Kumon Math and Reading Center of Saratoga

Bad tutoring services and attitude from the tutors. I changed my mind and hired a private tutor instead,

A good regimental approach to improving speed and grasp if basic math. The snail slow progress through the topics in This day and age of online videos and adaptive learning is a bit hard to justify though.

In the age of internet services like Khan academy (free) and ixl math practice (not free but very cheap), I fail to understand why parents flock to Kumon centers with a herd mentality. My kid attended Kumon for 4 months and we failed to see the value in it. They are basically in a photo-​copy business :-) They photocopy the same set of questions in different permutation and combination and make the student practice a zillion times till they master it and get so bored, they never want to look at it again! This can be easily achieved by making them practice for free on the above mentioned internet sites. Plus, Kumon made me (parent) correct 100+ problems a day (I think, later they would have corrected) whereas on these sites, it’s all automated. Plus you get very good analytics to chart progress, whereas in Kumon it’s all manual!
The staff never does any teaching (or very little I am told, when a new concept is introduced). The whole system is based on the theory that «practice makes perfect». So, their only value add is that they have a library of practice questions, which is nothing but repetition of same questions in different orders. Now with internet, this is all available for free, so what’s the need to pay $ 120 a month?
It’s absurd how such businesses thrive in this day and age…

As a parent of successful math student I highly recommend Saratoga Kumon. Kumon worked with my child to maximize the work potential through improving accuracy and speed. Kumon has given my child independent study skills and focus to succeed at any subject and built study skills. My child liked and stayed with the program for 7 years for not only the kumon curriculum but also for its competent and understanding management led by Edith Wu. In seven years I observed Edith’s hardwork and energy. She works with parents and caters to each child’s individual needs to make Kumon program a success for many parents like me.

For 2 years my kids went to the Kumon in Warm Springs, managed by a Japanese woman called Jackie. Jackie was exceptional and my kids did really well with her. We moved to Saratoga about 2 years back and we tried the Cupertino Kumon, and another one on Moorpark but they didn’t have the discipline or emphasis on Speed vs Accuracy that Kumon instils. A friend recommended this Kumon center in Saratoga and I am so happy I gave it a try. My daughter performance in Math has been very good since we started her here. I like the owner who is always checking and encouraging my daughter. My daughter loves going here too. I recommend this Kumon highly.

My son is 12. He started Kumon at age 7 in first grade at the Los Gatos center. He had a wonderful teacher, Vivian L., who never failed to inspire him. Vivian sold the center and a new owner took over. We stopped for a break while he was at mid-​F, two years above his grade level, according to Kumon. The reason we stopped was because my husband (an engineer himself), was sympathetic that the problems were needlessly brain-​twisting with no practical application.
We decided to give it a try a year later, hoping that with maturity he would have more patience to deal with the problems. He was doing well and actually was able to get through level F quite easily. But then he hit a snag and we noticed that the teacher was not working with him, just giving him the same lessons over and over, which was frustrating for him. I understand that Kumon is about children discovering on their own, and making their own connections, but making them suffer through failure without a little help does nothing but make the kids hate math.
We thought this was the teacher’s failure, so we took him out of the Los Gatos center and transferred him to the Saratoga Center. The owner, Edith Wu, convinced me that her center was different. She said that they had award-​winning assistants from Saratoga HS who would help our son if he was ever stuck on a particular concept.
He was at the Saratoga Center for three months, during which time that never happened, and he was never advanced. He was assigned the same lessons over and over and over. One particular lesson was given to him seven times, a point which Mrs. Wu vehemently denied, even though I had proof in the form of dates and scores. It got to the point where my son had memorized the answers on that particular set, and he didn’t even have to do the problems. There was no reason for the mindless repetition because by the third time he was getting very few or no errors, completing them at an average of 2 minutes per 2-​sided page.
I hate to think that my son has been ‘turned off’ to math for life, but at this point when anyone asks him about his subjects, he always says that math is his least favorite. When he was working with Vivian, it was his MOST favorite. Currently he has all A’s, but a B in math. Teacher or method … you be the judge.
I think Kumon is good for kids in early grades but I don’t think it has much to offer past fifth grade. It isn’t even synched with school standards. When we moved our son from a private school (Stratford) to public school in mid 4^th grade, neither Stratford nor Kumon prepared him for public school math. He had to learn new terminology and concepts, which aren’t even addressed by Kumon.
One problem I found with Mrs. Wu is that she refuses to use email, and indeed I don’t think she uses it at all, although she has an address. I have sent emails and she claimed not to get them. She told me that she and «everyone else» prefers to talk on the phone, but I found it difficult to communicate with her by phone. My phone conversations with her ended up with me hanging up the phone because she refused to stop talking when I told her I had to leave and had nothing more to say.