Information About Aleksandra - Cambridge teacher -
(9 reviews)

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This is how 2 referees rated Aleksandra:

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Subjects Taught

Creative Writing	Price Guide
Beginner	£65.00
Intermediate	£65.00
Advanced	£65.00
Expert	£65.00
Elocution	Price Guide
Beginner	£65.00
Intermediate	£65.00
Advanced	£65.00
Expert	£65.00

Personal Description:

I am a PhD candidate and MPhil graduate of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, where I have for the past almost four years also provided literary and linguistic instruction and dissertation supervision to undergraduate students, as well as assessed applicant entrance examinations. Prior, I completed a BA Hons at Utrecht University, Netherlands, with internships in Sheffield, England, and Heidelberg, Germany; a Matura in Ljubljana, Slovenia; and lived across a number of European regions.

Privately, I offer individually tailored tuition across a number of languages, linguistics, literatures, and adjacent areas (having concentrated on English as a postgraduate, and having obtained a broader background across Dutch, German, French, Russian, Serbian, Croatian and other languages), as well as aid with critical, analytical, reading and writing skills (applicable across the arts and humanities). I have a more comprehensive pair of profiles through FirstTutors: Academic and FirstTutors: Languages (through the two of which I do most of my private tutoring), but, through FirstTutors: Arts, I also offer tuition in a couple of additional areas (not covered by the other two).

Teaching Experience:

I have taught extensively through a combination of educational institutions, access and support initiatives, and platforms like this one. For the past four years, I have been an 'Academic Supervisor' and 'Academic Assessor' at the University of Cambridge, providing instruction and dissertation supervison to undergraduate students at the Faculty of English and the Faculty of Modern and Mediaeval Languages (specialising in critical skills as well as in texts and contexts of the period 1830–present) as well as offering assessment and moderation of applicant entrance examinations and interviews (including as part of the CELAT/ELAT and CMLAT/MLAT). Outside of Cambridge, I have provided tuition to a number of independent adult learners, postgraduate, undergraduate, secondary and middle school students through initiatives such as Continued Education Courses, Summer Schools affiliated with The Sutton Trust and The Friends of Youth, and several Cambridge college access and support schemes. Throughout, I have also privately offered individually tailored tuition across the languages, linguistics, literatures, and adjacent areas, as well as aid with critical, analytical, reading and writing skills.

Teaching Approach:

I am aware of students' different personal and educational backgrounds and learning profiles, and ultimately aim to structure my lessons around each individual. Therefore, if a student is able to provide previous or current syllabi, express particular interests, or articulate particular difficulties (whether due to a lack of experience, confidence, or a learning profile that has traditionally been marginalised by schools and universities), this can be especially useful for me to know. From there, I aim to structure my lessons so that they are not only individually tailored, but also especially interactive (drawing much from the Cambridge supervision system I am used to working within) so as to allow the student to very actively develop knowledge, understanding, and not only theoretical but quite practical skills.

In addition to aiding with a specific area, due to my academic background, I am also particularly capable of improving students' critical and analytical capabilities — and ensuring they can effectively read, analyse, research and write within the literatures, linguistics, languages, and adjacent areas in the arts and humanities (after all, all of these academic skills are highly transferrable, and will aid with clarity, accuracy and precision across subjects and in coursework and examinations alike). I would suggest that imparting these skills is easiest accomplished, in most cases, through carefully guided practice — by, on the one hand, leading the student through how to approach written as well as oral prompts and, on the other hand, also regularly providing them with detailed, thorough feedback on their independent pieces of work (take-away essays, papers, assignments, portfolios, or even dissertation drafts), which can then be discussed further (and fine-tuned for their continued development) in person.

Tutor Resources: (free to download)

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Native Language: Slovene
Availability: Weekends / Weekdays (all times)
References Available: Yes (✔ On File)

Qualifications:

University of Cambridge (2019) - Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Modern and Contemporary Literature (Masters) (✔ On File)
Utrecht University (2018) - Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Mediaeval and Modern Literatures, Linguistics, Languages and Philosophy (Parallel Honours) (Bachelors) (✔ On File)

Aleksandra's Feedback

Total Amount Of Feedback:	9
Total Positive Feedback:	9 Av. 5.00/5.00

From Etienne (5/5): A brilliant tutor -- she has provided invaluable aid proofreading, restructuring and suggesting how to improve content. Her annotations are SUPERB -- incredibly thorough, with lots of useful explanations of syntax, structure, terminology etc. and elements of content, analysis etc. that I never would have thought of. To be honest, just the annotations themselves are like getting 2-3 extra hours of content explained to you in detail, without needing to take notes on your own to be able to take them away from the session.

