Kyle

Certified Tutor

Hello!

My name is Kyle and I am a graduate student at Ottawa University studying Business Administration with a concentration in Finance. I hold an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Milwaukee School of Engineering. My background is in mathematics. I have had experience tutoring other classmates primarily in differential equations (as it relates to Electrical Engineering concepts) but I have a comprehensive and deep understanding of previous mathematical courses.

The success that I have had in mathematics was not automatic, in fact for many years I struggled. I was told by my high school geometry teacher that mathematics was not for me and I was dropped from the honors math program. When this happened I became incredibly motivated and made some changes and by the time I finished my senior year I had earned the Rotary Math Student of the Year Award and the AP Calculus Student of the Year Award. There are two reasons I bring up this anecdote. First, I understand the frustration that can occur when someone struggles with mathematics. My goal as a tutor is to alleviate this frustration and provide comprehensive, clear and concise explanations of complex mathematical concepts. The second reason is to provide a real life example of the results of hard work, a quality that I possess and I hope the student I tutor does as well.

My tutoring style can be described in three steps: diagnostic tests, procedural explanation and three-in-a-row rule. When a student comes to me with a topic that is hanging them up, I will come up with a diagnostic test-most likely with questions taken from a similar textbook and have the student take the diagnostic tests. Next, we will go through the test and determine the students thought process for each problem. Flaws in logic will be addressed and fixed. Then I will create a problem-set. If the student is able to get three problems in a row, generally, I believe the student has grasped the concept and is ready to move on. This is a loose description and is flexible for each student's needs.

My main goal as tutor is to provide clear and concise explanations for concepts to provide better access to mathematical concepts. I don't believe that mathematics is a list of tables and formulas, but rather mathematics is a logical language that can be used to describe nearly every event in real-life. I hope as your tutor I can explain mathematics this way.

Best regards,
Kyle