Sam

Hello, and thank you for reading my profile. Your learning is in safe hands!

I'm Sam, and I (perhaps unsurprisingly) love teaching -- there is nothing more enjoyable than seeing a face light up as it hits that 'eureka!' realisation, or witnessing the elation as a once-struggling student scores their first practice A.

I have been teaching ever since I was a child -- it was my primary method for embedding concepts into my memory once I had quickly learned them. This method guided me to a Maths and Economics BSc and an Information Systems MSc at two Russell Group universities, and it has helped me throughout my career as an accountant, English teacher, and cyber security consultant as well. Throughout my career, I have tutored students on the side, honing my approach and building my experience. I endeavour to make a habit of learning something new each day.

In my spare time I like to write fiction and learn new languages. Currently, I'm learning Korean! 언녕하세요!

Tutoring Experience

Whilst studying at university, I tutored several individuals through A-level and GCSE Maths, as well as first year university modules.

After acquiring my BSc though, I travelled abroad and taught English for over a year in Prague. During this time, I learned a great deal about the different techniques used for language learning and how they were also applicable to STEM teaching too.

Upon returning to the UK, I studied for an MSc in Information Systems, and then worked as an accountant with KPMG, and then later a cyber security consultant, at KPMG then Accenture. As mentioned above, I tutored students throughout this time, and my younger students in particular were eager to hear about my experiences in the industry and any tips or tricks I had for the application process.

Tutoring Approach

The first aspect of my approach is simple: learning must be fun and engaging or it will quickly be forgotten.

It's a tried and tested system, and the concept is easy to understand. After all, how well do you learn when bored, tired, or wishing you were somewhere else? For better or worse, our cognitive functions like memory and problem-solving are linked to our feelings. So it doesn't matter how well a concept is explained if the student is too bored to care. And if they don't care, they don't remember.

As a tutor, I strive to bring energy to the classroom (or Zoom call!), combined with simple, patient explanations that naturally bring the student to the right conclusion.

That brings me to the second aspect: a good tutor is not a lecturer, but an assistant. It's basic psychology that we understand a solution better when we arrive at the conclusions ourselves, and tutoring is all about giving a student that nudge here and there that helps them reach their destination faster. Most students are so much smarter than they think, but they often give up too quickly, or the teacher reveals the answer too soon, when, with just a little guidance, they might have found the answer themselves.