Reply from: Aleksandra:Thank you, Étienne. I am delighted you have found our appointments, and my annotations of your work, so useful, and hope some of that use extends beyond your current work into all that undoubtedly yet to come as you continue exploring your interests.

From Olivier (5/5): Aleksandra is an excellent tutor. My child took on some university modules that they weren't quite prepared for and that it became too late for them to drop, and Aleksandra was able to come in late, at short notice, and carefully explain exactly what the assignments were about, what the assessments would be looking for in accordance with the instructions and criteria, and how to approach completing them successfully by breaking up large, complex tasks into their smaller, more easily addressible component parts. My child is feeling much more confident and capable in an area of their studies that was previously causing them much stress, and has actually begun feeling excited to submit assignments and get the marks for them back each week.

Reply from: Aleksandra:Thank you so much, Olivier. I'm always delighted when I can help a student develop the confidence, and the requisite skillset, to pursue their interests though these may initially have seemed quite daunting. I very much look forward to continuing to work with your child as and when needed throughout the academic year.

From James (5/5): Aleksandra was a huge help to my daughter, and meticulously explained, planned and helped her write up and edit her university assignments at very short notice, and up to a high standard (my daughter's professor even used one of her assignments as an example for the class of how to approach the task!).
In comparison to the writing help my daughter's university centre offers, Aleksandra was absolutely incredible, adapting to my daughter's needs and going through the documents we'd sent her in advance of appointments so as to offer the best possible disability adjustments (unsurprisingly, out of the tutors we contacted through the platform, Aleksandra was not only one of our immediate choices, but highly recommended for our needs by one of her colleagues whom we simultaneously reached out to but who was busy at the time!).
In the end, given the amount of annotations on assignments Aleksandra offered on top of each hour, and how detailed these were (giving my daughter detailed explanations and examples applicable to not just present but future assignments), we thought the services she provided were far above and beyond what we could have hoped for, and priced far beneath what we would have been very glad to pay.

Reply from: Aleksandra:Thank you so much, James. It's been a pleasure working with your daughter on her many interesting assignments, and I'm glad you've found it's helped build her confidence and added to her skillset. I do look forward to continuing to work with her as and when needed throughout the academic year.

From Lotte (5/5): I'm so thrilled to have found Aleksandra. She came very highly recommended by a group of Uzbek and Kazakh students whom she designed an English course for, starting from a shared knowledge of Russian, and I was not disappointed! First of all, she is incredibly knowledgeable – she clearly has a huge amount of interest in languages, linguistics and literatures, and a background that allows her to gather information from a lot of different cultures and sources to comprehensively explain developments in structuralism, deconstruction etc. Second, she is clearly very creative but also very considerate – there is nothing she can't explain in a number of different ways and with a great deal of patience. I've been having a couple of different university-level lessons with her, and the effect has been undebiable – I feel much more confident and capable of approaching my readings critically, analysing them, structuring my own arguments around them, and also just generally bringing in a much more solid knowledge and understanding of topics. I'd recommend her with absolutely no reservations!

Reply from: Aleksandra:Thank you, Lotte, for your kind words. I am glad you have found our appointments so useful, and now feel more prepared to exercise your critical capabilities. It's been a delight working with you on all of your courses this past term, and I look forward to continuing to do so over the upcoming academic year.

