1. Bring your mathematics textbook and workbook from school.
It is a lot harder to identify where you need help if you do not have your books with you. However, if you do forget your books, all is not lost because I always come prepared with my own books. We can achieve more if you bring your own work, though.
2. Attempt your mathematics homework before our tutoring session.
Have a go at any homework set by your teacher and make a note of questions you had trouble with.
This way, we can devote more of the session to the productive work of helping you understand material that does not yet make sense – rather than the unproductive work of going over homework you can already do by yourself.
3. Revise regularly.
At the end of each session I will suggest some revision to reinforce what we have covered and prepare you for upcoming exams and tests.
Please don’t think of this as extra work. The goal is to make your life easier by spacing out revision that you will need to do at some point anyway – not to make your life harder by loading you up with “extra” homework!
Doing a little bit of revision while something is fresh in your mind is a lot easier than trying re-learn something before a test that you actually did understand a week ago.
4. If anything I say does not make sense, stop me immediately!
Many students are initially shy about telling me if an explanation does not make sense.
This can usually be traced back to a maths teacher who got visibly annoyed when asked questions in the middle of an explanation. Such behaviour may be understandable in a class of 20+ students, but the whole point of individual tuition is that you can ask such questions!
Don’t ever feel awkward or “dumb” if you don’t understand what I have said. My job is to find a way of explaining maths that makes sense to you. So, if my explanation does not make sense, I have failed – not you.