I had a student from Lawrence Tech University in Michigan who had registered for College Physics course at Oakland Community College, Orchard Ridge Campus. She was struggling with the course but had to complete the course with a decent grade for a degree in Graphics Design. She was completely clueless about the basic concepts and could not solve any of the Physics problems assigned as homework and was afraid of failing the class or having to drop the class.
Fortunately, I was assigned as her tutor at the college's academic support center. I knew from the beginning, there was a lot of work cut out for me to help her succeed in this endeavor. Often times, students who are struggling in a course, and as a result are feeling stressed out, tend to be less receptive to critical feedback on their learning; rather, they focus on shortcuts to just pass the class. On the other hand, this student had a very respectful demeanor and was patient and willing to learn the subject properly in order to succeed in the class. We had a healthy working relationship, and within the next four weeks, I could see her making tremendous progress in grasping the concepts and smartly applying them to the problems. Her grade in the subject climbed, and she no longer felt concerned about failing the course, as she was already on track to getting a C+. Nevertheless, she was still eager to learn and improve her grade, so we continued to work together, and the hard work paid off in the end. She completed the course with a B+.
I could see that she was pleased with the efforts to improve her grade, but the greater satisfaction was that she overcame the challenge of a difficult subject to the extent that she had an appreciation for what it had to offer. She was extremely satisfied with my help that she bought me a gift as a token of her gratitude.