My son took the USACO training class with Dr. Zhu this summer (2021). It is a difficult subject; an experienced teacher is essnetial to get started. My son typically couldn't stay on task for more than an hour. With Dr. Zhu, we are delighted to see our son can focus for hours on programming and try different ways to solve problems. We appreciate Dr. Zhu's daily office hours and sharing of class materials. His dedication and passion to enable more kids to get into higher-level programming are evident. We feel very fortunate to have found his classes.
(Discovering Competitive Programming (USACO))
May 2, 2021 - Eunok Kim
Verified Purchase
It was very helpful seminar to get to know USACO and computational thinking. Dr. Zhu is very knowledgeable, and experienced.
Dr. Chen AI, Robotics & Programming
May 5, 2021
Hi Eunok, I am glad that seminar is helpful to you. Thank you!
Best,
David Zhu
My son started taking USACO classes with Dr. Zhu a few months ago after the pandemic started. He absolutely loved Dr. Zhu's classes. He is a kid who's hard to focus for a long time, but surprisingly, he was extremely involved and fully engaged for 2 and half hours whenever he takes Dr. Zhu's classes. He's made tremendous progress during the past few months. Dr. Zhu is knowledgable, experienced, detail oriented, and he has a great sense of responsibility toward helping his student improve. After each session, he sent out detailed and personalized emails to every parent to update their child's progress, next steps, and recommendations. From his emails, you can feel the passion and sense of responsibility. Both my son and I feel very fortunate to have such a wonderful teacher!
Dr. Chen AI, Robotics & Programming
May 5, 2021
Hi Emily, I am very happy to have your son in my class, for more than a year now. It's exciting to see the progress he has made - he is now in Silver division and are preparing for the Silver contest. He is passionate about programming (and algorithmic problem solving) and very driven - two of the key factors for success.
Best,
David Zhu
July 30, 2020 - Grace Zhao
I truly appropriate the special attention and encouragement Dr. Zhu has been providing to my son, a 5th grader, to whom the USACO coding is very challenging. But since my son liked it very much, Dr. Zhu worked closely with both the student and parents to make sure my son is not left behind. I am impressed that despite his struggles, my son stayed in the class, and obviously is getting better at what he is doing every day.  
Dr. Chen AI, Robotics & Programming
May 5, 2021
Hi Grace, I enjoyed working with you and your son. USACO is challenging even for high schoolers. But what we have found in our teaching is that computational thinking (which is at the core of USACO) is different and getting an exposure to this new way of thinking at an earlier age is advantageous. With USACO training, interest and perseverance are the keys to success.
Best,
David Zhu
April 16, 2020 - Yiyi Zeng
I am impressed by Dr. Zhu's innovative curriculum and learning by doing pedagogy when my son took the Competitive USACO classes with Dr. Zhu. With a good understanding of his students and their needs, Dr. Zhu deliberately sparks student's genuine interests towards computational thinking and, at the same time, imparts the acquisition of solid coding and problem-solving skills. I highly recommend Dr. Zhu's classes.
Dr. Chen AI, Robotics & Programming
May 5, 2021
Hi Yiyi, Thank you for the kind words. Your son has a passion to learn and a curious mind. Computational thinking is not only core to USACO competition, it's a great way to encourage students to learn by exploration and discovery. It helps students going from "Learn to code" to "Code to learn".
best,
David