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Top Notch Multidisciplinary Tutor
Maria L.

5.0 (262 ratings)

1,313 hours tutoring

Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee
Hourly Rate: $250
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Response time: 47 minutes

About Maria

Bio

Whether for yourself or your child, I’m here to help you turbocharge your learning! Rooted in the joy of discovery, my lessons inspire curiosity, confidence, and a love for learning. Every session is personally tailored, blending deep subject knowledge with engaging methods that make learning fun. My approach is clear and patient, ensuring that every student feels valued and understood. I equip my students with effective learning strategies that not only ensure academic success but also...

Whether for yourself or your child, I’m here to help you turbocharge your learning! Rooted in the joy of discovery, my lessons inspire curiosity, confidence, and a love for learning. Every session is personally tailored, blending deep subject knowledge with engaging methods that make learning fun. My approach is clear and patient, ensuring that every student feels valued and understood. I equip my students with effective learning strategies that not only ensure academic success but also empower them for a more fulfilling future.

I graduated as valedictorian from Moscow State University, the best university in the country. I majored in Computational Linguistics and minored in Literature, a perfect mix of STEM subjects, languages, and humanities. Since then, although I’ve taught in a classroom setting for several years tutoring quickly became my full-time occupation.

Over the last 11 years, I’ve tutored everything from test prep, geometry, and Latin to history, pottery, and yoga to more than 200 students from 5 to 75 years old. I love teaching math and sciences, bringing them to life and boiling them down to their essence so that they’re much easier to tackle. Beyond STEM, I help students with languages (Russian, English, French, Spanish, Latin, and Old Church Slavonic), history, theology, and Olympiads like NACLO. I'm not just a tutor; I'm here to support your child in their academic journey, assisting with homework, test preparation, and organizational skills.

Beyond school subjects, I assist with most undergraduate-level linguistics courses. I also help with essay editing and exam prep across various disciplines.

I offer in-person tutoring throughout the greater LA area and online sessions via the Wyzant platform, ensuring you can learn from any location at any time. I am both flexible and reliable: your emergency is my emergency!

Let's embark on this transformative journey together! Simply send me a tutoring request, and we'll pinpoint the perfect time for our first session.

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Education

Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU)
Linguisitcs

Policies

Schedule

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Approved Subjects

ACT English

ACT English

The ACT English & Reading is all about one thing; moving at the speed of light. 4 long passages with ten questions which means you have to book it through those passages, and I’m here to help you do just that. I’ll help you figure out which questions to go back and check versus which ones you need to just fly through. We’ll help ascertain which definition of “sanction” the passage wants, and I’ll bring my dozen years of studying linguistics to bear on helping you parse the main point of each passage. For the grammar section, it may seem counterintuitive to have a non-native speaker, but in fact, it’s better. Rather than merely appealing to something “sounding good” we’ll teach you the fifteen rules that the test really hits (is it it’s or its?) and teach you how to find dangling modifiers. By the end, you’ll launch in and feel confident you know how best to attack the passages.
ACT Math

ACT Math

The ACT math, unlike the SAT, isn’t really that tricky - it’s just that it’s a lot more time pressured as you have to make it through 60 questions. In the 5 years that I’ve been tutoring for the ACT, I’ve determined that the key is to blow through the first 20 (which rarely feature tricks) so that you have time for those last 10 that get pretty sticky. We’ll hit all the details you need (remember Alternate Interior Angles from geometry? They’re about to make a cameo here!) while not wasting our time on things that don’t show up. We’ll learn the black arts of picking numbers (an incredibly useful technique, and the exact opposite of what you’ve been taught in every math class) and you’ll go in feeling prepared!
ACT Reading

ACT Reading

Whether your son or daughter is struggling and is trying to nudge their score up, or is already going great and wants to take it to the next level, I’m excited to help. It might be counter-intuitive, but as a non-native speaker, I know the rules of English grammar that the ACT loves to test on far better than most people who just grew up knowing misplaced modifiers because “it doesn’t sound right” - and can help your kid develop the skills to go with the intuition. For the math, I love helping people piece together the tricks of the ACT, ensuring that they go into the test fully equipped with right tools (did you know it’s perfectly legal to write programs for your TI-84?) ready to tackle those dastardly word problems and emerge feel confident! I’ll teach them the tricks of the trade for science, the section that people tend to be the least familiar with and leave them feeling ready for the big day!
Algebra 1

