Highly Experienced Chemistry Tutor - Chemistry lessons for A Level, GCSE, KS3 or any other level

Find out more about George

• 1) When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  1. I have been interested in science and maths since before I started primary school. Doing all science and maths A levels (Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths) was an easy choice for me, and since I didn't want to choose just one to specialise in, it made sense to apply to study Natural Sciences at university - this allowed me to take a variety of different science and maths courses. Tutoring as a career has the same benefit - I am able to spend time with students working on all the sciences and maths rather than specialising. I love the breadth of knowledge that this allows me to maintain.

• 2) Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  2. I teach Biology, Chemistry and Maths up to A level, as well as Physics up to GCSE. I find Maths very satisying to teach because I love seeing students who thought they could never be good at maths making rapid progress they didn't think was possible and actually starting to find the subject interesting. With the sciences, what I love is helping students gain a deeper understanding of how the world around them works. I really love digging into the fundamentals of Chemistry - especially structure and bonding. I find this is something that few students have a strong understading of, meaning it is an area where I can add a lot of value.

• 3) Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  3. I have had lots of teachers who have been role models, but the two who have probably had the biggest influence on my approach to teaching are my year 11 form tutor and my year 13 Biology teacher. They both taught me the importance of maintiaining a good rapore with your students in order to make lessons enjoyable and productive.

• 4) What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  4. In my opinion, being a good tutor requires: patience, listening skills, a strong understanding of how learning works, and of course excellent subject knowledge.

• 5) Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  5. When I was at university, for one of my courses I had a lesson where we were put into pairs in order to work through some problems on a computer. Me and the friend who I was working with got through the first few questions without too much difficulty, but then we got stuck. The next question just didn't seem to have enough information for us to be able to work out the answer. However, when we looked around the room we could see that most of the other students had gotten past that question. We were a little embarrassed that we were so completely stuck on a question that everyone else had dealt with fairly quickly, and we considered just skipping it to save ourselves from having to announce our failure to the room. However, we decided to call one of the teachers over to ask for help. After looking at the question, the teacher realised that there was in fact a problem with the question - there wasn't enough information to be able to answer it - and they announced this to the class. Clearly the other students had all just skipped it. This experience really reinforced to me the importance of sticking with the questions you get stuck on and not skipping over them. If you always try to avoid situations where people can see the gaps in your knowledge, you will miss opportunities to fill those gaps.

• 6) What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  6. When I first started teaching Biology, I found the kidney a difficult topic. I like to understand each topic to a deeper level than my students need to know for their exams, and initially I wasn't able to do that with the kidney. It wasn't something that I had studied in detail at university, and while the A level specification and textbook told me what facts my students needed to know, I didn't feel I could give a fuller explanation of how the kidney works. So I went away and got a university-level animal physiology textbook and read about it in detail. This allowed me to get the deeper understanding of this complex topic that the A level textbook was not giving me. Of course, I don't always go into the full details when teaching it, as that level of understanding is not required for A level. However, I feel that having that deeper understanding allows me to explain it more clearly and means I am ready for students whose curiosity makes them want to go further than the specification requires.

• 7) Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  7. I would say my biggest passion within teaching is helping students to see what they are capable of and to grow in confidence. I have met so many students who for whatever reason have come to believe that they lack the 'natural ability' required to excel at maths and science, when in fact what is holding them back is gaps in their early knowledge as well as a lack of understanding of how to study effectively. It is very enjoyable to help them identify and fill those gaps and learn effective study methods, and watch their confidence and enjoyment of the subjects grow.

• 8) What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions :-P) ?

  8. I would say that one of the biggest ways my students benefit from my tutoring is that as well as teaching them the content I also teach them how to study effectively, meaning that they not only gain the learning that takes place during the lessons, but they are also able to learn at a faster pace outside of the lessons too. I provide my students with study skills that will benefit them for life.