Chris

Tutoring Experience

I have been operating as a private tutor for over 6 years. I have helped many students through all parts of the admissions process to Oxbridge including the MAT and interviews and other high profile universities.

I have tutored students all the way to PhD level. Most students I tutor are studying mathematics or physics, but I have taught mathematically focused modules in fields as varied as macroeconomics and mechanical engineering. In particular, I have extensive experience with students resitting exams rather than taking them for the first time, and with students applying for high-profile universities that require entrance tests and interviews.

Multiple students resitting their exams at university who have not only passed but have subsequently sought my services as a tutor for their studies moving forward. I have been proud to see their progress.

I am also employed by the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University to teach Mathematics undergraduates and masters students, marking their work and giving constructive feedback and instruction. Several students who have been taught by me in this capacity have then sought my help as a private tutor to supplement their university teaching.

Tutoring Approach

I am all too familiar with the stress and frustration that preparing for exams and entrance tests can bring. It can prove difficult for many bright, able students to fully communicate their ideas in these intense situations.

I believe that my experiences give me a unique and compassionate approach to helping students be not only academically but emotionally prepared for their studies, so that they can fulfil their full potential. Mathematics is a continual battle between the need for rigour and the need for intuitive understanding, and it's this balance that is often the hardest to strike. I aim to instil in students not only a confidence in use of notation and logical argument, but a confidence in their understanding of the underlying principles.

The MAT is a difficult test designed to encourage creative problem solving whilst using a minimum of prerequisite knowledge from school mathematics. My approach as both teacher and student has been to develop a large repository of useful examples and illustrative exercises, to familiarise the candidate with the more creative arguments necessary to tackle most MAT problems.

I try to focus on the ‘hook’ that students need in order to begin putting pen to paper and working through a problem, as it is this hurdle that I have found students struggle the most to overcome when compared to school, where it is apparent to most students what ‘type’ of question they are tackling even if the problem itself is difficult.