I attend the Math 2207 Weekly Workshop on Saturdays from 10-12. Our tutor is Arbrahm Tai, and although he can speak a bit fast, he’s extremely helpful. Calculus is a hard subject to teach, so for those of us (me) who need to hear concepts twice to understand them, tutoring is our Mecca. My specific tutor will ask us what we need help with- which is usually what we did in class that week- and start by explaining that subject. The best part is, even if one person doesn’t understand, he’ll stop and go back to reword his explanation, whereas in class, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. And even if you do understand it the first time, he’ll keep reiterating his point through the various practices problems he’ll give us— That is, if we don’t have our own problems that we need help with. He’s also really intelligent. He can make up a problem (that works out) off the top of his head. And his mental math abilities are extraordinary. In high school, I only took pre-calculus. So without the weekly tutoring, I would have been extremely lost. It’s a fast-paced course, and even with the tutoring, I don’t fully understand everything. I hate to put anyone on the spot, but it in my opinion, my math professor really can’t teach. Even if you ask her a question to help clarify, the question will go right over her head and her answer will make you think you asked something completely different. Math was always one of my strongest subjects, so it is shocking that I would have to go to tutoring, to not even master the subject, but to understand it. I just had a math exam last week. I don’t think I failed it, and I don’t think I came close to failing it, but I didn’t do as well as I could have. And I am aware of that, so I am thinking of going to one on one tutoring as well as the math weekly workshop. I attended one on one tutoring last week before my exam, and the tutor wasn’t that good, which just made me appreciate Abraham more. As I mentioned previously, the tutoring is on Saturdays, and so it is extremely difficult for me to get up early on the day that I’m supposed to sleep in, and every week I battle with myself. I give myself a bunch of reasons why I don’t need to go. “If I do the homework, I’ll understand it. I will just ask the professor next class. Maybe I’ll go to tutoring next week to catch up on what I missed.” And even though I gave myself all those reasons, it just takes one reason to get me out of bed. All I do is remember what we learned in class that week and how utterly lost I was and, walla, I have never been out of my bed faster than that. I felt it would be disrespectful taking a picture in tutoring, as sometimes people are insecure about going, so instead I provided a photo of Saturday’s notes.
