“The only reason I passed my geometry final”

"Math has always been a pretty hard subject for me, and I find myself in times where it just doesn't click," explained Zoe, a rising sophomore from San Francisco. Her school introduced her to Aristotle in an email the week before finals, and she signed up right away. "I really thought it was a cool idea, so I applied."

Finals week was exactly the kind of moment where that mattered. Zoe struggles with test anxiety, and geometry was the class where she needed help fast. "I think that's the only reason I passed my geo final, honestly. It really helped me with the Pythagorean theorem."

Ten minutes at a time

During finals week, Zoe reached for Aristotle in short bursts, whenever her studying stalled. "Anytime I was doing my note card and I didn't really understand a concept, I'd just hop on for a 10 minute session, and it just explained the concept to me."

She also learned to steer the session toward how she learns best. A visual learner, she would ask Aristotle to "add diagrams and pictures," and explain things visually. "Even through my first week of using it, I was seeing so much improvement."

A study session that talks

What kept Zoe coming back was the conversation. "I really like talking back to it, because it reminds me of one on one tutoring where I just bounce ideas off of it." She describes Aristotle as "a really helpful tool that's super innovative."

Without it, she said, her studying would have looked very different. "I feel like I'd be struggling, and just trying to watch YouTube videos about the whole overview of the unit."

Still thinking about learning

As she starts sophomore year, Zoe plans to keep Aristotle close. "I'm taking Spanish Honors, so I'd definitely be using it for Spanish just to keep up my fluency. And then I'm taking Algebra 2 and Pre Calc, so it’s going to be really helpful for concepts and just daily learning."

That curiosity goes beyond Aristotle. "I always find it really fascinating how other people learn," she says, "and education is something I'm thinking about going into."

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