Frequently Asked Questions

We have several requirements, which include:
a) They must be a full time mathematics or science teacher at a well regarded, competitive school. If you are struggling with calculus, it makes sense to have someone tutor you in calculus whose job it is to teach that curriculum to students learning it for the first time.
b) They must have great evaluations from their previous students.
c) They must have attended a competitive undergraduate college or university, majored in the subject they are teaching, gone on to graduate school for that particular subject, and have an advanced degree in that subject. Many of our tutors have PhD’s, and though some parents believe this makes a teacher too intellectually detached or “too cerebral” to relate to a high school student, greater knowledge of a subject does not detract from an ability to teach that subject. Graduate education enhances and enriches one’s understanding of a discipline, which makes teaching easier!
d) Finally, we tend to like people with engaging personalities. When you are teaching vectors to a 15 year old, it’s a must! But, the personality aspect is only considered if they meet the other qualifications, first.

Within the U.S., our preferred method of payment is via ZelleQuickPay, an easy to use online transfers between almost all US banks. You may also see your bank’s website for the app or Zelle’s homepage here. We accept all major CCs except AMEX, checks made out to Warp Drive Tutors Inc, and wire transfers for international payment.

Yes of course. Our job is to help students at whatever level they find themselves develop a better understanding of the subject material. If they are flunking, we are happy they are seeking help, and are always sympathetic towards those for whom this material may not come so easily.

All meetings are recorded, and you can always request that we send you the link afterwards. As well, you will always have the ability to download ALL of the whiteboard notes onto your laptop, no matter how many pages of notes we take.

There are several whiteboard/video programs we can use, and we are familiar with just about all of them at this point. The video & whiteboard we use most frequently require only that we have your email address: you receive an email with the link for the agreed upon time with the tutor. Zoom is most popular in the US, whereas Teams and OneNote are quite popular in Europe.

iPADs are the best! We have compatibility with MAC’s and PC’s. In a pinch we can communicate on an iPhone, but the screen is a bit small for sketching diagrams and equations.

No, for two reasons. First, a statistical survey is meaningless unless you work with very large numbers. We would need data on vastly larger numbers of kids than we work with each year. Statistics do not really offer information on the smaller population sizes that we see.
Second, a statistical analysis is meaningless if we conduct it on ourselves. If a research group at a graduate program in education conducted a survey on us and published their data in what are known as referee journals, then that data would have legitimacy. But if we paid for someone to come in and conduct a statistical analysis, that study would have little validity.

“My son, Paul, found himself in AP chemistry in senior year without the proper foundation and hopelessly lost. He had taken basic chemistry as an accelerated course in the summer after freshman year and remembered nothing. Of course, this was crunch time for the college apps! Paul, by the midpoint of the first marking period, was receiving a grade of C, something he had never had before, and could really not afford now. It would have been devastating!

Well, Warp Drive to the rescue!!! Paul met with Josh online, his skills were assessed, and a schedule for online sessions was coordinated. Paul and Josh worked together to shore up the foundational knowledge, then to move forward. Josh was wonderful in accommodating Paul’s challenging schedule (he was drum captain in the marching band and on the fencing team, so not a lot of free time). With hard work from Paul and the right instruction from Josh, Paul’s C became a B+ by the release of first quarter grades. Every grade thereafter was an A (often achieving the highest exam grade in the class). Paul’s overall grade for the course was an A and he was admitted early to his first choice of college.

Paul would not have been where he is now without Warp Drive and I cannot recommend them highly enough”

No. First it is obviously not possible to guarantee someone’s performance. Second, “guarantees” are simply marketing ploys offered by many test prep firms that, when you look at the fine print, are hardly guarantees at all. What they state is that if your child’s score does not go up by a certain amount, they will give you several more sessions for free to prepare for the next test. But what kind of sense does that make? If your child did not score at the level they were hoping for when using the tutors, tests and methodologies of a particular tutoring firm, how is it to their advantage to continue working with the same group?

We do not offer referral fees or honorariums to anyone who refers students to us, nor do we accept them should we refer a student to another specialist.

It never hurts to ask. Because we all teach at very good schools, we interact with a broad swath of teachers from other disciplines. Some of our colleagues have, in the past, worked with our students in English Literature and Latin; both of those students in fact did very well. So while our specialty is in the STEM subjects, we do have a pretty extensive network of colleagues with whom we can always inquire.

There is no plan! At least, there is no “template” plan, because every child’s situation is different and the whole idea of private tutoring is to figure out how best to communicate the material to your son or daughter. The plan is to custom make a plan in a manner that works for your child!