Zafir Vuiya

My path to tutoring began at Columbia University, where I studied Political Theory and History and developed a deep appreciation for the way language and ideas shape how we understand the world. That curiosity has never left me — and it's exactly what I try to pass on to every student I work with. When I work with students on the SAT, ACT, English, or History, my goal is never to get them to memorize a formula or a list of dates. Instead, I want them to see the why behind what they're studying. A persuasive passage on the SAT isn't just a test question — it's an argument someone made about the world, and learning to dissect it is the same skill that makes you a sharper reader, writer, and thinker for life. History, similarly, comes alive when you connect a 19th-century political crisis to something happening on the news today. That's when students stop grinding and start genuinely engaging — and that's when scores improve. Outside the classroom, I'm a writer of poems and short stories, which means I spend a lot of time thinking about how words work — useful training for the Reading and Writing sections of any standardized test. You'll often find me hunched over a book or plotting my next move on a chessboard. And at home, my cats Evora and Zola keep me well-humbled — it's hard to take yourself too seriously when a cat is sitting on your notes.