About Study Smarter

Established by Joel Kosakoff, a lifelong tutor himself, Study Smarter has been a leading supplementary education provider since its founding in 1997. Our company is a small, local business based in Oakland, California. We specialize in individualized tutoring, whether it is in-home, in our office, or online through videoconferencing. Our goal is to help students discover and achieve their educational goals. To that end, we provide college standardized test prep, private school admissions test prep, help with academic subjects, and support with general study skills and organization. We also offer individualized college essay help as well as college counseling and consulting. Please contact us for an initial consultation to see if our services are right for you.

Thanks to wonderful word-of-mouth recommendations from the families in our communities, we have grown from one tutor to dozens since our inception. As a result, we have been able to offer select need-based scholarships to students from under-served populations since 1998. We want to thank our community partners who help us identify these deserving and motivated students.

Our tutors undergo multiple interviews and must demonstrate their knowledge through comprehensive diagnostic tests. We often interview several dozen candidates before filling a position, carefully selecting tutors based on academic excellence, personality, and dedication to the academic and personal growth of students. We also expect our tutors to have superior communication skills and to be able to think on their feet. Such meticulous hiring requires time and resources, but we believe it is our responsibility to ensure that our students receive the best instruction, mentorship, and support available. After they are hired, the tutors go through a training program to help further develop their instruction and communication skills, to acquaint them with our philosophy, and to provide detail about the curriculum at many local schools.

We hire our test prep tutors as full-time employees—a rarity in the tutoring world—in order to ensure that they are masters of their craft. They undergo an average of 100 hours of initial training, and ongoing mentorship from our most experienced tutors ensures that we offer all of our students a personalized, strategic path to their goals. Our tutors also have experience coaching students with IEPs and students who receive testing accommodations at school.

Many variables are involved in crafting effective programs for different students. Please contact us for an initial consultation.