Our friends at Behavioral Psych Studio are full of treasured insights and helpful recommendations and their latest post on social media consumption is perfect for this time. Our children on looking at screens more than ever right now and it’s important to get a grasp on their social media usage. Something that’s crucial though, which author Laura Miller, LMSW points out, is that in addition to monitoring their social media usage, it’s important to model behavior and trust your kids.
Talking Test Prep with Hemal Pathak
For 10 years, Hemal Pathak has been one of Intelligentsia’s most trusted tutors. In addition to being an oft relied-upon math and science subject tutor, Hemal is one of our test prep maestros. In fact, he’s become so adept at preparing students for standardized tests, he’s started working on his very own online test prep platform. He’s calling it Cyngulum and we had a chance to chat with him about this exciting development before it’s released to the world.
Intelligentsia: You’re building an online test prep platform, Cyngulum. What are you focusing on as you develop it?
Hemal Pathak: I'm focusing on standardized testing in science - mainly Biology and Chemistry for now. The approach is to combine the recall effect, spacing, and scaffolding to help students retain information over longer periods. Another key aspect is learning to use online resources and searches to answer questions. In other words, to apply Google’d facts to a problem or question rather than just copying an answer. The content is at the level of Regents tests and SAT Subject Tests.
For the uninitiated, can you define the terms “recall effect,” “spacing,” and “scaffolding” in the context of test prep?
The “recall effect” is a well-documented relationship between recall and the transfer of information from short term to long term memory. Essentially, research has shown that answering certain kinds of test questions actually produces a long term memory for that content. There's some evidence as well for transfer of those retained ideas to new problem types and even to as yet unstudied material in the same subject.
“Spacing” refers to improved retention when content is studied and in a way that produces a delay between study sessions. The platform forces students to work through a practice test and then repeat it after a delay or space between study sessions.
“Scaffolding” involves taking a complicated idea or skill and breaking it down so that there's room for explanation at intermediate steps. It involves making problem-solving an assisted process so that students are not overwhelmed by complexity and gradually learn to figure things out on their own with less and less help.
Those ideas are simple to understand when broken down, but they seem based on some fairly complex science. I know you hold a PhD in neuroscience—has that expertise factored into the platform development?
Yeah, very much so. I tried to focus on ideas in learning that are supported by cognitive neuroscience studies - controlled studies with at least some support from fMRI data in humans and more detailed work at the level of genes and proteins in mice or other organisms. In my view at least, the more evolutionarily conserved a mechanism is and the more evidence there is at the cellular and molecular level, the more likely it might work out to be correct. Overall, that kind of thing - relating neuroscience data to actual learning - is really hard to know with any certainty, but it looks like there's some good support for it thus far.
Was this concept brewing for a while or did it come to you spontaneously?
I think it was brewing for a while. I kind of noticed that I remembered things really well after having practiced with multiple-choice tests. I assumed it was an approach I'd invented, but it turned out there's a massive amount of research in that field going back decades. I had played around with various versions of it for a few years and decided to focus on it more in the past year. Some of the things like scaffolding came up when I was in Ed school through the New York City Teaching Fellows
That's right, you were previously a teacher in NYC. Where and what did you teach?
I taught Biology and Neuroscience at Stuyvesant High School.
How long have you been helping students prepare for standardized tests?
I've tutored on and off for a long time, but I'd say about 12 years at near full-time.
Where do existing test prep platforms fall short and what will yours do better?
I don't think they combine the ideas in quite the same way or leverage online searches to help in problem-solving in the same way. I also have the advantage of having developed the materials with actual students over the past 10 years or so. I think the content we provide is better tuned to common pitfalls in student thinking and offers support in areas in which students seem to need it the most.
What are some of the pitfalls you see most often?
I view that as specific to the content. There are key hurdles in getting to the point where a student can connect the properties of water to transpiration in plants or osmosis across cell membranes. You can weight the number of questions and the extent of the scaffolding based on knowledge of which "intellectual hurdles" are the highest for most students.
Will the platform automatically adapt its content to address those intellectual hurdles?
No, [though] that's something I'm still considering. Right now I'm leaning towards the presentation of the content in a specific order as being more important.
Why is that?
Part of the reason for favoring order is that the ideas are presented as clues leading to future ideas. Adaptive models end up shuffling what's presented in a way that makes it hard to produce that feeling of insight that I'm aiming for as a student goes through the subcategories within a subject.
Do you envision this platform being used alongside other support, or as a replacement for existing methods?
I see it being used alongside other tools. Some ways it has proven useful are to prevent summer learning loss or to provide additional homework assignments during the school year.
What’s behind the name Cyngulum?
It’s a reference to an area in the brain that uses testing to transfer information from short term to long term memory...the cingulate gyrus.
Care to shoutout an educator who made a difference in your life?
The most relevant one for this would be Mr. Keller, my 7th-grade bio teacher. All of his test prep was in the form of practice questions.
