Oliver was very focused today and we were able to get through a good bit of the material. He needs to get his times tables down pat first, and the rest will get much easier.

We had a very good first session today. I talked with Oliver about his goals and the work necessary to accomplish them. We went over all the flash cards for verbal and math that he needs to complete as soon as possible, and then began working on the basic terminology for the math section. Oliver seems committed to doing the work.

Will should be in good shape for the test. We went over the essay and how to organize his ideas. He's not the best writer, but he is in 5th grade afterall. He was very tired and had trouble motivating for the class.

Will was very focused and attentive during our session. He definitely got a little tired towards the end, but I'm very pleased by how well he was able to see the relationships between the stem words once we went over techniques on how to spot them. He clearly improved as the session progressed.

Will is a very bright and interesting kid, and really is in pretty good shape for the test. He's in 5th grade, so he's on the low end of the test, but he did very well in both the math and the reading comprehension. He's very meticulous and thinks the problems through, and more impressively, checks his answers. The one area where he's going to have trouble in the verbal section, simply because the vocabulary is well above his range. He can improve if he does the cards and practices, but this will unquestionably be his weakness (which is to be expected). I look forward to working with him.

I accidentally went an extra half hour with the class. Honestly, I think having his mom in the room kind of threw me, and in my effort to not seem like I was watching the clock, I ended up running well over. She didn't say anything either, but if she doesn't want to pay for the extra half hour, I'm fine with it. The class itself went very well. Jonothan absolutely aced his practice test. He missed no more than a total of 3 points on any section, and only missed 4 questions in the entire math section. I'm not sure what more he needs from me. Seeing as how he doesn't need math instruction, we spent the day focusing on drills for analogies, which he did very well on. I'm not sure if he needs any more sessions.

I believe the girl's name is Tolly. She is Maya's sister.

We got started on the basic vocabulary techniques today and I must say, Jack seems to be in good position for this test, especially given he's not taking it for a year. His Dad sat in on the session and I thought both of them got a lot out of it.

Cameron is ready for this test. He's been doing practice tests all week and is very confident about Saturday. Interstingly, the area he was concnerned about today was the reading comprehension, which he has not had any problems with since the beginning. So we went through the practice test and I found that when I read the passage to him, he got every question correct. I realized that he was reading the passage to quickly and not using the punctuation to emphasise the important points. I emphasized the need for him to slow down and relax. By the time we were done, he felt comfortable with the material and ready for Saturday.

Cameron has done a great job staying focused and committed over the last two months. He's in good shape for the test in terms of basic skills. He should do very well on the lower level math section, and has gotten pretty solid at the upper level material, which is beyond his skill level at this time. He's continuing to study the vocab and has improved steadily over the last couple of weeks. All he needs to do now is keep practicing until he takes the test and he should be in good shape.