Nick

Many maths tutors are either school teachers doing a favour for those that need extra help, or university students trying to fill some spare time. Such tutors can often make progress in helping a student to understand maths. However, because one-on-one tutoring is not their primary activity there will usually be a limit to what they can achieve.

I aim to offer a service which goes beyond this. I am a professional, full-time maths tutor, and have been providing one-on-one tuition to students for over ten years. I believe that I can help anyone, whatever their current level, make significant improvements in their abilities and understanding.

I have a Ph.D. (doctorate) in maths (which involved conducting in-depth academic research into a specialist area of the subject) together with a first-class honours degree in maths from the University of Warwick. I also obtained A grades in both A-Level and GCSE maths.

Tutoring Experience

I have been tutoring since 2006. In this time, I have helped students in many different situations, and with a wide variety of requirements. Every student is different, and I aim to be flexible in my approach, adapting to each individual's needs. The foundation of my tutoring is a solid subject knowledge to a high level, which enables me to see quickly where a student can improve their own knowledge and understanding in the subject.

Why am I a full-time tutor? While completing my teacher training qualification, I had the opportunity to teach students in two different ways. Of course, I taught students in the normal medium to large size classes, but I also tutored students individually and in small groups. I found that the approaches and skills needed in each of these two situations were very different.

I found that, overwhelmingly, individual and small group tutoring was more beneficial for the student, as well as being more enjoyable personally. As a result I decided to become a professional tutor.

My experience, together with my qualifications, give me an expert subject knowledge which I have used to help many students reach their maximum potential in what can be a very challenging area.

Tutoring Approach

For a student to be successful in their study of maths, three factors are crucial. These are:

1) knowledge (of facts and methods),
2) understanding (of these facts and methods), and
3) confidence (in using the knowledge and understanding).

If any one of these three is lacking, it is very hard to achieve success in maths. Learning maths consists of applying new ideas and processes to a variety of problems. Until a student's knowledge and understanding of the new ideas and processes reaches a good level, then they will struggle to answer problems correctly, which will in turn make the student less confident. And once confidence is lost, it is easy for the knowledge and understanding to fall back.

My approach to tutoring, while being flexible enough to adapt to the needs of each individual, will normally focus on first making sure that a solid foundation of knowledge and understanding is in place, by discussing and attempting problems. Once knowledge and understanding starts to build, the student finds more success in tackling problems. In this way, confidence grows and the student is moving along the path to success in maths.