TJ

I have tutored grades 6-College both privately and at tutoring centers for each of the universities I attended. I have a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Denver and a master's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

My tutoring style:

My approach to tutoring could be roughly described as the “Socratic method” adapted to mathematics and occasionally science. I try to prompt students and hint at what they should try much more often than I give direct answers. Sometimes, when a student and I are doing a new kind of problem, I will start by walking them through it step-by-step. But the goal is always to transition the student into independent mastery of the material. This is especially important in mathematics and math-heavy sciences where confidence is often just as much of a barrier as conceptual difficulty.

Success story:

All of my stand-out success stories have a common thread: they start out with a student who believes themselves to “not be a math person” and who later has a breakthrough. In the most dramatic case to date, I once worked with a high school student who was struggling in geometry. We worked together for about four hours a few days before a big test. During that time together, she reasoned her way through a proof entirely from scratch and, separately, learned how to derive one of the equations in her textbook. Up until that point she had basically seen geometry problems as something you have to more-or-less memorize the solution to. Once she had experienced the process of coming to understand some of these problems, she brought a new kind of confidence and attitude to her studies and scored a little more than two letter grades higher on her test than she had on the ones previous.

Hobbies and interests:

Reading, hiking, being outdoors.