Addie Klassen

Addie Klassen, 14, discusses how study space and pre-loading material changed her view towards math and boosted her confidence.

What was your attitude towards math before BrainBoost?

It was tough. In grade 7, before I went to high school it was pretty easy. Then, in grade 8 it was crazy hard for me! It was just so different from elementary school! The teacher would speak for an hour, and then give us 10 pages for homework and no time to do it in class. I really don?t learn well that way so, I wasn?t doing well at all.

Describe how Study Space works.

I go to Study Space about once a week. Study Space is when studying at home can get really distracting and you need to come here. It?s the perfect situation because if you?re stumped, there?s a tutor right next to you and you can just raise your hand and they help you! But, they also don?t just give you the answer– you have to figure it out by yourself. I think it helps with productivity a lot.

At the same time, sometimes tutors will say ?you need to go out and get away from your books. I think that?s really cool to hear because usually you don?t hear that from educators, they usually want you to just push through. They understand that you need to take breaks here.

What?s the atmosphere like in Study Space?

Very focussed. Everyone is there to get their own thing done. There?s just a lot more distractions at home. When you go inside study space you?re here to do your work! You feel like you have to be focussed because everyone else is so focussed!

What are the tutors like at BrainBoost?

The tutors here are special. They?re different than other tutors. They really understand what you need to do. I told my friend about BrainBoost because she had a tutor that would get really frustrated with her if she wasn’t doing math a certain way. She came here and she’s like ?Oh my gosh these tutors are really different! They tell me three ways to do it and I get to pick!? So, I just think the tutors are really cool and good at what they do

You preloaded Math 9 last year. Do you think it helped? Why is pre-loading important?

Honestly, I think that made one of the biggest differences ever. I went from having a C- and now I?m at an A! The tutor was so good about it because I?d be there for two hours in the summer while my friends were at the beach. Obviously, I didn?t want to be there. She was great because every half hour we would go for a walk and talk about something outside. It made a huge difference because I knew things coming into Grade 9 so I wasn?t as surprised. It was really worth it.

Three words to describe BrainBoost.

Fun, important, helpful, educational – wait that’s four! The biggest one is effective – even though I didn’t include that! [Laughs]