Fotios

Tutoring Experience

In Oxford, I was accepted by an educational company to help with their mentorship programme for Oxbridge applications, and gave my first tutorial to a class of four students in 2016.

On the other hand, my first experience with online teaching was in 2018. I started online tutorials with a student that I prepared for 1 year for the Physics Aptitude Test (PAT).

Over the past 4 years I've prepared for PAT more than 10 students, all of them being invited for interviews and some eventually accepted, seeking to study Physics or Engineering at Oxford. As an example, one of my students was invited to St Hilda's and Baliol College and she was eventually admitted to Baliol to study Engineering.

I have also prepared students for the A-level and IB Physics and Maths exams.

In particular, my two most recent A-level students received A* at both physics and maths. While, for IB, my students have received 7/7 at IB Physics SL and HL, IB Mathematics HL and Further Mathematics HL.

At the same, time I have prepared students for GCSE and IGCSE and younger ones, as well as students for the UKMT maths competitions, like the Junior Kangaroo and other Mathematical Olympiads.

Finally, I have helped plenty undergraduate students with their studies. For example, this year only, I had students from Durham Physics, Imperial Physics and Manchester Physics. We worked together throughout the year on several modules like Statistical Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, and Quantum Mechanics.

Tutoring Approach

For the PAT and other admission tests, the tutorial is structured around a set of carefully chosen questions, which the student has to complete before the session. The lesson is focused on the areas that prove to be challenging to the student. The next problem set is again adapted to the specific abilities and the challenges faced by the student.

For the admission interviews, the tutorial is again structured around a set of possible interview questions, but this time the student does not know the questions beforehand. The aim of this is to simulate the environment of the interview. The goal of the candidate should not be to answer all questions correctly but to show, through the discussion with the interviewer, that he is able to think independently and in a structured manner.

For A-level physics/maths lessons, usually the first half of the tutorial is focused on homework and the other half on discussing new concepts with the help of examples and analogies.

Similarly, for IB physics/maths lessons, the first half of the tutorial is focused on homework and the other half on covering new ideas in the syllabus.

For GCSE and younger students, most of the time is devoted to problem-solving and examples. Different ways to make the subject more exciting are explored, like watching related videos or playing games/puzzles.

Finally, with adults and undergraduates, the main focus is on the homework. Before discussing the material, the student has to spend a reasonable amount of time to solve the problem sheets, or past papers, and then these problems are discussed. Attention is brought to the areas of difficulty.