Tutoring & test prep · Irvine · Live online for California families
SAT, ACT, AP, and SubjectTutoring in Irvine, CaliforniaTaught by an Engineer
Year-round tutoring and college readiness coaching for Irvine families — SAT and ACT preparation, AP math, science and computer science, core subject work, and the application arc. Students at University High School, Northwood High School, Woodbridge High School, Irvine High School, and Portola High School work directly with a UC Berkeley engineer who spent eight years building production software at Amazon and has placed 80+ students at top-20 universities.
Irvine runs several strong comprehensive highs inside one unified district — so an Irvine transcript is read against thousands of similar Irvine transcripts, and the differentiator is coherence, not another activity.
- Schools served
- University High School · Northwood High School · Woodbridge High School · Irvine High School · Portola High School
- District
- Irvine Unified School District
- Best starting point
- Sophomore spring to junior fall
What Irvine families can work with us on
One practice across the whole arc, rather than a different vendor for each problem. The study-system layer — how to direct AI tools honestly and check their output — is taught inside each subject rather than sold as a separate course.
SAT and ACT preparation
Direct instructionSmall-group cohorts and 1:1 preparation for the Digital SAT and the current ACT, built backward from a specific official test date.
Content instruction in math and verbal, full-length official-format practice tests with per-question review, a test-day plan, and the study system the student keeps for retakes. No score guarantee — variability between students is large and anyone promising a number is guessing.
Ask about thisAP math, science, and computer science
Direct instructionDirect instruction in the AP courses the founder actually teaches — Calculus AB and BC, Statistics, Physics 1 and C, and Computer Science A and Principles.
Weekly problem sessions tied to your school's own pacing, free-response practice under exam conditions, and May exam preparation. We name the courses we teach rather than claiming every AP subject.
Ask about thisOther AP and honors coursework
Study-method coachingFor AP courses outside the STEM list — history, languages, English, economics — we teach the study system rather than the subject.
The student builds their own error log, revision schedule, and verification routine for that course, and we review the work weekly. This is study-method coaching, not subject instruction, and we say so plainly: for content help in those courses your teacher or a subject specialist is the right call.
Ask about thisCore subject tutoring
Direct instructionYear-round support in middle- and high-school math through calculus, physics, and computer science.
Aimed at the course your student is actually enrolled in, using their own syllabus and assessments. Sessions are weekly and continue through the term rather than being sold as a fixed package.
Ask about thisThe study system, taught inside every subject
Study-method coachingThe layer that runs through everything above: how to direct AI tools honestly, check their output, and keep a record of your own thinking.
Students build an error log, write the instruction that turns it into practice, and run the verification step that catches a wrong answer. The files belong to the student and travel with them. No model knows or remembers your child — the student re-supplies their own record each time, which is exactly why it keeps working across courses and years. This is study-method coaching woven into the subject work, not a separate class.
Ask about thisCollege readiness coaching
Direct instructionThe application arc for sophomores and juniors — college list, timeline, activities, essays, and the testing plan inside it.
Milestone-based and founder-led, with a written plan and dates against each item. Seats are deliberately limited; we will say when we are full rather than stretch.
Ask about thisParent AI workshops
Direct instructionA working session for parents — not about your child's AI use, but about your own: the research, deadline, aid-comparison, and planning work parents actually do.
Ninety minutes, laptop optional, English or Korean. You leave having built something you will use that week. Offered in-person to community hosts across the North Shore and live online.
Ask about this
What is actually true in Irvine
Irvine Unified operates multiple comprehensive high schools — University, Northwood, Woodbridge, Irvine and Portola among them — serving one city with a famously academic culture.
That structure produces a specific reading problem: admissions readers who cover Orange County see Irvine profiles in volume, and the profiles resemble each other. Strong grades, demanding schedules, similar activity lists.
The work here is rarely adding more. It is making one application legible as one specific student — a through-line in the record, a testing plan aimed at the weaker signal, and an essay nobody else in the cohort could have written.
Read against a city of strong, similar transcripts
Counselors here do serious work across large caseloads, and no ratio supports a weekly check on execution. Families who add outside support are buying attention and differentiation — not compensating for their school. We work alongside the counselor, never around them.
What "AI-centered" actually means here
Watch the study system work — mistake, instruction, check.
This is the loop your student runs in every subject. The part most programs hide — the instruction — is the part we teach.
Study_System_Loop.md
Three files, one habit — the loop every subject here runs on
## Reading & Writing — Oct 3
- Q14: comma splice vs. period+capital.
Picked B. Right answer D.
Why: I treat "however" like "and."
Written by the student — readable by you
Using my error log, quiz me on comma splices and "however" sentences. One at a time — don’t show the answer until I commit, then make me explain WHY in one line.
How sessions run for Irvine families
Every California session is live online — small groups and 1:1, joined from home, with no freeway involved. Our first in-person rooms are opening in Illinois; we do not run a California location, and we would rather say that plainly than imply one.
August 2026 – January 2027
Live online coaching and evening parent workshops
Fall 1:1 test-prep and subject coaching timed to the autumn SAT and ACT dates, plus parent AI workshops at Pacific-friendly evening times. This is the window where California families meet the program before committing to a cohort.
Inquiries open
January – February 2027
Winter live-online cohort · February 27 ACT and March 2027 SAT
The first small-group cohort timed to a specific test date, run live online for sophomores and juniors sitting the February ACT or March SAT. Enrollment opens in the autumn; a cohort runs only when it meets a written minimum enrollment.
Enrollment opens autumn 2026
Summer 2027
Summer live-online bootcamp and AP intensives
The eight-week summer program and AP subject intensives, live online for California families. In-person rooms open in Illinois first; a California room is a decision we would make openly, not imply.
Waitlist open
Korean-language support for Irvine families
Consultations, written plans and parent progress updates are available in Korean or English. Many families here use both — one parent more comfortable in each language — and we work with both rather than routing everything through the student. Student sessions run in English, since that is the language of the exams and the application.
한인 학부모 AI 클래스 자세히 보기 →How AI is used here — and where the line is
Students build a study system they own and can read: a log of their own mistakes, the instructions they wrote for how they want to be helped, and a checklist for verifying an answer before trusting it. The system is a set of files the student keeps. It does not know your child and it does not remember them between sessions — what persists is what the student wrote down, which is exactly why it still works a year later and in a different course.
The limit belongs beside the benefit: a model can be confident and wrong, which is why verification is taught as part of the method rather than mentioned at the end of it.
Owned by the student — files, not accounts
Any AI tool
Starts from zero, every session. It does not know your child and it does not remember them — the student’s files are the continuity, which is why the system survives a tool change, a school year, and graduation.
Questions Irvine families ask
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Start with a consultation
We will look at where your student actually is, what the next twelve months should hold, and whether this is the right fit. If a local tutor or your school’s own counseling is the better answer, we will say so.