28,459Leland Reviews

I had a great experience working with Alex. I had already taken the GRE once before and was looking for some additional tips over a short, four-week period before my next test date. Alex was extremely helpful in getting me to the next level and was a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend Alex!

Stop procrastinating and work with Alex Southmayd. Incredible instructor, clear delivery of material, great tips & tricks, and has completely changed the way I approach the GRE. He'll recommend approaches tailored to you and will provide great reading recommendations to reduce test anxiety. Cannot recommend Alex highly enough!

I worked with Alex Southmayd for over two months in one-on-one tutoring sessions and was thrilled with the progress I made. Alex was flexible to my hours and was always ready and enthusiastic in our sessions. He made a point of isolating and showing me my weaknesses, presenting me with the tools to address them, and drilling with me until they eventually became strengths. If you are ready to put in the work and you are looking to find a teacher to match that commitment, I could not recommend Alex any further.

I worked with Alex on GRE math. I learned how to quickly recognize problems, approach difficult graphs and wording, and form strategies for taking the GRE. MyGRE score improved significantly and I was ultimately accepted into an engineering graduate program at the University of Southern California. I highly recommend working with Alex.

I worked with Alex Southmayd for a month of GRE quant tutoring. Alex was extremely clear and thorough in his explanations of different math concepts and strategies. He was also patient and encouraging during our sessions as I hadn't touched math in nearly a decade. My results speak to Alex's effectiveness as a tutor - I raised my quant score from 149 - 159. I directly attribute this improvement to my work with Alex.

I worked with Alex on GRE prep and he exceeded my expectations in every respect. Alex is able to skillfully teach the content and the strategies in a manner that is tangible for students to grasp, particularly for someone like myself being many years removed from the quantitative concepts.

Alex Southmayd was fantastic. His strategies helped improve my GRE Quant score by 30 percentile points, my GRE Verbal score by 20 percentile points, and I scored in the 99th percentile on Analytical Writing. This is a testament to his fantastic teaching and help with guided study. I was skeptical for a long time that I could study to improve on these tests, so I was shocked to see so much improvement.

Ryna came prepared with a plan for my specific goals of scoring high enough to be competitive at an ivy league. I scored a 35, and I attribute Ryna's direct session plans to my success. She's super kind and great to work with!

Highly recommend! Ryna at Book Smart Prep is an extremely knowledgeable and effective tutor. From our first session it was clear that I was working with someone with years of tutoring expertise and a passion for helping others achieve their educational goals. I learned not only how to solve particular problems but how to approach problem solving in general and with confidence. In each area, I felt that she really tailored the lessons to my specific learning style while still challenging me to succeed beyond my expectations. As a student who has taken both individual and group study sessions with Ryna, I can assure future students that Book Smart Prep will help them unlock the educational opportunities they are looking for.

Ryna has been an extreme pleasure to work with! She is flexible with her time and has helped my son and daughter succeed on their SAT and ACT tests. Their personalities could not be more different, and yet Ryna was able to connect with both of them on their level and increase their scores from when they began. As an added bonus, Ryna is also able to guide us through the formation of a college art portfolio, which we are in process of now.