We are receiving compliments! We love you all so much! Thank you. Check out our reviews on Angie’s list, and Google and Yelp.
Here is a letter which was given to us and asked to put on the website.
2-10-2019
Both my daughters (12 and 10, 7th grade pre-algebra and 4th grade math) were very much opposed to tutoring but Chris made it fun and even got them to laugh during sessions. He’s worked to include the current curriculum they’re each studying in school as well as assist them in the areas from the basics that they each struggle with. I feel like he’s helped math be something to do rather than something they avoid. I’ve been very happy with the progress.
I also know Chris is very passionate about math and wants to make it relatable and less anxiety inducing for everyone. I feel he’s good about feeling out how my daughters are responding during sessions and eases up when he can tell they are getting too frustrated or stressed. Overall a very well rounded approach in my opinion.
Angel (Thorton, CO)
Testimonial to Mr. Billman’s Math Tutoring Skills and Services
I have a 16-year old son who just completed his sophomore year in high school. My son is a very intelligent, capable, articulate and curios young man with a surprisingly broad knowledge of many different things. He is fascinated with US and world history. He has a very astute understanding of the founding and forming of our republic, our political process and is well in tune with current events. When he watches television, he usually chooses and thoroughly enjoys documentaries and other informative educational programming (e.g. found on History, Discovery, Smithsonian, etc.) that allows him to continue his learning and to further expand his mind.
Although my son has always been and is still very eager to learn new thing, there is one area where he has always had challenges—and that is math. Ever since my son’s earliest days in elementary school, it was quite evident that math was not his favorite subject. He seemed to have an innate aversion to anything related to the calculation and/or manipulation of numbers. As much as his teachers worked with him at school and my wife and I worked with him at home, it was as if he erected a subconscious wall in his mind that he could not do math and that he was no longer even going to try to do math. I still remember the random episodes of frustration with my son pleading and saying “I can’t do it…I can’t do it” back in the very early days of elementary school. Throughout elementary school, we continued to help and encourage our son with math. We explained to him the importance of math and that math is unique in that what you learn in each successive grade builds upon what you have already learned (or should have already learned) in the preceding grades. We were hopeful that a light switch would eventually turn on in his head and that he would start grasping and begin to accel at math. Unfortunately, this was not to be. For the remainder of elementary school, we were never really able to tear down that subconscious wall between our son and math, which unfortunately resulted in lack-luster math grades all throughout elementary school. Probably more importantly and more concerning to us is that he was falling way behind in regards to having a solid understanding of the required concepts and fundamental building blocks of math that he would need to take with him into middle school.
During middle school, our son’s math struggles continued—which unfortunately was not a surprise to us. We arranged math tutoring for him (NOT with Mr. Billman) that he attended in both 7th and 8th grades. As he was getting older now and becoming more mature, we had some heart-to-heart talks with him. We explained to him that in middle school, math is even more challenging and that he really needed to focus both in class and with his tutor and put forth his best effort to improve his math skills. We emphasized with him that once high school rolls around, math will get even more complex with each successive year in high school. We tried to convey to him that it all gets very real and everything counts in high school from an academic perspective–which will have an impact on his future. Throughout middle school, with the math tutor and with our continuous encouragement, it was obvious that the wall was still there and that he was more or less just going through the motions—still convinced in his mind that he cannot and will never be able to do math.
High school finally rolled around and our son came face-to-face with Algebra I in his freshman year. Needless to say, without having built a solid foundation in math skills in the prior years, He was ill equipped to confront Algebra I. In the 1st semester of Algebra I, he achieved a failing grade of “F”. In the 2nd semester of Algebra I, he managed to barely squeak by with a “D”. He attended summer school after his freshman year to retake the 1st semester of Algebra I, which he had failed. Although we had high hopes as this was his second look at the 1st semester of Algebra I (albeit a much more compressed look), he was only able to complete summer school with a “D”. This resulted in an overall “D” for Algebra I for his freshman year.
My son’s sophomore year rolled around and now he had Geometry next. We were somewhat relieved at the beginning of his sophomore year from a math perspective as we expected that Geometry might be easier for him to understand as it is more visual. Once we started seeing similar poor Geometry grades coming in during the 1st semester, we were practically at our wits end. After asking some questions, we quickly learned that his Geometry class was actually an Algebra based Geometry class. As a result of his weak understanding of Algebra I from his freshman year, he was now also in deep trouble in his Algebra based Geometry class as well. After struggling through the 1st semester of Algebra based Geometry, he unfortunately achieved a failing grade of “F”. At this point, we knew that we had to do something to help him going into the 2nd semester of Algebra based Geometry—we needed to find another tutor…and quick.
We were extremely fortunate to receive the name of a highly recommended tutor by the name of Mr. Chris Billman. I first called and had a brief telephone conversation with Mr. Billman to discuss my son’s math situation, Mr. Billman’s background and his services/fees. I immediately had a positive impression of Mr. Billman after that very first telephone conversation. Mr. Billman immediately followed-up our telephone conversation with an e-mail to me going into much more detail regarding his background, his academic and math credentials and his initial plan of action on how he could help my son. After thinking about my telephone conversation with Mr. Billman, reading his e-mail and with Mr. Billman being highly recommended to us, we decided to move forward with Mr. Billman’s math tutoring services.
