, patient, and an absolute joy to work with. I worked with Jared for several months preparing for the GRE’s. Every session had a clear structure, but was always tailored to meet my individual needs. Jared excels at holding high expectations while still making our sessions enjoyable. He is an unusual combination of brilliance and humility. His passion for learning was contagious, and he genuinely cares for his students. My tutoring sessions with Jared delivered clear results. My experience working with Jared could not have been more positive.

AJ Tutoring and, in particular, Matt was a great experience for our son. Matt was able to keep our son focused, on track and motivated. He seemed to understand the pace at which to cover the material and our son’s test score far exceeded his goal! Matt is really interested in making the experience personal and tailors his approach to meet the students strengths and weaknesses. We greatly appreciated the updates on both the progress our son was making as well as the plan for the «next steps». The on site practice tests are a very important part of the process and I would strongly suggest that all students take advantage of that opportunity.

I am happy to write this review to support AJ Tutoring! Joe and Aaron are great guys who started out as tutors themselves. They really get the business and understand the needs of both the children and parents.
The have created the most professional environments and offices in many key locations of any other tutoring business. I’ve been to Menlo and Palo Alto. They are the best option and easily my wife’s goto option in supporting the the brightest future for our kids. AJ has and was recommended by several of our friends who have sent their boys and girls to there with great results.
I was fortunate enough to get to know Joe beforehand and was able to instantly see the passion he has for kids education and the care they take to recruit and train the best tutors. It takes a certain personality to be able to do this job well and consistently and their team has it!

AJ worked out great for our kids, and helped change our kids attitude about studying and improved grades and interest. Matt was always very attentive and provided us with detailed analysis of what was working well and what needed improvement, and helped come up with strategies. He’s genuinely interested in our kids success.

We have boy/​girl twins who are juniors at Palo Alto High School. When we were looking for SAT tutoring I spoke with Jared and described their very different personalities. He listened carefully and could not have done a better job of picking such great matches as tutors for each of them. We’re so grateful that this was the case. We’re huge fans of Jared, their tutors, Colin Griffin and Emily Foster, and AJ Tutoring as a terrific resource.

I have to say, I’m really pleased at how AJ Tutoring has worked out. They have a well-​considered approach that is structured and no-​nonsense, but friendly. They have been flexible but have helped push both me and my son to stick to the plan, and I have watched as my son’s confidence has increased and his scores have gone up. When I have questions and requests they are responsive. The office space is clean, well-​ordered, and even stocked with free drinks and snacks. Not cheap, as others have pointed out, but it is money well spent.

We are very pleased with AJ Tutoring and with Jared in particular! He is both intense and laid back — if that is even possible! My daughter enjoyed her weekly sessions with him and felt well prepared for the SAT. We shared her practice and actual tests with Jared and he was able to tailor a plan that was specific to the areas where my daughter needed help. In response to reviews from others, I never felt that Jared pushed any sessions on us. He is very responsive on e-​mail and is quick to return phone calls!
Unfortunately, neither AJ nor any other tutoring company has the magic pixie dust. For my daughter her improvement (250 points from March to November) was the result of her hard work and tenacity AND Jared’s tutoring (both content, test taking strategies and confidence building). Do not expect significant improvement unless your student is committed to Saturday mock SAT tests and extra practice.
A shout out as well to William! He helped my daughter with about 3 sessions in Computer Science last year. Her response was that she learned more from him in 3 weeks than she did from her teacher in an entire semester!
I whole heartedly recommend Jared and William!

We have turned to AJ Tutoring to help both our daughters prepare for their SAT exams — and both experiences have been without exception absolutely amazing. In fact, when my youngest daughter was a Junior, we would not have considered using any other tutoring service. We chose the one-​on-​one tutoring and feel it was more than worth the rate.
During her junior year, my youngest daughter was assistged by two tutors who did an excellent job preparing her for her SAT subject tests. Most recently, as a senior she worked with John Richard who more than went the second mile in preparing her for her SAT exam in October. It was also great getting the periodic updates. Honestly, there just aren’t the words to express my gratitude for the effort he put into working with her. The homework was not just busy work and I think that is why she never minded doing it. Along with doing an excellent job preparing her for the standardized test, John Richard did an amazing job building my daughter’s confidence for the test. Because of the encouragement he gave her, she spent numerous Saturdays at the AJ Tutoring center taking practice SAT tests.
As with all of the tutors we have used over the years from AJ Tutoring, John was so flexible and accommodating with my daughter’s school and sports schedules. We were thrilled when she raised her SAT score by 230 points.
I can think of no possible way AJ Tutoring or John Richard could have improved the tutoring services we received. We fully recommend them without reservation.

I worked with AJ tutoring in preparation for the SAT’s and I had a great experience. Preparing for the SAT is a daunting task. Jessica, my tutor, did a great job helping me improve my scores and build my confidence.
While the AJ tutoring program is demanding, I felt supported throughout the process. I was impressed by Jessica and the co-​founders communication and responsiveness to my questions. There was a lot of homework involved, but I felt like it all helped me improve. The free weekend practice exams were a huge help. I was happy with the 150 point improvement in my SAT score.
The only thing I wish I had known before hand is that it would have been better to start the tutoring sessions more than 8 weeks before the test date, so I could have had more time to do homework assignment and study on my own in between lessons.
AJ tutoring is professional well run business with caring and helpful tutors. I would definitely recommend them!