Algebra 1

My dad challenged me with mental math problems starting in elementary school. In high school, I was the only girl to attend the after-school advanced math club (that sometimes ran until midnight) to ace the most advanced math problems. I loved being good at algebra, and I loved explaining fast and easy solutions to the most complex problems to my peers. I studied computational linguistics in college, the stepchild of math, computer science, and linguistics, which taught me both math and the ways to explain it. I’ll help you conquer the worst demons of algebra 1 (be it common core, integrated math or homeschool), from incredibly useful factoring techniques like the “big star” method to fractional exponents or breaking down those dreaded word problems, and will leave you a pro!
Algebra 2

Algebra 2

Over the last 5 years I tutored all the levels of math to elementary, middle, high school and college students (including people from Mathematics Department at Moscow State University). Algebra 2 presents all sorts of new challenges that people struggle with, from factoring gnarly expressions (which can be brilliantly solved by my “big star” method!) to understanding conic sections from hyperbolas to ellipses. You’ll experience exponential growth in your understanding of exponential growth, and when you solve equations, you’ll end up with a solution for “grade” that equals “A”!
Elementary Math

Elementary Math

I’ve found Elementary math students require a completely different approach than older kids; I bring games, flashcards and fun math books to our lessons in order to help them learn in fun and engaging ways. Through this, they can shed any fears of K-6th math as it becomes fun and interesting, helping them lay the solid foundation that will help them succeed now and throughout their schooling! I could help your kid with any aspects (basic arithmetic, fractions, geometry, word problems) of any math curriculum (common core, Beast Academy, homeschooling, Singapore math).
ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL

I’ve taught ESL and prepared students for the TOEFL, IELTS, and interviews in English - both one-on-one and in groups - for over four years. So far I’ve tutored students from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Kazakh, Turkish, Iranian, Nepali, Palestinian, Mexican, and Colombian backgrounds. When I took TOEFL I nailed a 99%. Beyond this, I’ve taught English as a Second Language in the Mathematics Department of Moscow State University and, in order to give back to the community, volunteered at the LA Public Library Singleton Center as an English Teacher.
GED

GED

Maybe you’ve decided that you want to leave high school to follow your acting dreams. Maybe you never quite got around to it the first time. Whatever the circumstances are, I want to make sure that when you go into the GED, that you feel prepared to take the test and walk out confidently, knowing that you’re going to to have the GED in your hand. I’ll help with all the sections, filling in any math holes, tuning up your reading and grammar, and generally ensuring that you feel good about the test!
Geometry

Geometry

I’ve tutored Geometry to all levels of students for the last 5 years, starting with elementary school geometry and finishing with HS honors geometry. As an excellent illustrator, I help your student make great progress in terms of creating diagrams that will aid their understanding, understanding the trigonometry that will recur in algebra 2, and addressing the bane of nearly every geometry student: the infamous two-column proof. I delight in watching how my students come to understand the organization and flow that lead to success on these proofs. It’s particularly fun to tutor, since a number of people who struggled with algebra can really bloom in geometry, and the visual awareness and logical thinking that are so crucial to understanding, and succeeding, in geometry will serve them well for years to come.
Grammar

Grammar

Growing up in Russia, we learned English grammar like the back of our hands, seeing it as the passage to a better life, the chance to interact with the rest of the world. So, while it’s a subject that many revile and see as tedious, I love helping people sort out the intricacies of the language, often leading to them remarking “wow, that really does sound so much better!” when they re-read something that they’d written and then edited. I’m perfectly comfortable helping with anything from the most basic subject-verb agreement to subordinate adverbial clauses and their ilk; whether you need it for ESL, standardized tests (TOEFL, IELTS, SAT, ACT, GRE) or your English class, I can help you out!
IELTS

IELTS

I’ve taught ESL and prepared students for the TOEFL, IELTS and interviews in English - both one-on-one and in groups - for over 4 years. When I took TOEFL I nailed a 99%. Beyond this, I’ve taught English in the Mathematics Department of Moscow State University and, in order to give back to the community, currently volunteer at the LA Public Library Singleton Center as an English Teacher.
Latin

