Education: Best Tutoring Service

KEVIN SULLIVAN, Strive to Learn, in Costa Mesa, was voted the top tutoring service in the Orange County Register’s Best of Orange County readers’ choice poll.

1. Strive to Learn

Multiple locations; 949-873-6807; Strivetolearn.com

Strive to Learn, a previous Best Tutoring Service winner, offers Orange County students educational guidance in three main areas: test preparation, subject tutoring, and college counseling.

This is a winning formula for owner Josefine Borrmann, a Costa Mesa resident who put herself through college working as a tutor. “I love giving students the ‘aha’ moment,” she said.

Strive to Learn offers support for the SAT, ACT, GED, GRE and other tests, with practice tests and evaluations from an expert. One-onone tutoring helps students master any subject and can be done online or in-person at the student’s home or another local place like a park, with a customized tutoring plan.

Students seeking college counseling get help throughout the admissions process with mentoring, a list of colleges that will fit their interests, customized application strategies, help selecting a major, and time management. Other services include career assessment, college visit planning, and help with essays and financial aid applications.

Strive to Learn closed its Costa Mesa office in August 2020 due to the pandemic, Borrmann said. “We feel like this accelerated us to do a business model we wanted to go to because we can serve our community better this way,” she said regarding home and online tutoring.

“We engage personally with every single family that we work with,” she said. “Our tutors really get to know their students on an individual basis.” added.

2. Kumon

Multiple locations, 1-800-ABC-MATH; Kumon.com

The Kumon Method was developed in Japan in 1954 by Toru Kumon, a Japanese high school math teacher who taught the concept of self-learning to his then-second-grade son. Kumon today is a global math and reading enrichment program for children from preschool through high school.

During his 33-year teaching career, Toru Kumon, who died in 1995, taught high school math in various schools. In 1958, he established the Osaka Institute of Mathematics, which later became the Kumon Institute of Education Co., Ltd., in 1983. He spent his career improving the Kumon Method and spreading it to students around the world.

Children move at their own pace each day through individualized instruction with worksheets and constant feedback. Kumon says its math and reading programs are designed to build on previous levels, so that by expanding foundational knowledge, kids can continue to apply new skills.

3. Eye Level

Multiple locations; 888-835-1212; myeyelevel.com

Eye Level is an international leader in supplemental math and language education. More than 2 million students in 20 countries have studied with Eye Level at franchised learning centers, including the four in Orange County: in Anaheim Hills, Fullerton, Irvine and Yorba Linda. Eye Level currently has about 235 students in Orange County.

Eye Level Learning Centers focus on building students’ foundation in math and English, while also helping students develop critical thinking and analytical skills, self-confidence, and the motivation to learn.

Eye Level also hosts international learning contests such as the Eye Level Math Olympiad, an annual math contest where thousands of students from different countries are challenged in their math skills in areas like numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, data analysis, reasoning, and problem solving. The Olympiad is open to all students and seeks to promote math skills.