Academic Skills

Among our three big paradigms comprising a student’s academic career—Grades, Scores, and Character—academics are perhaps the most relentless pursuit. After all, one’s transcript is literally a report card of how a student did at his job over several years. A college, or law school, or medical school, or employer, will consistently look at a student’s GPA and see it as a reflection of that day to day work.

As test-optional policies have become more ubiquitous, College Admissions has shifted even more focus to a student’s Academic record. This includes course selection—pursuing areas of genuine rigor—class rank, teacher recommendations based on unique contributions to the classroom, and of course GPA. 

Lakhani Coaching makes a difference by providing world class one-on-one instruction in any academic area in order to 1) boost fulfillment from learning and 2) plug any holes in understanding.

Suppose a student is doing well in all subjects but is having a terrible time in Chemistry. Why not have one of Lakhani Coaching’s elite instructors, a medical student at Brown, focus on Chemistry? Similarly, suppose a student excels in multiple choice exams but essays and papers present huge challenges. Why not have one of Lakhani Coaching’s expert writing instructors—a Yale graduate in Political Science, for instance—provide close guidance on the pre-writing, writing, and revision processes of each paper? 

Just as one becomes a better skier with one-on-one instruction, our students become better thinkers under the guidance of our expert coaches.

Despite the best efforts of his teachers, a student may require additional support outside the classroom. This shouldn't be seen as an indication of the student’s intelligence or commitment, but instead, evidence that no teacher can provide the level of individualized attention that might be required in a real-world academic environment.

This is where Lakhani Coaching steps in. We have helped high school students work through all manner of classes, from the humanities to the sciences. 

These engagements can be ongoing, such as helping a student navigate his way through an entire year of AP Physics, including homework assistance, concept explanation, and preparing for upcoming exams. Or our work can be limited to an isolated task, such as helping a student polish up her final essay for American History.

Equally rewarding is our work with advanced students looking for further enrichment. It is not uncommon for one of our accelerated math students, for instance, to go beyond high school math curricula and take on Linear Algebra or Multivariable Calculus; for a computer science whiz in java to take on ruby on rails; for a creative writing star to submit stories or poems to national competitions for publication. 

In each of these cases we can help a student go from good to great, and plant seeds of excellence in academic passions that will bear fruit through college and beyond.

At the University level, it’s not uncommon for a student to be daunted by some of the most advanced courses in a field. We provide one-on-one guidance to help students navigate these murky waters—whether a pre-med student looking to overcome the hurdle of Organic Chemistry, or an Economics major fighting through a demanding Financial Theory course. 

Equally important is that we support students taking on challenges outside their wheelhouse, be it a Political Science major completing a Statistics requirement, a humanities star tackling Fractal Geometry, or a Math major taking on a writing requirement.

For our writing intensive students now composing 25+ page papers, our coaches provide an invaluable sounding board, whether in helping students through each step of planning, writing, and revising, or simply serving as a second set of eyes in the revision process. 

Whatever a student’s academic focus, Lakhani Coaching has an expert on staff who can illuminate the murkiest topics.  

Academic success comes naturally to some students, but not to everyone. Those who aren’t immediately successful may fall into the trap of thinking that they’re unintelligent or just bad at school—which is almost never the case. Academic skills can absolutely be learned, improved, and mastered.

Whether our students need to work on organization and studying, writing, or fundamental quantitative skills, we help them understand that gaps in their skills can shrink with focus and hard work—and that academic success will follow.

Executive Function Coaching

Executive functioning skills underlie the capacity to plan ahead and meet goals, display self-control, follow multiple-step directions even when interrupted, and stay focused despite distractions.

With so many organizational tools today, physical and online, students can fall into a paralysis of options. Our Executive Function Coaching gets to the granular level of organizing one’s academic life: working with a personal coach to create targets and deadlines, accounting for every assignment, paper, quiz, and test across all of one’s courses. From there, we carefully allocate time to complete homework, to study notes, to write and revise papers and to practice quantitative techniques via problems. 

An important bridge between our Executive Function Coaching and Academic Coaching is that before seeking one-on-one support from a Lakhani Coaching instructor we encourage the student to try the material on his/her own to identify specific topics of difficulty.

Writing Skills

In an ideal world a student would have enough practice as a writer such that not even a 30-page research paper would feel intimidating. And so, we believe strongly in “off-season” writing practice.

If a basketball player wants to work on left-hand layups, she meets with her coach to work on technique, then gets in the gym in the off-season and shoots layups until her arm hurts.

We encourage students to work with a coach one-on-one, particularly over summers, to cultivate skills that they feel need work. We don’t advise writing until your fingers hurt, but certainly carefully curated practice—in creative, expository, or research-based writing—when a deadline is not looming pays huge dividends.

Quantitative Skills

Too often a student enters our offices harboring a long-term disappointment in Math skills, perhaps ingrained over years. This is not only unfortunate. It’s unfair. We all progress differently: did we all learn to ride bicycles at the same rate? Do we learn to play musical instruments, or sports, at the same speed?

We are all capable of dramatic leaps in skill, and at Lakhani Coaching, we simply strive for gains in skill, and in turn, gains in confidence.

Summers and school breaks are key opportunities to target gaps in a student’s quantitative skill. Without the pressure of daily academics, students can work diligently to learn core concepts, and more importantly, to practice these concepts with repetition, just as the basketball player practices her lefty layups.