This is a letter of reference for Daniel Herzberg, personal academic tutor for seven years to all three of our daughters for SAT I, SAT II, and LSAT examinations.

Daniel has been thoroughly professional in all of his dealings with our daughters and our family as a whole, not only in providing excellent subject tutoring in verbal and quantitative achievement as well as reasoning skills but also in providing superb testing advice and very practical college counseling.

All three of our daughters have been able to assimilate his subject tutoring and apply his insights and test-taking strategies to improve College Board test scores. Because of this preparation, each daughter has been successful in application to some of the best schools in the nations, with all three daughters’ admissions in Honors at Entrance to the University of California. The two elder daughters have also been admitted with Honors at Entrance in two of the prestigious Women’s Ivy League Seven Sisters Colleges, Bryn Mawr and Mount Holyoke respectively, with our high school senior Beatrice’s admission pending at another prestigious Women’s Ivy League College and other top universities.

Hilary graduated with a double B.A., Honors in both majors, from Bryn Mawr College, and is in graduate schools now where she recently completed her M.A. degree and is now a Ph.D. student at the Warburg Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of London. Allegra is a sophomore at Mount Holyoke College after winning a Freshman English Composition Prize there in her freshman year. We feel justified in claiming that Daniel Herzberg’s subject tutorials, testing counseling and overall college preparation is in part responsible for our daughters’ academic success. We believe his tutorial fees are reasonable and worth every dollar spent.

Thus we recommend Daniel Herzberg’s tutorial program most enthusiastically

This letter is to thank you for the time you have spent with my son over the past year. Prior to his sophomore year in high school he had neither received a C nor had a tutor. With his first C we met his first tutor; and how lucky we were that it was you! I remember calling you in a state of alarm one Saturday morning and you were able to come straight to my house the following day. By the end of this very first session, which lasted only two hours, my son’s comprehension of Chemistry had made a 180 degree turnaround. When you left that first night he said to me, “that Daniel is a genius!”

His understanding and grade improved significantly over the course of the year. Most gratifying to me was watching him teach his other friends after he had a firm grip on the concept from spending a session with you. Equally satisfactory to us was your respecting my son’s perception of his need for time with you. I believe he learned not only chemistry this past year but time management, study habits, and assertiveness skills. Empowering him to make the decision combined with your availability and quick responses to our irregular calls of need made this a most cost-effective and efficient approach for us.

We have and will not hesitate to recommend you to parents in the future. We are grateful to have met you and are so happy to know that you are there for our future needs… SAT and college preparatory needs for our high school student as well as a resource for our middle-schooler as he moves into high school.

Please do not hesitate to have other parents call me to discuss the advantages of using your tutoring services.

Thank you again for tutoring our son Yoav in preparation for the college testing and essay portion of his college application process. There is no doubt that your SAT I and SAT II prep courses, as well as your individualized tutoring, helped Yoav achieve the scores he received. The prep courses utilized appropriate and up to date books and materials, the length and timing of the classes were realistic given the time constraints teens face, and finally the applicable information and test-taking techniques that you taught instilled the confidence necessary for Yoav to perform well on the tests. We also appreciate your instruction and guidance to Yoav in writing his personal essays.

Your approach of talking with and relating to the student, having them create a diagram of thoughts and ideas, working and reworking the rough draft, not only produced an authentic essay but created the chance for our son to be introspective about himself, his life and where he sees himself going from here. In the process, he also gained the confidence of writing a quality essay. The combination of high test scores and well-written essays greatly contributed to the high acceptance rate from colleges to which Yoav applied. In closing, Yoav was granted acceptance to 14 of the 15 schools he applied: CSU Monterey Bay, CSU Chico, CSU Humboldt, CSU Sonoma, CSU San Diego, CSU Cal Poly SLO, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, University of Santa Clara, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Davis.

As Yoav’s parent, I am so happy that he is in a position with so many choices as he embarks on the next, exciting stage of his life.

We look forward to our daughter and younger son working with you in the future.

Sincerely,

I just wanted to write to you and tell you what a difference you have made for Elliot. I believe he feels different about himself because of the time he has spent with you. The tutoring helped him with his school work, but also, he was so determined to become a better printer and writer. If he never met you, he wouldn’t be able to handwrite a note or anything. Freshman year was so tough on Elliot, and you really helped him pull it all together, and for that, I thank you, and Roger thanks you, and Elliot thanks you!