Latin

As a linguistics major, I dived into the classics, puzzling out Latin (and its rough contemporaries, Old Church Slavonic and Ancient Greek). I’ve been tutoring Latin for over 5 years now and love guiding my students through Latin grammar and tying the roots to our modern Romano-Germanic languages. Latin is both fascinating in and of itself and the key to deciphering heretofore obscure SAT/ACT/GRE/GMAT passages, unlocking a superior verbal score. Whether you need to find ablativus absolutus in the sentence or translate some Plato, I can’t wait to help you resurrect everyone’s favorite “dead” language!
Linguistics

Linguistics

I have a BA in Computational Linguistics from Moscow State University, home to renowned Linguists and Literary Critics, from Bakhtin, Dostoevsky, and Vinogradov to Jacobson, Propp, and Shakhmatov. Whatever aspect of Linguistics you need some help with, whether it’s phonetics, syntax, morphology or semantics, I’m excited to shed light on it. I’ve been tutoring people in Linguistics and Languages for over 5 years (and before that was the go-to person for helping my peers pass all the Linguistics classes I’ve ever taken - ranging from comparative, mathematical, physolinguisics, forensics, rhetorics, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, to multiple language classes). I graduated the top student in my program, and will help you achieve that level of distinction in yours!
Prealgebra

Prealgebra

From early middle school, I was always one of the top three students in math of my year - which meant that I spent most of my days helping friends and acquaintances grapple with how to understand math. I’ve tutored pre-algebra for over 5 years now and developed multiple methods of building the foundation that will stay with your son or daughter for years to come, ensuring that algebra and trig don’t present problems down the line. I help your kid to stay motivated, focused and enjoy and understand math (even if it’s not their favorite subject). I adapt my teaching methods based on the student’s needs and pace, and on the school program (whether it’s common core, homeschool, Singapore math, the Art of Problem Solving, or anything else!).
Precalculus

Precalculus

Welcome to Algebra II Version 2! Here we get a chance to deepen your understanding of what you learned last year, and fill in whatever holes were left behind. Maybe your hyperbolas look more like ellipses or there is an ellipsis in your understanding of factoring terms with nasty leading coefficients? No problem! The “big star” method of factoring will help rescue you, while my beautiful drawings will help you make short work of limits, preparing you for calculus next year! Over the last 5 years, I've tutored all the levels of math to elementary math, middle school, high school and college students (including people from Mathematics Department at Moscow State University) and found precalculus to be one of my favorites to teach since you can apply everything you’ve learned over the years of math!
Russian

Russian

I’m a native Russian speaker and a professional teacher of Russian as a Foreign Language with extensive teaching experience. Having majored in philology at Moscow State (the premier university in the country), I have an unparalleled command of the language. While living in Russia, I had the opportunity to work as a journalist, translator, proofreader and editor.
SAT Math

SAT Math

Everyone’s favorite part of high school: the SAT! Whether your son or daughter is struggling and trying to nudge their score up or is already doing great and wants to take the test-prep to the next level, I’m excited to help. I crushed the SAT when I took it and love helping people piece together the tricks of the SAT math section, ensuring that they go into the test fully equipped with right tools (did you know it’s perfectly legal to write programs for your TI-84?) ready to tackle those dastardly word problems and emerge feeling confident!
Spanish

Spanish

Languages have always been my passion, I collect them like mushrooms. I’ve studied nine and taught seven but there’s no doubt that Spanish is my favorite. It actually makes sense! It’s so fun to teach because if you can read it you can say it and vice versa, the grammar actually follows patterns, and here in LA it’s just tremendously useful. My degree is in linguistics and I’ve studied Spanish both here in LA and in Oaxaca, Mexico. I’ve been tutoring languages for over 5 years, and find it incredibly exciting to draw the parallels between different languages and help turn people into polyglots!
TOEFL

TOEFL

I’ve taught ESL and prepared students for the TOEFL, IELTS and interviews in English - both one-on-one and in groups - for over 4 years. When I took TOEFL I nailed a 99%. Beyond this, I’ve taught English in the Mathematics Department of Moscow State University and, in order to give back to the community, currently volunteer at the LA Public Library Singleton Center as an English Teacher.
Vocabulary

