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About

About Michigan Problem Solving Academy

The Michigan Problem Solving Academy (MPSL Academy) is a creative after-school education designed to offer excellent and personalized guidance to the bright, confident students who deserve it. MPSL Academy currently provides Math, English includes Essay Writing for grades 1-12, SAT, ACT along with Long term and Intensive Courses for grades 6-12.

We offer a warm, friendly but rigorous learning environment that focuses on intensive  learning advancement to boost students’ achievement. Our E-Level Program is: Interactive, inclusive teaching in small classes with a rigorous, accelerated curriculum that accommodates students’ range of skills to advance their mastery in the subject that is applicable across the curriculum in school and college.

At MPSL Academy, we believe that interactive and intensive teaching facilitates motivation and interest in students when learning meets their needs. Our classes are designed to meet students’ needs and levels of understanding while advancing and accelerating their skills and abilities to at least three grades higher than their current level. Our curriculum is never static; it is progressive. We are aiming at long-term learning and mastery of skills that will be the tools they can use across any curriculum or subject/discipline for college.

Our goal is to cover the gaps in learning, occurring in school in preparation for the exams and college. Thus, we support school instruction by providing additional exposure to advanced skills and concepts necessary for standardized exams and college preparation. Instead of blindly jumping from the concepts of school work into fierce academic competitions, students at MPSL Academy can learn math subjects of higher grade levels or reinforce the concepts which will allow for success and confidence in any mathematical scenario. MPSL bridges the gap that exists between the structure of the student’s school system and the problem solving required in the most difficult math, physics and english learning.

Consistency is key in our curriculum, so what students learn at one level will reappear again at another level but in more advanced ways. Application is the primary driving force of our curriculum as well, so students never escape from seeing how all the concepts need to be applied and intertwined. In this way, students learn not only the core concepts and skills of grammar, reading analysis, vocabulary and writing, but they also see how these support and intertwine with each other to prepare for more mature, higher-level analytical and writing skills.

Our Team

About Ashish Poddar

Ashish Poddar founded ‘Michigan Problem Solving Academy’ (MPSL Academy) in 2015. Teaching math and physics is his passion. He has taught at Oakland Community College for many years with great patience and understanding. Ashish uses a multi sensory approach in his teaching sessions, using both computer based support as well as the more traditional SQ3R. He believes that these skills improve test scores and life skills, such as interviewing for colleges or careers. His students are thriving and doing much better academically than they did upon arriving at MPSL Academy. For the last 4 years, his students ranked first/second/third in National/Michigan Math Kangaroo Competition in both junior and senior category, and finished in the top 20 National Winners list. In last few years, his students got selected in top ranked US universities for both undergrad and graduate programs. He takes special care for slow learners and motivates them to improve in all aspects. Instead he chose to create a course that empowered students with the confidence and ability they needed to achieve their academic dreams. Ashish Poddar has Masters in Computer Application from India and Masters in Business Administration from USA based University. Teaching helps Ashish in going over concepts of math/science and implement it in the innovation work at his workplace (Autonomous Vehicle Industry).

About Irma Henderson

Irma Henderson  taught in four different schools, but the last 25 years of her teaching career were spent at Southfield Christian High School, Southfield, MI. She taught all levels of English at Southfield Christian except for ninth grade; however, She did teach ninth grade English while on a sabbatical at the Black Forest Academy, Kandern, Germany. Now retired, she has 22 years’ experience in teaching Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition.  With over 30 years’ total teaching experience, she has taught every level of high school English including AP English Language and Comp, American Lit, Bit Lit, World Lit, Speech, Drama, and Communications Media. She has always enjoyed teaching. Irma believes the greatest joy for a teacher is seeing the light of discovery dawn on the face of a student, to see students improve his/her skills and abilities in English and realize English is an immeasurable tool toward success in school and life.

About Nick Takach

Nick is an English/Math tutor in Troy and a Substitute teacher in the Royal Oak and Lamphere School Districts. The students he tutor range from elementary to middle school students. He works with students on reading comprehension, writing, grammar, and some students also work on public speaking. He has substituted in all classrooms from pre-k through 12th grade for three years, and holds a Master’s in Teaching from Wayne State University, Michigan. His Bachelor’s degree is in English with a concentration in professional writing. He believes to help the student in understanding the core concepts in clarity. In that way, he is able to push the students in understanding the basic logical structure of the subject and excel slowly.

Our Platform

MPSL Academy is committed to provide learners the support and resources they need to succeed as part of our learning community. We recognize that learning is interactive, and we’ve built a platform that allows instructors and students to interact with each other. We’ve engaged instructors who are expert practitioners in their fields, and who have hard-earned knowledge to share with students: they’re familiar with the best (and worst) practices, the trade-offs, the gotchas. It’s an ongoing journey that involves everyone in the classroom (whether the classroom is virtual or physical).

