Jeremy: Federal Way tutor

Certified Tutor

For the past 8 years, I have been a lover of tutoring. I believe it is one of the best ways to help young students get a better education because they can address their personal grievances. Often times, our teachers fail us because they do not provide enough one-on-one time, or do so in a setting where they are afraid to ask questions. Tutors help others to overcome their shortcomings and allow for better retention of knowledge. This not only helps the student, but the tutor to keep important skills fresh in their minds. I have been on both the receiving and providing ends of this excellent system. It is my personal belief that tutors provide the best source of information for students, as they understand exactly what the student goes through and can provide a better educational experience because of it.

Through my experience as a tutor, I have been refining my teaching skills through the past 8 years. Math has been my favorite subject to tutor, as I can see vivid progress as understanding comes on my student's faces. However, I have also tutored for other STEM fields such as physics and coding. Additionally, I've taught test prep as well. Because of my wide range of experiences, I can confidently say I am an excellent STEM teacher for my friends and others in my community. However, I would like to expand my horizons and begin to teach others with different educational experiences. Varsity Tutors stood out to me as an amazing opportunity to explore what others have gone through in our system. Hopefully, I can learn more about how students learn and thus provide better guidance for future mentees.

I have 3 steps to my tutoring:
1) The first thing is get to know the student. What are they interested in? What do they do outside of school? How do they usually study? I've found in past tutoring experiences that relating to what they are passionate about helps them to understand more about the content. For example, I tutored someone that loved math but didn't know how to code. By probing what they knew about the basics of math, I was able to relate simple math functions with single variable inputs to coding functions with multi-variable inputs. Even knowing about certain video games has helped me provide better material for tutoring.

2) Then it's time to see what their skill level is at with the current subject they are studying. I would ask them to perform a few problems that they should know at the current point in their class. I am able to see their issues by this point. By catching fundamental shortcomings, I am often able to highlight the important points the student should practice and come up with problems on the spot to aid their understanding.

3) The last step is to observe how well they deal with practice. Do they learn better by doing similar problems over and over again? Or should I keep reminding them of similar mistakes in later practice problems? How often should I provide the solution? These are important questions I answer that influence the rest of my time with the student. I adapt to any issues that may arise, such as lack of understanding, frequent misreading of prompts, and fear of STEM subjects in general.

Currently, I am working towards a Biomedical Engineering degree at Johns Hopkins University. Outside of school, I like to perform medical research, beatbox for my a capella group, play the violin, and practice martial arts!