One-on-one English tutoring with me, Nico — and this is home turf: my degree is in English. From middle school book reports to AP Literature, the graded skill is the same — turning what you read into an argument on paper. Summary is easy. Analysis is a craft, and it's teachable.
★★★★★ 5.0 on Google · evenings until 9 PM
The books change; the skill compounds. I've taught every step of this ladder.
Reading stamina, paragraphs that hold together, and the first real essays.
the five-paragraph crutch forms hereLonger books, faster pace, and quotes that have to be woven in — not dropped in.
Harder texts and the expectation that themes get argued, not just spotted.
analysis replaces summaryThe essay bar jumps — voice, structure and evidence all graded at once.
Rhetoric: how arguments work, and how to build one under a timer.
close reading gets realFiction, poetry and drama at college depth — the summit of the track.
Every essay problem I've seen in 13 years reduces to one of three things: no argument, unearned evidence, or a first draft handed in as a final. We fix all three.
An essay is an argument wearing paragraphs. We build the claim first, so every sentence after it has a job.
Quote, integrate, analyze — in that order, every time. Dropped-in quotes stop surviving to the final draft.
First drafts are raw material. Students learn to mark up their own pages the way I mark mine — and the grades follow the habit.
ALGEBRA, HISTORY & ENGLISH · ONE MENTOR →
“Nicolas tutored my son from when he was attending Beverly Hills High School all the way through college at UC Irvine. He tutored my son in algebra, history, and English… It was just what the perfect mentor is all about.”
Read the full note on the results wall →
tap what you need help with ↓
Essay skills feed everything — including the college essay and the writing half of history. Same tutor across all of it.
If yours isn't here, call me — the consultation is free and I answer my own phone.
AP Language is rhetoric — how nonfiction arguments are built and how to build your own. AP Literature is fiction, poetry and drama read closely and argued about in essays.
They reward different muscles, and plenty of students take both. Either way the scored skill is the same one schools grade all year: turning a reading into a defensible written argument.
Because the graded skill isn't reading; it's analysis. Summary retells what happened — analysis argues why it matters, with evidence.
That jump from summary to argument is exactly what we train: thesis first, evidence chosen deliberately, and the "so what?" answered in every paragraph.
Often, yes — most reading hatred is really frustration at reading slowly or getting lost, and both improve with technique.
I won't promise a bookworm. I will promise a student who can get through the assigned reading efficiently and walk into the essay with something to say.
One-on-one at your home, anywhere from Studio City to Santa Monica — or online. Evening slots run until 9 PM.
Sessions track the class: the current book, the next essay, the writing habits that carry into every future class. You get a written note from me after every session.