KHOI
LUU: teacher, editor, fiction writer, poet, entrepreneur
o Harvard Graduate, Cum Laude
o National Merit Scholarship Winner. One of 1,800 winners out of 1.2 million students nationwide
o Winner of the Harvard National Scholarship, a merit-based award given every year to the top 5 to 8% of accepted students.
o Students I’ve tutored for the SAT/ACTs have been accepted to Georgetown, Yale, Boston College, CUNY Honors Program, Villanova, Harvard, Princeton, Penn, University of London, and many others.
o Since 2002, 50 of my students have been awarded the National Merit Scholarship, or have been named Finalist, Semifinalist, or Commended Scholars.
o I scored in the highest possible percentile (99%): on the SATs (both Math and Verbal: equivalent to today’s perfect SAT score of 1,600 / 2,400); on the GREs (both Math and Verbal); and on the LSATs.
o Published fiction writer. One of 15 winners of "Best New American Voices 2003"—one of the most prestigious writing competitions in North America. (Guest judge for 2003: Joyce Carol Oates)
o Has written a 500-page book of lessons and problem sets
o o Has access to hundreds of real, previously administered SATs, ACTs, PSATs, SAT Subject Tests, AP Exams, GREs, and others
o Teaches students to solve problems using two to four different methods—so they can choose their best learning style(s)
OTHER QUALIFICATIONS
Relevant to Admissions Essay Editing
o Short stories and essays have been published in a handful of literary magazines and fiction anthologies, including "Best New American Voices: Fiction by Today's Most Original and Innovative New Writers." (Guest Judge/Editor: Joyce Carol Oates) and “Not A War: American Vietnamese Fiction, Poetry, and Essays” (Yale University Press: 1997)
o Personal essays have been taught in literature and American Studies classes at a dozen universities, including Yale, Matsuyama University (Japan), and UPenn.
o Invited to Yaddo, one of the world's most prestigious and most selective art colonies.
o Co-editor “Watermark: Vietnamese-American Poetry & Prose” (Asian American Writers Workshop, 1998).
Relevant to Test Prep
· I’m intellectually well-rounded and feel comfortable teaching all aspects of the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, SAT subject tests in Math Level 2 and Literature, AP Literature & AP Language exams.
· In high school I placed near the top at several state math competitions. And I was invited to take the A.I.M.E.—the American Invitational Math Exam, the stepping-stone to qualifying for the U.S. Math Olympiad Team. Although as an adult, I work as a fiction writer, I feel perfectly comfortable teaching the SAT Subject tests in Math (Level 1 and 2).
· I teach math using both classical, formal methods in addition to innovative calculator strategies that help students solve the hardest problems much more quickly and efficiently.
· I’m comfortable advising students with long-range career planning as well. When I was 17, I was accepted to medical school: Northwestern University’s HPME: the (7-year) Honors Program in Pre-medical Education. I’ve also been accepted to a handful of Ivy League Law Schools. I turned down both medical and law school to pursue my true passions: teaching and writing.
· When I turned 27, I reached an epiphany: I love teaching. My former students will tell you that during a typical tutoring session we often laugh continuously. I love helping students realize that standardized tests can be fun. (All right: Maybe “fun” is a stretch.) Let’s try again: I love helping students see that standardized tests are not as intimidating as they seem. I strive to teach with a combination of creativity, humility, humor, and compassion. Most important—and perhaps most surprising—I strive to remind students that standardized tests are not the only measure of intelligence. I am very candid in sharing with my students that I struggle daily to write one good page of fiction—just one page that I’m proud of. I tell them that I have chosen to pursue the art of literary fiction and that I am an unknown in the field, someone without a completed book, but I get immense happiness out of the art of creation—which includes curriculum planning, tailoring my teaching strategies to fit the individual student, and nurturing students.
· I have chosen happiness over everything else in life. I strive to treat everyone equally: with compassion, open-mindedness, and fairness. I do not judge people based on their standardized test scores, their college degrees, their occupations, their incomes, etc. In addition to math, reading, grammar, and critical thinking skills, I try to convey these more important life lessons to my students as well.