PrepNow Tutor - Tess V.
Tess has primarily worked with students up to 8th grade in homework help, academic planning, English, and math (algebra, pre-algebra, and geometry). She’s also confident working with high schoolers in English, AP math, and SAT/ACT prep.
Tess earned a BA from Washington University in St. Louis, where she double-majored in psychological & brain sciences and English literature. Having just graduated in 2026, she’s taking a year to work in education before applying to graduate school in psychology. “I'm interested in working with psychology research, but I've also worked for many years intermittently as a tutor,” she notes.
Tess started tutoring in high school with a tutoring company and continued throughout her academic career. Her proudest moment was with an elementary-level summer reading and math student, who had no interest in either topic. One week, she offered a creative writing prompt as “a fun way to wrap up, not asking him to complete it as homework or anything,” she recounts. The following week, the student couldn’t wait to show her the myth they’d written. “It's always exciting when tutoring to see a student become invested in a project, even if it's not a homework assignment, and bring in something that they're proud of,” she reflects.
Tess uses scaffolding and the Socratic method to help students break down problems and think critically. “I think one of the most beneficial things in learning new concepts is giving yourself time to actually struggle with the problem and think through it,” she explains. “Even if you can't come up with the answer that time, I think the process of trying to recall the information actually helps in retaining the information for the next time,” she adds. She uses visuals and tangible processes like drawings, diagrams, and annotations to help students hone and develop more effective learning processes aligned with their respective learning styles. Tess has found that “translating thought process to paper can help keep the problem or question clear and helps a student see the entire process of the question more easily.”
At WashU, she was on the dean’s list every semester and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honor society. She was also a speaker and mentor with WashU Ktalks, a club that organizes a student speaker series where seniors are nominated and selected to give TED Talk-style speeches. She was both a writer and, during junior and senior year, assistant writing director for Strike Magazine STL.
In high school, she was on the school dance team and took dance classes at a studio. She also worked as a summer dance instructor and was lead editor of her school’s journal of psychology.
In her free time, she loves running, hiking, watching nature documentaries, creative writing, and reading anything to do with psychology. “I'm also super into music, I play a bit of guitar, but I also just love listening to music and making playlists,” she adds.
Fun fact: During a semester abroad in Sydney, Australia, she worked as a research assistant in a psychology lab at USYD.
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