Taking time to provide this review of AJ Tutoring in Palo Alto is motivated by many factors. At the top of the list is the common characteristic found in each of their educators — the passion for finding the most effective path to teach their students. This is our 5^th year with AJ across two children and the quantitative and qualitative results are compelling. In addition, each of our kids has very different strengths and weaknesses and AJ was able to magnify each of their strengths while empowering each with skills and strategies to improve. The environment is safe in every aspect of the word and our kids welcomed their time at AJ Tutoring… even on weekends! We all learn differently and AJ’s consistent ability to impart wisdom in a manner consistent with our kids ability to learn earns them five bright stars.
Ilene S.

Both of my sons had tremendous success with AJ Tutoring. Five years ago, my older son did SAT prep with Aaron, the «A» of AJ Tutoring and really responded to this bright young man’s style and felt well-​prepared for the exam. He wound up increasing his scores by about 150 points, getting a near perfect score on his verbal section.
During the Spring and Summer of 2014, my younger son worked with Morgan Halley for SAT prep. He took the SAT twice and improved his score by a total of 340 points. We were surprised and thrilled with the results, since I think that kind of improvement is unusual. What she did do to help him? I don’t know. We dropped him off, and later he drove himself. As parents, there wasn’t much for us to do. Our son was excited to go, did his practice tests at home and took several full practice tests at the tutoring center as recommended. There was about zero drama, since he felt prepared.
Initially, the manager at AJ Tutoring advised us how many sessions he would need and we signed up for that. We could have done group classes but we decided on one-​on-​one, though we weren’t pressured either way. Our son had a few sessions initially with another tutor, but when he left the company, Morgan took over and the transition was seamless and even better than the other tutor, according to my son. He took several additional review sessions with Morgan for the English SAT 2 test, and not only did he do well on the subject test, but he also felt it helped him tremendously on the multiple choice part of the English AP exam, where he got a 5.
The hand-​written notes that Morgan sent out after the exam were exactly the same every time, but we didn’t care. I did appreciate the email Morgan sent when the test results were available, so we could bug our son to look at his scores. Overall, the test results and my son’s confidence was all that mattered to us.

I have 2 kids using their tutoring service for schoolwork and the older kid has used their tutoring service for the SAT. I’m completely satisfied.
The tutors were great, well experienced. I find money spent on tutoring to be well spent, I run a business and spend enough time as it is helping with homework and then there’s the added stress of the parent pulling hair out while the kid gets upset. The money spent on tutoring does more to relieve my own and my kid’s stress than the money I spend on vacation (not that I skip that, but dollar for dollar this is better per units of «peace» produced).
The tutors gave a lot of feedback during the time including basic learning patterns that they saw. For SAT, I think they do all they can to optimize the experience. I wish they’d add a last minute cram session the days before perhaps working with shortened versions of the test with rapid feedback. For my kid the SAT wasn’t perfect, but I think they pushed her into the high end of her range which is good enough for the North Eastern sort of level. She freaks out at tests and tends to make a bunch of stupid mistakes. I think those were minimized to the extend possible with her and she’ll be fine.
I completely recommend this service. For stress reduction, I think the school tutoring is unbeatable.

I wanted to find a way to help my son improve his SAT scores so I reached out to a friend who had shared a good experience his son had with AJ Tutoring. I gave them a call and spoke with both Joe and Aaron who were both very professional and informative. Throughout the process my son not only improved his score but actually had some fun throughout the process. Thanks so much AJ Tutoring for helping and making it fun too! You guys rock!

I LOVE AJ Tutoring. The owners are incredibly competent and diligent, and the offices are warm, inviting, and well-​run. I did GMAT tutoring in the PA Office, and my tutor was professional and thorough. I felt as prepared as I could’ve hoped to feel by my test date. I’d recommend AJ Tutoring to anyone who is preparing for an important exam or struggling through a course!

I had a terrific experience with AJ Tutoring in advance of the GMAT. Christina was extremely patient and personable with me and gave me some helpful tools that I could use during the test to help me stay focused and work more efficiently. My score jumped from 1610 before receiving tutoring to a 1690 after, enabling me to not only get into Thunderbird, the top ranked international business school in the country, but receive a merit scholarship that paid for half of my tuition. None of this would have been possible without the help that I received from Christina and AJ Tutoring. I highly recommend this tutor and the company.

Based on a friend’s recommendation, I reached out to AJ Tutoring to work with my nephew for the SAT and ACT. I spoke to Nick, who did an amazing job of walking me through the highlights of each exam, and came up with a great plan for my nephew.
The tutor he recommended was phenomenal! Daniel was extremely responsive, and helped my nephew gain tremendous confidence in both exams. My nephew was full of anxiety, and Daniel did an amazing job of de-​stressing the situation. He ended up going up 250 points on his SAT and 4 points on his ACT!
I would highly recommend AJ Tutoring to any student serious about improving their scores. They are an extremely professional organization dedicated to helping students in any way possible. Thanks AJ!

AJ tutoring offers customized one on one tutoring that delivers results! The tutors are extremely knowledgable and know how to relate to teenagers.
Great communication, transparent pricing structure, flexible approach. Not cheap but still highly recommended!

I went to AJ tutoring for both SAT and academic tutoring. My SAT score went up approximately 350 points with the help of weekly sessions with Ben-​Zhen. Sarah, my biology and chemistry AP tutor, was incredible. I went into AP chemistry knowing no chemistry because of a previous teacher. After working with Sarah for the year, I ended the year with an A in the class, as well as a 4 on the AP exam. Sarah has also helped me get consistently near perfect grades on tests in AP biology; before working with Sarah on biology, I was getting D’s and F’s consistently. In addition, if Sarah was unavailable, another tutor was always available to help me.
Most of my school uses AJ Tutoring and no one has had a bad experience so far.