I sought Mr. Daniel Herzberg’s tutorial services because my son, Seth, needed help in preparing for the SAT I. A Burlingame High School newsletter advertised his local program to be started in the summer 2002, and carry over in the fall. Seth had been a learning disabled student (with a diagnosis of PDD = pervasive developmental disorder) which enabled him RSP services in school, which included extended time with in-class tests and standardized tests. As a result, I needed a teacher who could understand his learning needs, as well as his socio-emotional needs to be successful in his studies. After discussion with Mr. Herzberg about these issues and the best way to teach him, Daniel was quickly able to assess the situation and spent the extra quality time to get to know Seth. He took the summer prep course, which was conveniently at the Burlingame High School. It was also co-chaired by Mr. Skrable, who Seth had as a teacher in Pre-Calculus. It was comforting to know he would have familiarity with teachers who knew his learning style and could accommodate accordingly.

In the fall, Seth continued his SAT I studies, but it became apparent hat he was in need of academic assistance in Pre-Calculus and US History. Here again, Mr. Herzberg offered his services to help tutor in these areas of difficulty because of his auditory processing deficits. He used visual techniques to help in his understanding of abstract concepts. He acted as a liaison in Seth’s IEP meeting to help guide the teachers, including Mr. Skrable, to better help Seth gain confidence in both note-taking the significant ideas and understanding the material. That semester, although he did drop his GPA from a 4.0, he managed to pass math (Pre-Calculus) with a C and a B+ in History, which otherwise might have been a failure or a dropped course. Although Seth’s congenital deficits prevent him from doing well on the verbal SATs (350) or ACTs (9/16 ), he was able to go up in his math skills on the ACT (27=highly selective), 520 (SAT), 560 SAT I math. His GPA however is 3.86, a personal accomplishment after much hard work to overcome these academic obstacles, given his disabilities.

Mr. Herzberg has an aggressive teaching style that is both beneficial and supportive. He really cares about each individual student and puts 100% of effort into his tutorials. He treats each student differently based on their individual needs, and can tutor a disabled student as well as the Ivy-League oriented one. Even after Seth had moved on to individual tutoring after this time, Dan took the time to make follow-up calls and offer his review services anytime. I would highly recommend his tutorial services for SAT I, II, and subject tutorials in many fields needed.

Mr. Daniel Herzberg was employed as a tutor for my son Griffin Meyers. Griffin is a 15 year old freshman in high school having trouble in Biology (D) and Geometry (F). Upon deciding to seek professional tutorial assistance, Mr. Herzberg’s name was selected at random from the files of the high school counselor.

Mr. Herzberg immediately recognized the need for Griffin to improve his organizational skills. An entire session was dedicated to understanding the importance of organizational skills, as well as listing required purchased items necessary for maintaining those skills.

Mr. Herzberg then employed a very logical and methodical approach in overcoming Griffin’s learning deficiencies. They started from the beginning in each subject working through old homework assignments, previously given tests, and outlining a way to “stay ahead” instead of “fall behind.”

Although limited in time due to Mr. Herzberg’s need to depart Michigan (approximately three weeks), the results were more than satisfactory. Our son’s level of confidence, self-worth, and specific subject understanding has all been greatly enhanced. The money I spent, as represented by Mr. Herzberg’s tutorial fee, has probably been the highest rate of return on investment I have made so far this year.

In my son’s geometry test he scored an A minus. He has also progressed from a D in Biology to a high C (78%; almost a B). These results were realized in the first three weeks after the tutorial sessions. I have mentioned the overall improvement in my son’s self-esteem, but it should also be noted that parental worries regarding our son’s education and in essence his future, have greatly diminished.

The inclusion of Mr. Herzberg into my son’s educational future has been extremely beneficial. I would not hesitate to recommend Mr. Herzberg based upon our positive results.

I am writing this letter to recommend Daniel Herzberg to other parents or clients interested in excellent tutoring. Our son was having difficulty with Pre-Calculus in his junior year, 1997. There were not enough clear explanations in class for him to grasp what he needed and no ready resources for helping him learn how to improve. We sought a tutor to help him with the concepts and work involved.

After finding his business card at the high school, I contacted Daniel and asked him a lot of questions about how he worked, his qualifications, and my concerns. He was very helpful and informative, his academic and educational background were impressive, and I was very encouraged.

Daniel worked with my son usually twice a week for one to one-and-a-half hours. My son liked him very much, appreciated his tutoring style and felt very comfortable working with him. And he made good progress with Daniel. He learned to have a much better understanding of the concepts involved; he learned to do his Pre-Calculus work in a more organized way in which he could track the problems better and find errors and correct them. He improved in his ability and consistency to understand and complete his homework and get it in on time. He learned good study skills and organizing skills. He felt good about his work with Daniel and the progress he made.

So we were very pleased with Daniel’s work; we felt he did a thorough job in the content area and went beyond to help our son in his organizing skills in general. He helped him improve most importantly his understanding in Pre-Calculus and his general organizational skills, and also helped him improve his grade.