From Emma (5/5): I feel really lucky to have found Aleksandra. I've been having university-level lessons with her to help me improve my ability to read, analyse and produce arguments about texts, and it's had such an effect – as well as massively improved my ability to approach tasks calmly! Aleksandra is clearly really knowledgeable, insightful, and also puts in a great deal of independent preparation in advance of each one of our lessons – they're structured so that, as a student, you get loads out of a single hour! She's patient, detailed and exceptionally thorough – she never dismisses any questions I have but considers all avenues of inquiry when we analyse a text together, and helps direct and structure my thoughts. For me, it was also especially important that she is very aware of context – she's had a lot of experience working within different academic traditions, so she can articulate all of the unstated expectations that are more relevant in a British context, or that distinguish it from the French or German that I am more used to. I've actually progressed more with her than with all of my tutors through university so far, so if you're looking for university lessons, and especially a way to improve your critical, reading or writing skills, she is an absolute steal!

Reply from: Aleksandra:Thank you, Emma, for all of your kind words. I am thrilled you have found our appointments so useful, especially knowing how difficult it can be for even the most curious and clever of students to acclimate to different academic cultures, even ones that would initially appear to be quite closely connected yet turn out to be underpinned by a number of opaque and often almost arbitrarily different standards. It's been a delight to work with you on all of your papers over the course of this past term, and I look forward to continuing to do so over the upcoming academic year.

From Liam (5/5): We were exceptionally pleased with Aleksandra’s tuition. She is highly knowledgeable, adaptable, and was very well organised and ensured she understood the syllabus in advance of the lessons so that she could offer the most effective aid to our child. She also emailed extensive annotations and comments on essays in advance of each lesson. We would highly recommend her to others.

Reply from: Aleksandra:Thank you, Liam, for your kind words and for having taken the time to write them. I am thrilled to hear that you and your child have found the appointments so useful, and that they have had the desired effect on your child's school performance. I wish them all the best in their continued education, and hope the foundations we have set will contribute to this as their interests continue to extend and refine.

From Lauren (5/5): Aleksandra is worth every penny. She was extremely conscientious, ensured she was familiar with the syllabus and assessment criteria, and proactively engaged with my child's needs to help them gain confidence and experience after so much has been missed due to Covid-19 lockdowns. Despite the lessons being only an hour long, Aleksandra would email information after and in advance of each lesson, and mark assignments sent to her outside of lesson time so that there was always detailed feedback available in time for the next lesson. My child's performance improved remarkably quickly as a result. I would unreservedly recommend Aleksandra to others. She is a true credit to FirstTutors.

Reply from: Aleksandra:Thank you, Lauren, for your kind words and for having taken the time to write them. I am thrilled to hear that you and your child have found the appointments so useful, and that they have had the desired effect on your child's school performance. I wish them all the best in their continued education, and hope the foundations we have set will contribute to this even as their interests continue to extend and refine.

From Anna (5/5): Aleksandra is SUCH an amazing tutor! She has an enormous amount of knowledge and experience that instantly shines through when you discuss things with her. She has a keen insight and constantly poses questions that make you think "Wow! How did she even think of that!?" She was extremely helpful in developing my understanding and analysis of the texts and contexts necessary and then also my confidence in actually approaching them, and gave me the final push I needed to get my paper done! Her ability to take ideas or expressions I wasn't particularly happy with and in a couple of words completely reframe them so they suddenly acquired an additional dimension and clicked into place was truly something else. She was always encouraging, and helped me find approaches that thoroughly worked for me and my paper. She is quite simply amazing at what she does, and I cannot express how much she helped me as a tutor. Thank you for so much and more!!

Reply from: Aleksandra:Thank you, Anna, for your kind words and for having taken the time to write them. I am thrilled you have found our appointments so useful, and hope some of that use extends beyond your current paper and into all those undoubtedly yet to come as you continue exploring your interests.

From Teia (5/5): I feel incredibly fortunate to have found Aleksandra. She is patient, proactive about arranging accommodations to suit my learning style and academic history, and is always prepared to offer precise, detailed and even imaginative explanations and points of consideration. I find that she prompts me to think about theoretical concepts and their applications, especially when they are particularly difficult or intricate, from a number of different, often unexpected angles and provides me with the necessary support to develop my critical approaches to research, reading and writing. I would absolutely recommend her as a tutor, especially to fellow university students and adult learners, who will appreciate someone who will still be able to invigorate their critical skills even if they are already quite far along in their education.

Reply from: Aleksandra:Thank you, Teia, for the kind words and for having taken the time to write them. It is always a delight to discuss topics with with you, and I am glad you have been finding our appointments so useful in your academic development.

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