Malcolm

I am absolutely passionate about education, and particularly Maths. Being the first person in my family to go to University and, in getting an excellent First Class Honours Degree, succeeding in education shaped my life and opened doors for me to a 30 years successful Investment Banking Career in the City. During that career, almost every day I used Maths, analysing financial figures using complex computer models.
Most people do use Maths in their work and everyday life without realising it, if only to check whether a 3-for-2 offer in a supermarket is worth it. Having retired, I want to help other people to realise their potential and have a similar, or even more successful, career. Maths is an essential subject for success, as most employers want a good level of qualification, and as a family man with six kids, I know how much Maths ability can vary even between children in the same family.
Finding the way in which a person can relate to, understand and become confident in Maths, turning anxiety about the subject into strength, is the key to success and improving grades. It takes patience, perseverance and ingenuity but I have achieved it on numerous occasions. I also have extensive experience of working with those who require a bit more attention and help, such as students with ADHD, Autism, emotional and behavioural problems and other forms of learning difficulties.

Tutoring Experience

Since retiring from the City, I have taught Maths in Further Education at Croydon College. I have taught Maths at all levels from Functional Skills Entry Level and Levels 1 and 2, through GCSE to Access Level 3.
I have taught all of the same levels of Maths in one-to-one tutoring. I am a well qualified, confident, patient and painstaking tutor, whose first aim is to understand the individual needs of new students and to prepare lessons, handouts, practice sheets and revision plans to meet those needs. I build competence and confidence in Maths through explanation, repetition and practice. Applying their learning through regularly answering actual exam questions and practising exam techniques invariably leads to confidence and the achievement of higher grades. I have also taught many students with physical disabilities and learning difficulties and I am very experienced in meeting their learning needs and helping them to succeed.

Tutoring Approach

I start from my belief that everyone can understand and succeed in academic Maths, as they use Maths in their everyday lives without realising it, e.g. telling the time. But some students become uncomfortable and even scared of Maths, particularly when numbers are replaced by words or letters. The key is to find their individual way to make them feel comfortable and confident with Maths and to help them want to explore the subject further.
I start with an initial assessment of a student which covers most of the topics in the curriculum they are studying. Having identified the topics they have no problem with and those where they are not so comfortable, I focus on their comfort topics, repeating them and building confidence through success. I then gradually move on to topics of increasing complexity, building confidence through detailed explanation and repetition of problem solving. Where a student cannot grasp a topic, I go back to basics and break down the topic into small chunks/steps, take them through those chunks/steps and by repetition and practice create understanding and confidence. I always set homework, so that repetition, practice and learning can continue between tutoring sessions.

I find that regularly applying and testing what they have learnt by answering actual exam questions, in increasingly time constrained conditions, invariably builds the confidence students need to achieve higher grades. They become familiar with the layout, structure and wording of exam papers and how to apply exam techniques such as allocating time, spotting questions that they can answer easily and quickly, and identifying and separating out the key information in more complex word questions needed for the calculations to solve the problem and get the right answer. It also gives me essential feedback on topics or exam techniques which a student is finding difficult, so I can provide further explanation and practice and build them into their revision programmes.