I am an experienced STEM, finance, and test‑prep tutor, research mentor, and stock market and options coach with over six years of tutoring and mentoring experience across elementary school through graduate‑level students. My instruction is fully personalized and designed to help students excel academically, prepare for competitive exams, develop research skills, or build long‑term investing knowledge.
My academic tutoring covers a wide range of subjects in mathematics, science, and English. In math, I teach pre‑algebra, algebra, geometry, pre‑calculus, calculus, and statistics. In science, I tutor biology, genetics, biochemistry, general and organic chemistry, and physics. I also support English and writing, including literature, language arts, essay writing, research papers, college admissions essays, technical and scientific writing, and editing or proofreading.
I provide comprehensive test preparation for the SAT, ACT, MCAT, and TOEFL, using individualized strategies to strengthen content knowledge, test‑taking skills, and performance under time pressure. One of my SAT students recently earned a 1590 out of 1600, demonstrating the effectiveness of structured, targeted preparation.
I also offer coaching in finance and investing, helping students learn how to think like long‑term investors rather than simply memorizing stock picks. Topics include the following: 5 steps in the investment process - 1) characteristics 2) types, 3) strategy 4) implementation, 5) monitoring and exit; fundamental and technical analysis, value and growth investing, portfolio construction, asset allocation, risk management, dividend strategies, retirement investing, position sizing, and market psychology. I teach options investing as well, covering calls, puts, LEAPS, covered calls, cash‑secured puts, protective puts, basic option pricing, and risk‑based trade planning. These sessions are educational and focus on strategy understanding rather than personalized investment advice.
Beyond tutoring, I coach high‑school teams for national stock‑market and business competitions such as the Wharton Global High School Investment Competition, Young Investors Society, Diamond Challenge, Blue Ocean Competition, Paradigm Challenge, and NFTE Entrepreneurship Challenge. Students learn equity research, financial statement analysis, valuation, portfolio management, entrepreneurship, and business strategy while preparing competitive presentations and reports.
For STEM‑oriented students, I mentor research projects in cancer genomics, bioinformatics, computational biology, medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, literature review, and scientific writing. I also support programming and computational science projects involving Python, C++, Linux, PyMOL, Schrödinger, and ChemDraw, including beginner‑friendly Python/Pygame game development such as Coin Collector and Shoot the Fruit.
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with a B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry and graduate‑level training in analytical chemistry. My background includes research experience in both academia and industry across chemistry, biochemistry, computational science, and biomedical research.
My in‑person tutoring rates are $50 for one hour, $280 for eight hours ($35/hr), $360 for twelve hours ($30/hr), and $500 for twenty hours ($25/hr), with package hours completed within an agreed‑upon timeframe. Sessions may be held at your home, a local library, or a coffee shop, with travel included within approximately ten miles. Online tutoring is available for $30–35 per hour through Zoom, Google Meet, Google Docs, or similar platforms.
A free consultation is available. You can call or text Roland (Giam) Tran at 714‑425‑3828 to discuss your goals in academics, research, coding, investing, or entrepreneurship.