Amber: Olathe tutor

Certified Tutor

During my 3.5 years at Arizona State University I could never pick a focused area of study because I was, and still am, interested in everything. I started off as a math major because I was already very accomplished in the subject, having taken Calc 3 and Differential Equations in high school. However, I found myself wanting to explore other subjects as soon as I started college, taking courses in art and music history, dance, anthropology, and biology. I excelled in all of them, making it even harder for me to choose just one thing. I then became a biological sciences major, with an emphasis on genomics, but I couldnt let go of my other interests, wanting to continue my studies in anthropology, math, and dance. A year into that major and I wanted to change yet again, this time to physical anthropology. A year into physical anthropology, and I wanted to change my major even still. This time though I knew I had to slow down and really think about what it is I want to do.

In my time away I have realized that what has remained constant for me is a love of learning. This is why I continue to go to my local library every month, consistently leaving with a stack of 10+ books. Furthermore, while taking classes in college I found that I really enjoyed helping other students succeed in their studies. I helped people in chemistry labs and biology labs, edited essays, and worked through math problem sets with other students. When I tutored students, regardless of subject, I would bring patience and understanding with me to the session. If they were not grasping a concept, then I knew it was something that I was doing wrong. Everyone learns differently and at different paces, and my goal was and is to be able to communicate the information you want to know in a style that is most suitable for you. Additionally, when it comes to math and science courses, I emphasize conceptual understanding. When tutoring and talking to other students in chemistry, physics, etc. , I found that often times they did not know why a formula worked or why a step was being taken, causing them to make mistakes when problems did not perfectly resemble examples done in class. When I tutor, I will make sure that students have a qualitative as well as a quantitative understanding of the material, making them more adaptable to different formats of test questions. And if youre wondering about French being listed in my tutoring subjects, I took four years of French in high school, placed top 10 in the National French test my junior and senior years, and I continue to work on my French by listening and talking to my boyfriend and his family, for whom French is one of their native languages.