Russian School of Mathematics - Andover

"The assessment went really well and the teacher acted like she is nice and caring. We visit the first day of class. All the staff looks like they are mad, no smile. Learned that we had to pay the whole month of September and my son will only attended the last week of September. No pro-rated tuition and so I asked if my son can attend beginning in October. Answer is we have to pay $60/week of per 1 missed class in September anyways. I sucked it up and agree to the terms. Didnt pay for 3 days and the staff called as if she was from a loan shark (her tone) seeking for debt payment. This is not the environment I want my son in."

"It's a great school if you want your kids to learn more math than offered at school and are willing to work with them on homework and help them out if needed. This is not a kidcare for 2 hours like many other activities, parents actually have to put effort into making sure kids do homework and helping them with it. So you will get whatever you put into it. And yes, kids don't have to like it to learn a lot."

"Doesn’t responsible for quality of knowledge and quality of learning process they provide. They don’t care if child doesn’t understand, just running the class program and this is the goal. No quality of explanation during the class work. Things became are more difficult and stressful with online learning process. The price is the same, the quality is lowest. As a result, the student, who doesn’t understand, just “collecting” this not understanding moments. We have been in this place for three years and don’t believe in positive side of this anymore. Education process here is lot of stress for student who doesn’t not understand. The biggest problem is RSM Doesn’t Care. But very pushy to charge money every month, one month ahead, and fee charges for late payment. Don’t not respectful for parents who is not math people. Here is very poor and not respectful style of communications. Do not waste your money for this place if your child needs help with math."

"I personally had a terrible experience at this place. There are a lot of people who go there and enjoy themselves, and that's the point, but if your kid isn't interested in math or doesn't like it that much it'll be a terrible experience. The RSM experience is supposed to cater to kids who genuinely enjoy math, and if you don't (like me) the teachers won't care if you fall behind in their class. Their methods of teaching are very old fashioned and there's not much room for creative problem solving, as everything feels like it's shoved down your throat. This makes it really hard to be on a level par with the rest of your class if you join in grade 6. The concepts all build on top of each other, and most people start in their first years of elementary school. This makes it really difficult to start learning, especially if your kid is starting middle school at the same time they start RSM. You have to learn all the concepts that have been taught in years you were not there to be able to know what's happening in class at the time, and once you figure that out the class is already on a different topic. I know a lot of other people have gone here and loved it, but most have had a terrible experience since they were forced by their parents to go there. The people who say they've had great experiences there probably love math as a subject and genuinely wanted to pursue it as an extracurricular, and they most likely started RSM while they were in elementary school. If your kid is older than 12 or doesn't seem to show a love for math, this definitely isn't the place for them and I guarantee they will not like it there. This comes from my own personal experience. The teachers don't care if you fall behind and they can't explain topics in different ways if one way is confusing. The homeworks over the weekend take around three hours to finish, which I think is three hours too many for an extracurricular. Your kid may love it, but make sure they genuinely love math first and are really young; if not, the experience will most likely be terrible for them (it was terrible for me)."

"We're very pleased with the school. Our son started last year and our approach at the time was wait and see. We did not have high expectations and just wanted to try. It turned out great! The school has amazing teachers who *care*. The way math is treated there is not "force, grind, repeat"; it's treated really as a way of life. The kids are pointed to the real life problems that math can help resolve. Questions are encouraged and the kids learn to think. Really, the thing I'm most impressed by is that the kid now loves math."