In late November 2017, we arranged a first visit with Mr. Billman to our home in order that he could perform an initial assessment of my son’s current math skills and capabilities. At this time when Mr. Billman officially started tutoring my son, my son’s grade on his last Algebra based Geometry test was a 34%. Mr. Billman’s assessment confirmed that my son was lacking the basic math concepts and fundamentals building blocks that he should have learned years prior and that he was completely and utterly lost in his current Algebra based Geometry class. Mr. Billman was very frank and direct and informed us that there was an immense amount of work to do in order for my son to get caught up to where he needs to be. Given how far behind my son was, Mr. Billman was honest with us and indicated that being able getting my son completely caught up in a single semester where he is able to achieve an “A” or even possibly a “B” in for the 2nd semester of Algebra based Geometry is probably not realistic and should not be an expectation at this juncture. That said, we all agreed to be committed, to work as hard as we can and to make as much progress as we can going into the 2nd semester of Algebra based Geometry.
Mr. Billman and my son went to work with Mr. Billman performing some of the tutoring sessions face-to-face in our home and some of the tutoring sessions via Skype video. During the Skype video tutoring sessions, Mr. Billman had a whiteboard on his side that he used as part of his instruction and this worked out very well. My son would also take photos of his completed Algebra based Geometry homework and test results and text them to Mr. Billman so that the two of them could review his mistakes/errors in the next tutoring session. Although it sometimes varied due to schedules on both sides, Mr. Billman and my son had on average 3 to 4 tutoring sessions per week. As the Skype video tutoring sessions were proving to be as effective as the face-to-face tutoring sessions, we decided to just use the Skype video tutoring sessions in the latter part of the 2nd semester of Algebra based Geometry. Mr. Billman was always very open from a scheduling perspective and even offered up tutoring sessions on Saturdays and Sundays as well—if we felt that we needed them.
The more that Mr. Billman worked with my son, the more that Mr. Billman was able to understand how my son’s mind works and how my son sees and approaches math. As Mr. Billman is extremely friendly, personable, patient, welcoming and is able to explain complex math problems in a more simplistic and easier-to-understand manner, my son took to him in very short order and was open and willing to being tutored and to accept Mr. Billman’s help. Mr. Billman was uniquely able to connect with my son, get into his head, identify his weaknesses regarding math and then modify his tutoring approach accordingly. As my son was achieving poorer results on his actual Algebra based Geometry tests as compared to the results that he was achieving with Mr. Billman during the tutoring sessions, Mr. Billman identified that my son was also experiencing some “test anxiety” issues. As a result, Mr. Billman provided my son some valuable coaching and guidance on how to approach and take math tests.
As the 2nd semester progressed, my son’s grades on his Algebra based Geometry homework and tests gradually began to show improvement. As the end of the 2nd semester of Algebra based Geometry was fast approaching and we were getting into the final stretch, Mr. Billman offered to increase the number of tutoring sessions per week in a final push to be as prepared as possible for the remaining tests and the final exam. On the last Geometry test prior to the final exam, my son scored a 73%. During the final week prior to the final exam, the Skype video tutoring sessions were in high gear. My son walked away from his Algebra based Geometry final exam with a score of 72% and an overall grade of “C” for the 2nd semester of Algebra based Geometry.
The above is undoubtedly a testimonial to both Mr. Billman’s capabilities as a math tutor and also to my son’s dedication and hard work during this 2nd semester of Algebra based Geometry. Mr. Billman’s math background and credentials combined with his friendly, personable, patient and welcoming demeanor enabled him to connect with my son and to break down the subconscious math wall that my son had erected ever since the very early days of elementary school. Given all of my son’s math struggles going all the way back to elementary school, his resultant grades with Algebra I in his freshman year and his subsequent failing grade of “F” in the 1st semester of Algebra based Geometry in this sophomore year; for him to obtain an overall grade of “C” for the 2nd semester of Algebra based Geometry is an unbelievably huge improvement and an outstanding achievement.
We are extremely thankful to Mr. Billman for his math tutoring services and we will not hesitate to request his math tutoring services again. As we do not believe that our son is completely out of the woods yet when it comes to math and with Algebra II coming next in his junior year, we expect to request that Mr. Billman work with our son again in the coming school year.
We highly and unequivocally recommend Mr. Billman and his math tutoring services to any parent who has a son or daughter who is struggling with and/or has completely surrendered to math and needs additional help outside of what their school is able to provide.
Sincerely,
Robert Jones
Highlands Ranch, CO – Fall 2017
August 1, 2023
Could you please add this to your own webpage instead of yelp or google? Thank you!
Dear Christopher,
I hope you and your family are doing well. It’s been a while since I last got in touch, so I wanted to give you an update on G. We’re really proud of him and most importantly, I think he is proud of himself.
am pretty sure if he had continued working with you, he would have passed math, but he didn’t know how to fit in tutoring with his school and work schedule changing every few weeks. And he thought translating the Dutch would take too long and would be too frustrating.
He learned as much from his failures as he did from his successes. When his school insisted he would need a further two years of study, he looked creatively at the school’s requirements and devised an alternative plan that still allowed the possibility of graduating in a year. He met with the dean and advocated for his proposal. The school board committee accepted his plan. All of this he did on his own initiative.
Anyways, I just wanted to touch base and thank you for helping G have so much faith in himself and the confidence to keep trying. While some of his classmates dropped math forever, he plans to take double math and economics classes next year. He will study Grade 11 math and economics at school and enroll in the distance learning program for the Grade 12 classes and exams. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we find a Dutch tutor who is as wonderful as you have been.
I wanted to share his story with you because you made a difference in his life. The school offered to enroll him in an easier math program or to switch him to a high school diploma that didn’t require any further math studies. But G believes math should be part of his education and doesn’t want to give up. I think working with you over the last couple of years helped him sustain his love for math and his belief that math is worth the effort even when it is difficult.