Nobody is bad at math. They just missed a step.
One-on-one high school mathematics tutoring in New York City and Long Island. Algebra, Geometry, Regents preparation, AP Calculus, and SAT Math, taught by New York State certified mathematics teachers with decades of public school classroom experience.
What we work on
Most students arrive somewhere in the Algebra I to Algebra II sequence, with a Regents exam on the calendar. That is the core of this practice. Younger and older students are welcome too.
High school and Regents
The three courses every New York student has to pass, plus the exam attached to each one. Sessions cover current coursework first, then shift toward exam preparation as June or January approaches.
- Algebra I and the Algebra I Regents
- Geometry and the Geometry Regents
- Algebra II and the Algebra II Regents
- Trigonometry and Precalculus
Advanced and college entry
For students heading into a scoring exam or a college credit course, where pacing and question strategy matter as much as the mathematics itself.
- AP Precalculus
- AP Calculus AB and BC
- AP Statistics
- SAT and ACT mathematics
- College Algebra, Trigonometry, Elementary Statistics
Getting ready for Algebra I
Grades 6 through 8. The point here is not to stay ahead of this week's homework, it is to arrive in ninth grade without the gaps that make Algebra I feel impossible.
- Fractions, ratios, and proportional reasoning
- Integers and the coordinate plane
- Solving and graphing linear equations
- NYS grades 6–8 mathematics assessments
Who you are actually hiring
MathGains coaches hold New York State certification in Mathematics 7–12 and have taught Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry in New York City public high schools — not as a side job, as a career. Several have taught College Algebra, Trigonometry, and Elementary Statistics at the college level as well, which means a student working toward AP Calculus is being taught by someone who knows what waits on the other side of it.
Coaching here draws on school leadership experience, including supervising mathematics departments and running monthly Regents item analysis. That work is about watching instruction closely and figuring out why a lesson landed for some students and not others. It is also how you learn which questions students actually lose points on, and how to tell the difference between a student who cannot do the mathematics and a student who can do it but freezes on the exam.
We coach adults as well as teenagers. Teaching a fifteen year old and teaching a returning college student are different disciplines — pedagogy and andragogy — and treating them the same is why a lot of tutoring fails. Our approach is grounded in doctoral training in educational psychology and quantitative methods, which is a formal way of saying we would rather measure whether something worked than assume it did.
- 100%
- Of students start with a diagnostic session, not a worksheet. We find where the gap actually begins before teaching anything.
- 100%
- Of families receive a written plan after the first session: what the student can already do, what is missing, and the order we will fix it in.
- 10+
- Years of classroom experience teaching the exact courses we tutor, per coach
- 7–12
- New York State professional certification in mathematics, held by every coach
We do not promise a passing score. No honest tutor can. What we promise is that progress gets measured against real released exam questions, and that you hear about it plainly either way.
How sessions work
In person is the default. Mathematics is easier to teach when a coach can watch a student's hand while they work and stop them at the exact moment they go wrong, instead of after they have written six lines. Online is available and works well, but we suggest in person first when geography allows.
Tell me what is going on
Call, or send the form below. What course, what is due, what the last grade looked like, and what you think the problem is. That last part is usually the most useful thing a parent tells us.
A first session that is mostly diagnostic
The coach gives the student problems and watches how they work. Gaps in high school mathematics almost never start in the current course, and finding where they actually start saves months.
A plan you can see
You get a short written summary: what the student can already do, what is missing, and the order we plan to fix it in. If a Regents or AP date is coming, the plan is built backward from that date.
Regular sessions, with checkpoints
Usually weekly, more often as an exam approaches. We check periodically against real released exam questions rather than trusting that things feel better, and we tell you plainly if progress has stalled.
Know the date. Work backward from it.
Regents dates are set by New York State, published a year ahead, and they do not move. That makes them the one deadline in a student’s year you can actually plan against — which is the whole argument for starting earlier than feels necessary.
January 2027
- Algebra I — Wednesday, January 27, 1:15 p.m.
- Geometry — Thursday, January 28, 1:15 p.m.
- Algebra II — Friday, January 29, 9:15 a.m.
June 2027
- Algebra I — Wednesday, June 16, 1:15 p.m.
- Algebra II — Thursday, June 17, 1:15 p.m.
- Geometry — Tuesday, June 22, 1:15 p.m.
Six to eight weeks of preparation is comfortable. Four is workable. Two is triage. The exam tests skills that were supposed to be built months earlier, and those gaps do not close in a fortnight of review — which is why the students who do best are the ones whose parents called in October, not May.
Start before the calendar forces you toDates are from the New York State Education Department examination schedule. Confirm report times with your school.
Questions parents ask
What does it cost?
Rates depend on the course, the session length, and whether we meet in person or online. Call or send the form and you will get a straight number the same day, along with an honest opinion about how many sessions the situation actually calls for.
Where do you tutor in person?
Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and western Nassau County, either at your home or at a public library. Outside that radius, online sessions work well and there is no travel time to pay for.
My child says they are bad at math. Is it too late?
Across a combined few decades of classroom teaching, we have never met a student who was bad at mathematics. We have met a great many students who missed something in seventh grade, were moved along anyway, and concluded the problem was them. That is a repairable situation, and the repair usually starts further back in the sequence than anyone expects.
How far in advance should we start before a Regents exam?
For a student who is passing the course but nervous about the exam, six to eight weeks is comfortable. For a student who is failing the course, start now. Cramming works for vocabulary and does not work for mathematics, because the June exam tests skills that were supposed to be built in October.
Do you tutor students from your own school?
No. Our coaches work in New York City public schools, and none of us tutors students enrolled at a school where we teach or hold a supervisory role. That line is not negotiable, and we would rather state it plainly than have you wonder.
Do you work with college students and adults?
Yes. College Algebra, Trigonometry, and introductory Statistics, including adults returning to school after time away. Our coaches have taught these courses at the college level, and adult learners get a genuinely different approach than teenagers do.
Book a first session
Tell us a little about the student. Every message is answered by a coach, usually within a day.