I am a current Rabbinical School student, a Judaic Studies Valedictorian, a law school graduate, and a liberal arts lover. I received Yeshiva University's Award for Excellence in History, and scored in the highest percentile in the GRE's writing and verbal skills sections.
I believe that if one is teaching and tutoring students in a certain subject, one must have a true love of the subject. And I really love history- especially American history. I've not only studied it all my life, from high school (where I aced the AP US History exam), college (where I graduated with honors and earned the school's Award for Excellence in History), and into law school (where I achieved the highest possible grade- 98- in the Constitutional History course), but I study it in my spare-time as well. If a teacher doesn't have a love for his or her subject, it's hard to get students excited about learning that subject.
Through my own enthusiasm for the subject, I strive to engender students with, if not a love for history (realistically, not every student will be able to develop a love for every subject), then at least a deep and abiding interest in it. I do this by demonstrating that knowing history helps us understand how the world has arrived at its current state. I also try to show that learning about the past can be interesting in and of itself- a lot of amazing things have happened over the course of human history!
For test preparation, my method is to encourage students to learn and internalize the key themes and events from a time-period; if they do, they will then likely be able to recall more specific details (e.g., dates, important figures, and significant events) from that time in answering multiple-choice and short-answer questions. And for essay writing, I again believe in a similar approach, while also emphasizing organization, outlining, and coherence.
If you're looking for a History Tutor, it's not often that you find one who is a Rabbinical School student with a B.A. in History and a law degree, but a real love for history as well.
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