Jeff B.

I am the father of a recent graduate of Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL. I wrote this review in September 2018 but didn’t have a good medium on which to post it until now. - My son graduated Stevenson in May 2018 and started as a freshman at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in September 2018. - During elementary and middle school, my son struggled with mathematics. Although he was a good student overall, he often got frustrated by his math homework and tests. He had trouble grasping math concepts and applying them when needed. - When entering 6th grade, we recognized that he needed a tutor as the math curriculum became more challenging. - Math tutor Barry Lapping came highly recommended from a another Stevenson HS family who had hired Barry a couple of years earlier and saw great results with her children. - Mr. Lapping first started tutoring my son in October 2011. He and my son connected quickly, and it became apparent that Mr. Lapping had the ability to manage my son’s frustrations with math while moving him through the lessons. With Mr. Lapping’s patience, calm demeanor, and his years of tutoring students, we watched my son become a more confident and much higher-performing math student. (Note: Mr. Lapping was sure to provide my wife and me with a recap of each tutoring session along with next steps. We felt as if we were always fully informed.) - When our son entered Stevenson High School in 2014, he was placed in a more accelerated math program. The tutoring he had done with Mr. Lapping had paid off. In fact, by the time he was a senior, with ongoing and regular math tutoring from Mr. Lapping throughout high school, my son received straight A’s in his math classes his Junior and Senior years. He also received a top test score of 5 on his Advanced Placement Calculus A-B class in the Spring of 2018. He celebrated this success with a call to Mr. Lapping! - When I asked my son why he thought Mr. Lapping was so effective as a tutor, he said that it was because Mr. Lapping had a thorough understanding of the math concepts at hand and made it a point to help students understand the concepts and the process behind the math. He said Mr. Lapping wouldn’t just give you an answer, he worked with you to understand the answer and the concepts that led you to it. - My son credits Mr. Lapping for much of his success in mathematics and has recently expressed interest in the actuarial sciences as a collegiate path of study. Prior to Mr. Lapping, this possibility would have never crossed our minds. - My wife and I agree that hiring Mr. Lapping made a significant and positive impact on our son and his future. We believe that any student who has the opportunity to work with Mr. Lapping and experience his tutoring will benefit greatly. He is highly recommended as a math tutor.

Mitchell H.

The COVID lockdowns of our public schools, spanning two academic school years, severely impacted our son. He lost interest in everything except video games. His sense of apathy turned into a strong trait of "learned helplessness". Disciplinary incidents were always someone else's fault. Every adversity was another reason to give up. Ms. DiDomenico agreed to take on a very tough case with our son. She patiently introduced him to the principles of the Growth Mindset. She made subtle and consistent suggestions to introduce him to the concept of personal accountability. Working with Ms. DiDomenico, his grades steadily improved. More importantly, he developed his own goals. We were beyond surprised (shocked, actually) when he announced that he had identified a new school, applied, and went through multiple rounds of interviews on his own! He is now studying abroad on a full scholarship.

Kotomi D.

Wonderful gifted teacher