Mathematics undergraduate with 100+ hours of tutoring experience helping GCSE and A-level students achieve top grades!

Find out more about Ahmad

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

  My interest in maths mainly started near the end of my GCSEs. I had originally struggled with it a lot; I still remember scoring extremely lowly on my Year 10 Mocks for it. What really got me hooked on it was the ability to see consistent improvement in my marks with consistent hard work. I began engaging in class much more and finding out more and more about what I was learning, and beyond. This led me to take a last-minute decision to pick up Maths at A-level, which then further led me to currently pursue my Bachelors in Maths. And the rest is history!
  
  My interest in tutoring stems from my love for the process of seeing students improve in maths. This started off with helping fellow classmates in the lead-up to A-level exams, which helped me see that I really enjoy teaching others the most efficient ways of improving their mathematical intuition. Private tutoring was naturally the most effective way for me to pursue this passion, and after some quick research I clearly saw that Superprof was the best option out there.

• 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).

  Maths really does permeate every aspect of our lives. From biology, economics, physics and even some areas of philosophy, it's really hard to find a subject more important in our modern-day lives. There are numerous topics I like discussing with my students, a few being: probability, algebra, graph theory and my personal favourite: calculus! I never did take a liking to geometry though…

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

  My main role model in maths was my private tutor - I'll call him Mr. H. He began teaching me when I was struggling with maths a lot and my confidence was low, but he very quickly restored my confidence and helped me achieve a grade 8 at GCSE and 90% in Maths A-level. Having someone to talk maths with was really such a pleasure, and I honestly can't stress enough how much of a positive influence he was for me. I try to carry on his teaching methods and positive outreach as best I can in my teaching, so that more students can feel more confident in their mathematical ability.

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

  As weird as it sounds, I really do think an important quality is not having an innate knack for the subject being taught. A lot of my teachers at school, you could very much tell, were born with an innate ability for maths. At times this often leads teachers to teach in unintuitive ways, and to not be empathetic to the struggles of those students who found their subject of expertise quite difficult. As someone who did not have this innate intuition, I feel perfectly suited to help those students who often don't get as much attention in our (outdated) school system as they need.

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

  I still remember quite vividly before my AS Further Maths exam (that I was sitting independently) revising some tricky proof by induction questions. I had always found these quite tricky, and so half an hour before the exam started I focussed on trying to understand this one previous question that had been on an A-level Further Maths paper a few years back. I had just about understood the method, and I was shocked to see in my exam the exact same question near the end of the paper. This really highlights how significant resilience can be when preparing for exams, as giving in to the temptation of deciding to relax right before my exams would have cost me valuable marks.

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

  The main challenge I face in my subject is trying to break the stereotypes around it. The stigma around mathematics, that it is somehow reserved only for those gifted with an intuition for it, is something I really want to disprove through both my own personal growth and my tutoring methods. It's an incredibly vital subject that we should all (ideally) learn to be comfortable with, and realising this is my biggest challenge with it so far (although the content in my degree is certainly a close second!).

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

  Outside mathematics, I'd say my biggest passion is philosophy. Learning it at A-level was really intriguing, and I'm now looking forward to further studying the intersection between maths and philosophy. This involves the nature of maths, and how it relates to our world as we see it. For example, we can't actually physically see numbers in our day-to-day lives, and yet if the mathematics underpinning engineering or biology was to suddenly collapse, society would come crashing down in an instant. Outside of academics, I still have large passions for both gaming and football.

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

  My ability to put myself in the shoes of other students, and expertly find the most efficient way to help them succeed!