Information About Theo - Dublin tutor

Personal Description:

I am a 22-year-old Irish guy with a strong interest in science communication. I've recently finished my final year of undergraduate studies in Trinity, for a course called Physics and Chemistry of Advanced Materials*, and will be returning there in September (2024) to start a PhD in Physics. I am available on weekends and some weekday evenings.

Why should you choose me for science/maths grinds? I can offer a unique perspective on these subjects, because I did *not* excel at them when I was in school. I know from direct experience how it feels to spend hours pouring over school textbooks without making sufficient progress in my understanding. I was a student who excelled at essay writing and struggled with problem solving subjects, and it is all too often in secondary school that this "smart-but-not-maths-smart" performance feeds an assumption that only those with a natural aptitude can succeed in maths-heavy subjects.

Only through my university years have I gained the proper understanding of maths, physics and chemistry I was looking for, and I did it by learning to reframe difficult concepts in ways that enabled me to slowly gain intuition and aptitude, culminating in a competitive PhD funding award offer this year. This perspective enables me to find the source of misunderstandings and work together with the student to make sense of the topics in a way that suits their brain.

Equally, a regular problem I experienced with these subjects in school is that certain concepts are treated as axioms in the syllabus and not properly explained. If the student is curious, or struggles with the "just accept this as true, it's too complicated to explain" parts of an LC syllabus, I will be happy to provide them with a better explanation from my further studies.

As for English, while I have no third level qualifications in it, I achieved a H1 in my Leaving Cert exam and received consistently positive feedback from multiple teachers during my secondary years. My ability to answer questions concisely and with a compelling yet accurate narrative was regularly praised. I am very familiar with the common problems faced by students in this subject as my help was frequently solicited from my peers in school. I am aware that many students regard success in English as a bit of a magic art, and that there prevails a notion that it can't be relied on for points because of subjective marking. While the marking scheme is indeed more blurred in English than in STEM subjects, if you are able to write good essays, you *will* receive good marks. With the right approach, English can be an extremely enjoyable subject to prepare for, and I hope to impress that upon any student I tutor. My passion for English has never dulled, and I continue to enjoy reading and creative writing in my spare time, which has kept me sharp in this area.

*Please note that this qualification is listed as 'Not on File' on my profile as I have only just finished as of May, and my degree will not be conferred until late Autumn or early Winter of 2024 (the graduation ceremony has not yet been scheduled). If you are interested in my services and would like proof that I have completed this course, I am happy to provide it for you. Once attained, I will upload my final certificate to this site for verification purposes.

Tutoring Experience:

As a recent college graduand, I do not have professional teaching experience. However, I have taught free classes in physics and beginner's Japanese as part of college society organisations, and have tutored secondary school students in maths and science as favours to friends and family, with good results. Equally, communicating scientific concepts in digestible ways has been a cornerstone of my degree, from presenting group projects to writing my thesis. I am therefore confident in my ability to teach these subjects.

Approach to Grinds:

For a student struggling with a particular subject, I believe there is little to be gained in simply re-stating the course material. Therefore, I will work together with the student to understand the source of their confusion on each topic and address it in a way that makes more sense to them.

If the student knows exactly which parts of the course they need help with, or are preparing for an upcoming test etc… I am happy to follow their lead and help them with the specific parts they request. Conversely, if they are just not connecting well with the subject and are looking for more general help, my approach will depend on their specific needs, which can be ascertained from discussion. I will detail some example scenarios to illustrate this:

Scenario A: The student has a good understanding of Mechanics, but is struggling with Electricity. I will discuss with them to figure out why one makes more sense in their mind than the other. Perhaps it is that they can visualise a problem about the velocity of a moving vehicle, but lack the same logical intuition for a problem concerning an electric field. Then, we can start by comparing the flow of electric charge to the motion of a vehicle. Visualise it as such, with appropriate analogies, and the topic is slowly re-framed until they can understand it. Physics, Chemistry and Maths are full of topics that students may not realise are fundamentally relying on the same few concepts, which can lead to many satisfying "aha" moments!

Scenario B: The student has the same problem as above, but does not learn well using analogies and wants to treat topics separately. We will start at the very basics of Electricity, and assemble a 'toolbox' of the fundamental concepts upon which the rest of the topic relies. We work together to ensure the student understands each of these 'tools', and if it helps we can write them on slips of paper. We then look at more advanced parts of the topic, consulting the 'toolbox' to see which concepts we need to use for each one. Later we can move on to practice questions using the same approach This trains the student to extract the necessary information from exam questions and to avoid freezing up in exam conditions.

Scenario C: The student chose Chemistry for Leaving Cert because they enjoyed it at Junior Cycle level, but they are struggling with the steep difficulty curve and feel too overwhelmed to even know where to start. I will work with the student to figure out what sections of the course they *do* understand, and move from there to the most related section that they *don't* understand, drawing the relevant parallels between the two sections as we go. We then move to the next most related section, and so on. If the student feels they do not understand anything in the course, we can start at the very beginning and take this approach forward. If at any point they wish to circle back to a forgotten topic, we can do so.

These are just a few examples. It all depends on the person being tutored and the way their brain works. I am always receptive to criticism and my tutees should feel comfortable telling me if the current approach isn't helping; above all else I want to help them succeed, and the grinds will ideally be a collaborative effort between tutor and tutee, rather a one-sided lecture.

Online grinds are an option, but bear in mind that they may not be as effective as face-to-face grinds as the collaborative aspect may be a little bit stunted.