Our Mission

Founded by Ashish Poddar, Michigan Problem Solving Academy (MPSL Academy) is a creative after-school education designed to offer excellent and personalized guidance to the bright, confident students who deserve it. MPSL Academy currently provides Math, English includes Essay Writing for grades 1-12, SAT, ACT along with Long term and Intensive Courses for grades 6-12. We offer a warm, friendly but rigorous learning environment that focuses on intensive  learning advancement to boost students’ achievement. Our E-Level Program is: Interactive, inclusive teaching in small classes with a rigorous, accelerated curriculum that accommodates students’ range of skills to advance their mastery in the subject that is applicable across the curriculum in school and college.

At MPSL Academy, we believe that interactive and intensive teaching facilitates motivation and interest in students when learning meets their needs. Our classes are designed to meet students’ needs and levels of understanding while advancing and accelerating their skills and abilities to at least three grades higher than their current level. Our curriculum is never static; it is progressive. We are aiming at long-term learning and mastery of skills that will be the tools they can use across any curriculum or subject/discipline for college.

Our goal is to cover the gaps in learning, occurring in school in preparation for the exams and college. Thus, we support school instruction by providing additional exposure to advanced skills and concepts necessary for standardized exams and college preparation. Instead of blindly jumping from the concepts of school work into fierce academic competitions, students at MPSL Academy can learn math subjects of higher grade levels or reinforce the concepts which will allow for success and confidence in any mathematical scenario. MPSL bridges the gap that exists between the structure of the student’s school system and the problem solving required in the most difficult math, physics and english learning.

Consistency is key in our curriculum, so what students learn at one level will reappear again at another level but in more advanced ways. Application is the primary driving force of our curriculum as well, so students never escape from seeing how all the concepts need to be applied and intertwined. In this way, students learn not only the core concepts and skills of grammar, reading analysis, vocabulary and writing, but they also see how these support and intertwine with each other to prepare for more mature, higher-level analytical and writing skills.

Achievement

1) This year (2021), our students got admission into various USA universities like University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Rutgers University, George Mason University and Stanford University. Our student Danny scored 1596/1600 in SAT exam with a perfect score of 800/800 (Math) to get into Stanford.

2) We are very happy and proud to announce that Rohan Pavuluri ranked #1 as “National Winner” scoring 100% in ‘Math Kangaroo USA 2021‘ competition. For more details visit https://mathkangaroo.org/mks/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021_Level-4_National-Winners.pdf

And Achyudt Narayanan ranked #2 as “Michigan State Winner” in ‘Math Kangaroo USA 2021‘ competition. For more details visit https://mathkangaroo.org/mks/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021_MI-Winners-1.pdf

3) We are nowadays teaching both in-person and online to our high school/undergraduate and graduate students resulting students from different states (like Georgia, Virginia, California, Nebraska) as well as students from Asia/Australia attending our sessions.

4) Test-out results (Troy/Novi, MI Schools) for this year:

  •   7 out of 10 students succeeded in Math 7/8 Test-out (= 70.0% success rate)
  •   8 out of 12 students succeeded in Algebra 1 Test-out (= 66.66% success rate)
  •   4 out of 7 students succeeded in Geometry Test-out (= 57.14% success rate)
  •   3 out of 5 students succeeded in Algebra 2 Test-out (= 60.0% success rate)
  •   1 out of 2 students succeeded in PreCalculus Test-out (= 50.0% success rate)

 

5) We are also happy to announce that one of our students ‘Achyudt Narayanan Venkat’ (student of Smith Middle School, Troy) ranked 2nd (State: Michigan, Level: 8th Grade) in ‘Math Kangaroo USA 2020‘ competition as shown below. For more details, visit http://www.mathkangaroo.us/mk/2020/2020-state-level8.html

 

6) Similarly last year (2019), our student Daniel Lindarev ranked #1 (State: MI, Level: 7th Grade) in ‘Math Kangaroo USA 2019‘ competition

 

7) Our student Rishi Chowdhury ranked #1 (State: MI, Level: 3rd Grade) and ranked #15 in USA for ‘Math Kangaroo USA 2017’ competition.

Brighter futures start here

The great thing about our class is if it is used properly, it will not only teach you how to improve your test scores, but it will also teach you how to improve skills such as avoiding procrastinating, communicating, etc. We believe “A man who has learned to fish can feed himself for life. A student who has learned to think creatively and for themselves can accomplish anything.”