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Want to test prep with Hemal? No need to wait for the release of Cyngulum. In addition to one-on-one tutoring, he’s teaching our small-group test prep classes this fall, focusing on the spring/summer 2021 SAT and ACT exams. Contact us today to learn more.
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Hemal Pathak holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania, having studied the biophysics of chloride channel activity in acquired temporal lobe epilepsy. As a tutor, he has helped students in all levels of math and science classes, as well as for all parts of the ACT & SAT. He regularly helps students achieve their highest scores on all math and science AP & SAT subject tests.
New Offerings: Fall 2020
College Application Critique
Have a member of our college application team review your completed application, providing written feedback on everything from essays to resumes to the common app preview, before pressing submit. With three different offerings available, this service is ideal for a student who is almost at the finish line but wants an expert to ensure they're putting their best foot forward. Critiques start at $240.
Small-Group Test Prep Courses
Whether you join a class or bring your own pod, our small-group test prep courses consist of only 5-8 students to allow for focused group study and individual instructor attention. Held remotely or in-person (outside, weather permitting), our courses are geared towards beginners looking to take the Spring or Summer 2021 SAT or ACT. Students will complete a basic assessment prior to the start of class so that classwork and homework can be tailored to student needs. Homework will be provided online in the form of pdf files and online assessments. Assignments will include realistic test questions and eight full-length authentic tests.
Classes will meet for 90 minutes, twice a week, for 24 weeks. Price: $3,800
Payments plans available as well as discounts if you bring your pod to us. Need to prep for another test? We can put together classes for ISEE, SHSAT, SSAT, and more. Just let us know.
Remote Education Managers
Unlike traditional subject tutors, our remote educator managers (REMs) focus solely on time management and executive functioning support—two of the major obstacles families face when it comes to remote learning. REMs will oversee your student’s daily time management, assignment tracking, teacher communication, and technological assistance needs. They’ll check-in strategically throughout the day or week to ensure learning stays efficient and on track while allowing you to focus on your own work. Contact for pricing.
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To discuss any of these offerings, please contact Annie Sullivan at (347) 334-2751 or click here to email.
Is Remote Tutoring Effective?
The education landscape has changed dramatically since March, with schools around the world moving their classrooms online. Many parents, students, and media outlets have reported that the transition has been...less than ideal.
Moving a traditional classroom to video conferencing platforms seems to have been more challenging than initially thought, which is understandable. New tools, techniques, and lessons will need to be explored before schools come back for the fall. But one thing that has transitioned fairly seamlessly from before-times is one-on-one tutoring.
We recently talked with several of our top tutors to get a handle on how remote tutoring was going and, to our delight, we found that it’s been all-around very similar. In fact, they’ve shared that it’s just as effective, if not more so.
Tutoring over video is so similar because it’s still one-on-one, the same setup and design as in-person tutoring. The many-to-one model of a classroom does not translate nearly as well over video platforms for a number of reasons. Students get distracted easily, teachers cannot necessarily see all students in their view, or there are unaddressed challenges in the student’s home-learning environment. With a personal, one-on-one setup, tutors are able to account for those weaknesses and help students get set up for academic success.
Plus, there is an executive functioning skill that arises organically when students are required to log on at a certain time to meet with their tutor. They show up ready to learn with less time being used at the top of the lesson for the tutor and student to get settled in.
Part of why we’ve been so confident in this transition to remote tutoring is that many of our tutors have worked with remote clients for years, especially boarding school students. Still, many parents may be wondering: how exactly does it work?
For most STEM subjects, we get a little creative. Some tutors draw on a tablet and share their screens, allowing students to annotate remotely, while others use a physical whiteboard and marker on their end, verbally working through problems and confirming answers. Think of a teacher using a blackboard and a single student who can easily jump to collaborate.
With humanities, shared online documents allow tutors to virtually work side-by-side with students, reviewing, suggesting, and correcting all in real-time.
Standardized test prep? Almost exactly the same. Test prep has often functioned as a process of independent student work own followed by sessions with their tutor to review. Whether sharing screens, collaborating on Google Docs, or reviewing Test Innovators practice tests together, the process is very nearly the same now.
In general, one unexpected positive of tutoring remotely is that students have to assume more ownership over note-taking and additional annotation. Our students are given more agency and that translates to more investment in their own learning.
Of course, not everything is as it was. Navigating behavioral issues and refocusing students can be a challenge when you’re not in the room. This is why working on executive functioning and having a supportive learning environment are particularly important right now.
There are challenges to tutor-student bonding as well, something which only occurs over extended periods of time spent working together. We’re still learning and improving on that front and we’ll report back when we have a larger body of experience matching new remote tutors to new remote students.
All-in-all, we’re encouraged by the first phase of full-time remote tutoring. Aided by past experiences and ever-evolving video tools, our tutors have found ways to continue building strong academic foundations and developing intellectual minds.
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Interested to see how we can help your student? Contact us today.
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Special thanks to Claire, Hemel, and Lori for their input on this Insight.
