Julianna

I am specialising in tutoring students preparing for the IB DP MATHS Exams (and MYP as well).

My name is Julianna and last October I have started a PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. I graduated from the IB DP programme back in 2019 (finishing with 777 in HL subjects and 44 in total), so I am familiar with all its tricks and treats, upsides and downsides. Aside from my academic life, I love engaging in organising events, such as student conferences or dramatic plays, as well as watch tons of films and play volleyball.

What really persuaded me to study Maths is its universality and purity. Mathematicians study problems and ideas, which of course can be later applied to almost all aspects of our lives, but at the same time they exist beyond all of those applications, relying simply on the curiosity of human mind. Put that way, I think that studying Maths can be quite exciting :) In my current work I focus in particular on Machine Learning, and using observational data to establish causal relationships between variables.

Tutoring Experience

I have been a tutor for the IB DP Maths Program (including both AI and AA maths, SL and HL) for almost 5 years now. I have helped more than 40 students prepare for their exams and gain a deeper understanding of the curriculum, completing over 600 lessons in total. Being familiar with the IB curriculum, I can help students prepare to face the challenges of IB Maths (over the summer), catch up with the material that they missed or did not clearly understand, learn how to efficiently solve different types of problems, work with the GDC, concisely describe their answers.

I am available as a tutor over the holidays, to prepare students who are about to start their adventure with IB or those who would like to catch up with the content that has been especially difficult during the first year.

*I can also help with creating a Math IA* - I know from my own experience that this is a very tricky and tedious process, and that it can be very difficult and confusing to understand what the IA really asks for. I can offer help by explaining the relevant criteria, guide the student in choosing the right topic or review and give my opinion of an IA draft.

Tutoring Approach

I think that the key to succeeding and actually enjoying Maths is understanding where the different theorems come from. This allows to put all the mathematical knowledge in context and hence allows to smoothly move between different branches of mathematics (or different types of exam questions). When studying for the exam, I also believe that it is important not only to know how to solve the problem, but also how to do it in a time efficient and elegant way, which for many students is a key to improvement.

The structure of my lessons is very flexible, and adjusted to student's needs - I believe that IB students are organised and independent enough to decide what is most important for them and I will do my best to adjust to these needs. When moving towards a new topic, I usually provide my students with a thorough overview of the most important theorems and properties, making sure that everything is crystal clear for them. I then proceed to the exercises, as in Maths there is no better way of learning than through practice. It is crucial for me that the student understands the idea behind each question, rather than simply learns the pattern behind a solution by heart. Moreover, during the lessons I solve all the exercises together with my students, to see how they think, and make sure that the way they chose to approach a question is the most efficient, elegant and most importantly the fastest one.