Vocabulary

It’s amazing what a difference having a plethora of words at your fingertips does for your comfort with the language. With a background in philology and having dived into a half dozen languages, I’ve learned the tips of tricks of how to learn vocabulary: how to keep lass, lassitude, and lassoes straight. From diving into the Greek and Latin roots of words in order to help puzzle out standardized testing to developing a comfort with business or social English, I’ll leave you feeling ready to give an eloquent toast, read James Joyce, or ace that test (be it the ACT, SAT, GRE, TOEFL or IELTS)!
Chemistry
Physics
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Response time: 47 minutes

Ratings and Reviews

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5.0 (262 ratings)
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4 star
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Reviews

Excellent tutor! Grades are improving

I feel so fortunate to work with Maria for over a year now! She is the best tutor I’ve ever had! English is not my native language, and so writing essays for my ESL and English 1 classes was just a complete disaster for me. Maria helped me tremendously: she is very knowledgeable, and pushed me to find interesting arguments for my essays and made sure grammar and sentence structure were perfect. Apart from writing essays we worked a lot on speaking, vocabulary, and grammar. She makes the conversation flow, so that it’s really interesting to talk to her - I don’t have a language barrier anymore and really feel how my English improved. She is very patient, fun, and clearly enjoys teaching. She is always really well-prepared, brings various texts, games, and vocabulary lists with her, and gives you a lot of homework if you want to work on your English at home. I’m amazed how good her English is for a non-native speaker - she is a great example that learning a new language can be fun, fast, and productive!

Anna, 9 lessons with Maria

Outstanding teacher

Maria is very thorough, she works hard to fine-tune one’s math skills. She is kind, positive, and patient. While I am sure she focuses on more advanced students, she had no problem connecting with my 7th grade son. After one lessons, my son’s skills were so improved!!

Jennifer, 1 lesson with Maria

The best Russian tutor!

Maria is not only kind and caring, but she is also extremely knowledgeable not just in her native tongue but in Linguistics in general. I am so lucky to have found her and to be her student!!

Kimmy, 36 lessons with Maria

Patient fun & helpful tutor

Maria is great my son has already made changes in school since COVID made things a little less of a social atmosphere for my son Maria is able to provide a fun and knowledgeable learning experience during these tough times. I’m excited for his growth in math and other subjects. She didn’t have to teach him English but she did that shows a lot about how much she cares about her students. I appreciate people like Maria they take pride in what they do and help people learn. I would recommend her to any close family member or friend. If you are a parent debating look at it as an investment in your kids future. Kids have so many learning styles it’s the responsibility of the parent to help their child get the right help to achieve their goals in school. Message her and see if she’s the right fit for u too! (:

Marisol, 10 lessons with Maria

Highly recommend!

Maria was very knowledgeable and she was patient in explaining. Our discussion in class was very interesting. I highly recommend Maria to everyone looking for a linguistics tutor.

Jane, 3 lessons with Maria

Patient fun & helpful tutor

Maria is great my son has already made changes in school since COVID made things a little less of a social atmosphere for my son Maria is able to provide a fun and knowledgeable learning experience during these tough times. I’m excited for his growth in math and other subjects. She didn’t have to teach him English but she did that shows a lot about how much she cares about her students. I appreciate people like Maria they take pride in what they do and help people learn. I would recommend her to any close family member or friend. If you are a parent debating look at it as an investment in your kids future. Kids have so many learning styles it’s the responsibility of the parent to help their child get the right help to achieve their goals in school. Message her and see if she’s the right fit for u too! (:

Marisol, 10 lessons with Maria

Knowledgable, nice, and wonderful tutor!

Maria was amazing, thank you so much for helping with computational linguistics! We are looking forward to continue to work with her in the future. Thanks so much for all your help Maria!

Rani, 2 lessons with Maria

GED MATH

Amazing tutor - she explains everything in a way that I understand it for the first time. I highly recommend! Maria is preparing me for GED - I will definitely use her for any other future tutoring going forward.

Natalia , 11 lessons with Maria

wonderful

She was great very helpful, highly recommend--very kind and very smart . She was reliable and taught me so many math tricks that were much needed and that I did not know.

Vasiliki, 2 lessons with Maria

Amazing multidisciplinary tutor!

Maria has assisted me in enhancing my mathematical and science skills in the matter of weeks. She is very attuned to the way people’s thought process works and is a great tutor! She is very easy to talk to and I feel like I can learn effectively from her tutoring methods.

Nathan, 17 lessons with Maria
Hourly Rate: $250
Response time: 47 minutes
Contact Maria