Tanah Merah, Bedok/Chai Chee, Bukit Merah, Pasir Ris, Tampines/Simei, Changi, Expo, Kembangan, Harbourfront, Outram Park, Redhill, Tanjong Pagar, Tiong Bahru
Qualification
Graduate
Tuition Background
Full-Time
Tuition/Teaching Experience
I have been tutoring since I was in Junior College 8 years ago. In total, I have tutored 7 students ranging from Primary to 'O' levels. Subjects covered include A and E Math, all Sciences (combined or pure) and English writing. The most recent two students I had (two brothers), did well in IB and 'O' levels, managing to secure places in NUS and Temasek JC respectively. Overall, I have had great experiences tutoring students, and many of us remain in touch till this day. Having covered advanced Science concepts in my degree, I bring additional insight to my tuition sessions: when confronted by curious students who ask deeper questions, instead of telling them "it is what the textbook says", I am able to explain to them in detail the nature of the Science behind the concept.
Start date: As soon as possible
Commitment: I am currently a graduate student, hence I can do weekends and after-school hours on weekdays. I can commit until June 2017 to my tuition assignments.
Rapport Building
Compared to years back when I was schooling, I concede that school children are placed under a staggering amount of stress from teachers and parents. And parents are placed under even more stress by the system and other parents. Having understood this, I am driven to help my students excel by showing them that I am on their side and their success is my intention. In previous tuition assignments, I invested my time outside of tutoring to go for meals with my students and to check in with them over SMS/Whatsapp because I believe building the tutor-student relationship is essential for my students to trust in my ability to help them excel. In addition, I constantly have a chat with the parents before/after tutoring because they know my student best and their input helps me adapt my teaching better.
Keeping Up with Curriculum
My last tuition assignment was last year and I have been in touch with current textbooks and study material. In addition, depending on the tuition assignment, I download learning objectives and syllabuses from the examining authority's website. For example, for an 'A' level assignment, I refer to http://www.seab.gov.sg/pages/nationalExaminations/GAL/School_Candidates/2017_GCE_A.asp to get a good understanding of outcomes expected of an 'A' level student. I then use that information to supplement textbooks in my tuition sessions.
As a Good Tutor
In gist, a good tutor should have at baseline qualities of adaptability, commitment and patience.
Adaptability: Because every student is different, tutors must be able to switch teaching styles in order to maximize the student's learning experience in the very short tuition session. I have taught students from different proficiency levels and also taught one with a mild learning disability. Through that, I have learnt to be flexible and self-correcting when it comes to teaching a new student.
Commitment: Outside of committing personal time, I feel that tutors have to "buy in" to their students; their students' excellence reflects their effective teaching. I have invested time in my undergraduate years to mentor junior university students in Science and at this point, many of them have been accepted into prestigious research labs and PhD programmes; the satisfaction of committing my effort and time into these students is remarkable.
Patience: Most tuition students opt for tuition because they have difficulty keeping up with their schoolwork and require dedicated and focused education. Due to this, tutors have to be patient as their students may often be slow on the uptake and require repeated testing to fully understand the concepts. I tend to layer my tuition sessions, such that up to 10-15 minutes of a session is committed to recapping the content and concepts covered in the previous session. I have found that this is effective in maximizing retention.
