Looking to excel in Maths? With several years of tutoring experience and currently in my final year studying mathematics at Edinburgh University, I'm here to help you achieve your goals. My journey to a top university was shaped by exceptional teachers during high school, and now I'm eager to pass on that opportunity to others. Holding A* grades in Maths, Further Maths, and Physics A levels, I possess expert knowledge in both GCSE and A-level Maths, along with a broader understanding of statistics and finance topics.
In addition to my mathematics proficiency, I bring solid credentials in Computer Science. While I attained an A in Computer Science AS-level, I demonstrated exceptional competence by scoring 150 marks out of 160 in standardized assessments. Although I did not complete the A-level, I enriched my skills at university, particularly in a prestigious course on machine learning in Python, where I achieved a 2:1 grade. This course delved into the mathematics and coding principles underlying Neural Networks, Convolutional Neural Networks, and other AI techniques.
Furthermore, I have practical experience coding in various languages, including MATLAB, R, STATA, Solidity, Java, and Maxima. Whether it's mastering mathematical concepts or diving into the world of computer science, I'm committed to guiding you toward success. Let's embark on this journey together!
I taught many students with this agency for exams such as A-level, GCSE, National 5 and Higher Maths. Through these experiences I have established a confident tutoring style. It has been very rewarding work to help so many students get better grades and learn to enjoy maths.
My Tutor
Mathematics Tutor
Apr 2021 - Nov 2022|United Kingdom
I began tutoring online with this website to gain experience. I typically taught students that were in lower sets and had been referred by the school for extra support. This was a great learning experience for me to get used to tutoring in a professional setting and improve my skills. I found this job very rewarding as many of the students didn’t have any other access to 1:1 support in or out of school.
I currently swim with the edinburgh university performance team and spend a lot of my time in the pool or in the gym as this is one of my biggest passions and some of my proudest achievements such as winning the Welsh Championships for the 200 fly in a 2.02. Whilst it has been difficult at times to manage academic work and sporting commitments both have been very rewarding overall. I used to be a competitive chess player getting to an elo of about 2000 and following a break for a few years I have reccently rekindled my interest in the game. Whilst I mainly tutor maths I would consider tutoring chess as well. Within maths whilst I have studied a broad range of topics over the years and found many interesting areas I have by far spent the most time studying financial markets and how statistics and reasoning can by applied to this.
Ben is a very professional tutor. He is always respectful during lessons and does not appear intimidating or patronising which is especially important when students are less confident on a topic.
Teaching Skills
Due to his strong knowledge and understanding of maths, Ben's teaching methods are very versatile with him being able to explain concepts in different ways to address the students teaching methods to make sure they get the most of the session. He always appears calm and reassures students when they are less confident on a topic or appear embarrassed when they get a question wrong.
General
Overall, Ben's calmness and knowledge of maths allows him to carry out sessions with upmost professionalism and confidence whilst also maintaining a calm, supportive teaching environment which in turn allows his students to gain confidence in their own skills. It is clear that Ben's students make significant progress when they sit exams.
“I got my results and I got a C in Maths. Thanks for the coaching Ben”- A student Predicted an E upon completion of their A levels
Lisa
“He said after the lesson tonight you are really helping him and he has learned so much from you. I can see his confidence is growing as well, no more stressing over his maths work so thank you.”
The main topic for my lesson was scale factors and I began to explain how to calculate areas and volumes of the basic shapes with the goal of demonstrating the effect of a change in cross sectional area on volume. This is a fairly routine lesson and at first sight not that interesting so understandably about 15 minutes in the student seemed partially engaged but I thought how can I make this a more memorable topic?
I asked the student what sorts of films do you like?(hoping she would say any film that had large mythical creatures involved). She mentioned Dr Strange and Harry Potter so I talked about the scene in Harry Potter where they get chased by the giant spiders in the forest. Much to everyones relief giant spiders are actually nothing to be scared of mainly because of ... maths. The weight of an animal is proportional to its size/volume(width x height x length). The strength of an animal is roughly proportional to its bone thickness(thickness is just another word for cross sectional area(width x length). So if you took a normal spider and made it 10 times bigger its weight will increase by a factor of 10x10x10 = 1000 but its strength will only increase by a factor of 10x10 = 100. Combining this with the fact that spiders have an exoskeleton which is a weak designs of bone structure and any spiders as large as Aragog is shown in Harry Potter could be easily destroyed with the smallest of pushes as they cannot support the weight of their own bodies. With these ideas in mind the student had a much better intuitive grasp of the subject and was interested in answering more questions for the rest of the lesson.
Notes : This idea also applies to any large creature living on the surface of earth such as King Kong.
For animals to be human sized or bigger they have to have a strong bone structure like we do with internal bones.
To understand why bone strength is proportional to area think about breaking a stick. It doesn't really matter how long the stick is what makes it harder/easier to snap is the thickness(cross-sectional area). Thicker bones can support more weight than thin ones.