I would call at times to ask Daniel about progress and to get a general report; he took the time to answer all my questions. We felt he was very insightful in the areas which needed understanding and improvement. He was very pleasant and friendly to work with and explained things clearly. He was very responsive to our needs, and very competent as a tutor.

I would highly recommend Daniel to other interested parents, and greatly appreciate his work with our son.

I wanted to personally thank you for what you’ve accomplished with my son Aaron Weinblatt. Aaron became a student of yours because he was having a great deal of trouble with his physics class. He elected to work on SAT preparation in addition to class subject matter.

Aaron attends a rigorous prep school and is taking 3 AP classes, Physics, and Analysis. This was the first year that Aaron “hit the wall.” He had trouble in Physics and Analysis. His confidence was badly shaken. For the first time in his academic career Aaron started receiving grades in the 60 percentile range. His anxiety level about what this could mean to his future escalated. This was in the early part of November.

I actively started looking for someone to help Aaron through this stressful time. Aaron’s advisor suggested your tutoring services and from the first phone call I felt comfortable with you.

At first Aaron was a bit resistant about actually having a tutor. His first meeting was okay, but I heard some grumbling about the request for organized physics notes. The second meeting was the turning point for Aaron. He was enthusiastic, relaxed and more comfortable than I’d seen him in months. Even though his exams scores were still not what Aaron wanted, I could feel that more tutoring sessions would help Aaron in his processing of difficult information, and would eventually be reflected on his exams.

Aaron did quite well on his finals. He was confident during the exams, and felt as if he had done well on them.

Aaron elected, without any parental encouragement, to study for the SATs with you. This working through the exams gave Aaron increased confidence in this area. He had been worried about taking the SATs until he started working with you.

I just want to thank you for helping Aaron in organizing his note taking skills, Physics, and Analysis. More than all the academics in the world I want to thank you for restoring Aaron’s confidence. I feel he became more comfortable with this process each week. Each week he would tell me about different things he wanted to show you, so that he could have your feedback and suggestions on a variety of subjects.

Daniel tutored our son Sam for a period of two school years, 8^th and 9^th grades. In the 8^th grade it was evident to us that Sam needed help with math and English grammar. We decided to supplement his schooling with tutoring services because working directly with him, as a parent, resulted in conflict and wasted time for both parents.

Daniel found an approach to subjects that met Sam’s needs. He also insisted that he improve his penmanship and present his work in a neat and legible manner. These were areas where he was deficient.

During the two years Daniel worked with Sam he became more confident, better organized, and improved his academic performance. We recommend Daniel, without reservation, for any tutoring or academic position for which he is otherwise qualified.

This letter will serve as a recommendation for Daniel Herzberg. Our daughter was a freshman at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, taking Geometry AC when she started with Daniel. She was becoming confused and we could no longer give her the help she would need. We called Daniel and he started seeing her immediately.

From the first appointment, our daughter had a clearer understanding of geometry as a whole and truly understood the particular chapter/assignment she was currently working on. Daniel has served as our daughter’s “safety net.” Before she could become confused, he taught her the mechanics and the tools she needed to succeed in geometry. He taught in a clear, concise manner. She enjoyed her sessions with Daniel and her grades proved what a good job he was doing for her. She also asked Daniel for help in studying for the unit test and has not once complained about the difficulty of geometry since seeing Daniel.

We will greatly miss Daniel and all the help he has provided.

Just a note of appreciation to let you know what progress Leah and Rachael have made as a result of their Geometry tutoring sessions over the last couple of months. It was not apparent in the early going that their comprehension was better after your sessions since their response to my questions about how they were doing was “O.K.” The real proof came shortly before and during Christmas break from their high school. Leah had a conference with her geometry teacher during which the teacher gave her an opportunity to hand in approximately 10 homework lessons that Leah had previously not finished. She didn’t understand the material, therefore, didn’t hand it in. During break Leah completed all unfinished homework by herself and after bringing it to me for inspection, termed it “easy.” That seems like real progress.

In addition to the direct help on Geometry, I like your philosophy of providing “counseling” to both girls to use a planner to get themselves organized, and to understand some of the broader issues of improving their grades and comprehension. With teens this advice seems to be better accepted from someone that they respect, other than a parent.

Rachael’s progress is not as obvious but I believe the comprehension is there also. Thanks for the help during the all too brief tutoring period and I wish you the best in the future. I’d be happy to provide future references as you need them.

With three kids and active participation in our church, we both returned to working with Daniel repeatedly and referred his services on to many members of our community. He helped all of my children attend their top college and we are grateful beyond words. Each teen was a tough nut to crack but with knowledge, experience, and compassion he found a way to reach each one individually on the SAT and the ACT.