Vinay: Dolton tutor

Certified Tutor

I graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2009 with a BSc. in Biology, with a specialization in molecular biology and microbiology (in 2009), and earned a microbial-ecology MSc. (also from the University of Waterloo) in 2017. Since graduation, I've tutored subjects (and by extension, students) anywhere between middle school math and science up to middle/upper-year undergraduate biology and chemistry courses, in the form of both single-session reviews on individual topics and ongoing course-long support alike. While my specialty obviously lies in university biology (specifically micro- and molecular biology), I'm quite comfortable with several other undergraduate bioscience and bioscience-adjacent courses (e.g. human physiology, introductory organic chemistry, community ecology, etc.). I'm also quite comfortable with the Ontario high school chemistry and biology curricula, as well as grade 9 through 11 high school math, having professionally tutored all these subjects also.

On a related (but less-specifically-academic) subject, I also completed both my undergraduate and graduate studies while dealing with ADHD and clinical depression - the former of which was only diagnosed during the last year of my undergrad, and the latter of which was only diagnosed during my graduate studies. Consequently, I'm quite familiar with the difficulties that both conditions can cause a student, especially one who is already struggling, and I can give advice based on my own experience in dealing with these conditions if you think it might help you.

In regards to my teaching philosophy, my first and foremost goal is to help you *understand* the material. What that means, in general, is that I'll be happy to provide a review for any material you might be having difficulty with, to provide catch-up lectures on any subjects which you might have had trouble absorbing the first time, or to answer (given some advance notice) specific questions you have about aspects of the subject material or its application, complete with step-by-step solution methods or how-to examples as need be. In general, the form this takes will depend on what you think will work best for you - my default approach is to give brief recap-lectures covering any topics of interest, interspersed with example questions to make sure that you understand each new concept as we come to it. If you have completed tests or assignments, I'll happily work through them with you so you can ensure you won't make the same mistake twice. Similarly, I can help walk you through some common METHODS of solving the problem and point out any potential mistakes as you work through a question, although obviously I can't solve problems for you. (Quite apart from the whole 'cheating' thing - which is bad enough - giving you the answers is effectively the complete opposite of helping you understand the material.)

As an important consequence of this understanding-focused tutoring style, I do have to warn you: if you ask me a question, my first response will very often be to ask you what you THINK the answer is, and ask you to work through your response OUT LOUD so that I can follow along. It's important that you understand: I'm not doing this because I don't know the answer, to pick on you, to make you feel bad, or anything of the sort. I am asking you the question because I can't read your mind - I need information about what part of a subject or topic you don't understand, and working through problems out loud like that is one of the best tools I've ever encountered to understand what exact part of a subject we need to focus on. Furthermore, while I understand that a teacher taking this approach can understandably be embarrassing, stressful, or anxiety-inducing when you're in the middle of a class, in a one-on-one tutoring session, nobody's going to be there but us, and you're not being marked or judged - I just need to know what you don't understand before I can help you understand it. (Generally speaking, most of my students find this pretty obvious, and really, so do I - but I want to put the warning up front anyway, just in case.)