St. Francis High School in Mountain View asks a lot of students before they arrive and after. We offer one-on-one tutoring for St. Francis students and applicants, and our tutors are current and former Stanford students.
Tell us about your student, and we’ll match them with a Stanford tutor who fits.
The HSPT: an entrance exam that also places
Every eighth grader applying to St. Francis takes the High School Placement Test. St. Francis gives the HSPT on January 9 and January 23, 2027, and students register for it when they complete the preliminary application. Students applying to several Catholic high schools in the San Jose, Oakland or San Francisco dioceses sit it only once. So one morning counts for a great deal. The score keeps mattering after admission: the course bulletin ties Algebra 1 Honors to the HSPT math score, and English 1 Honors and Biology Honors to the reading score. Our tutors go through each part of the test with timed practice; see our entrance-exam tutoring.
Summer Geometry, Summer Trigonometry and moving up in math
St. Francis offers three starting points in Algebra 1 and places some freshmen higher by exam. After that, the bulletin allows two summer courses for advancement, Geometry and Trigonometry, and no other outside course can be used to skip a level. Summer Trigonometry is the route into AP Precalculus, and a student who misses the required grade moves to Precalculus automatically. Those are compressed courses with a lot riding on them. A math tutor can preview the material in spring and meet through the summer session.
80-minute classes and a collaboration period
Classes at St. Francis run 80 minutes and alternate every other day, with a 60-minute collaboration period on alternating days for meeting teachers or studying. Freshmen, sophomores and juniors in AP courses are required to sit the AP exams, and each year carries community service hours as well. We schedule around practices, rehearsals and service, and we help students use the off day between classes so that work doesn’t pile up.
What a parent says about our tutors
“At each level of math needed, we found these Stanford students to be not just helpful tutors but great mentors as well.”
Christy S., Portola Valley · Yelp review
Study habits and motivation
“The tutor (who was a Stanford junior) really connected with my son and inspired him to learn. He had some great study tips and was able to help my son raise his grades by quite a bit.”
Pamela T., Palo Alto · Yelp review
Sessions are one-on-one, at your home in Mountain View or online. We tutor students from Mountain View High too. Read about our Mountain View tutoring, and when you write to us, mention whether your child is applying or already enrolled so we can match the right tutor.
Tell us about your student, and we’ll match them with a Stanford tutor who fits.