Berkeley Math PhD with a Big Picture View

Sander M.

Math is a very logical subject, but the downside to this is that it is frequently taught in an overly logical way, as if students were computers that just needed programming! After a decade of studying math---from undergraduate years at CWRU and Columbia to my time as a PhD student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow at UC Berkeley---I've learned how to study and teach math to achieve a conceptual understanding, emphasizing the underlying ideas over stiff memorization. Rather than delivering yet another lecture, I try to understand your thought process and find where there are key ideas missing, as well as strategies to make the whole process more efficient. With the right way of thinking, you'll never face a problem that you don't know how to approach!

I started tutoring as an undergraduate at Columbia, where I was a visiting student taking advantage of the advanced math courses not available at my home institution of Case Western Reserve University. As a PhD student at UC Berkeley I did research in number theory, taught a number of courses in calculus, linear algebra, and discrete math, and mentored undergraduate math majors through Berkeley's Directed Reading Program. And I continued tutoring throughout, getting over 300 hours of experience with over 30 students.

My experience is largely with high school and undergraduate students working on calculus and linear algebra, but I've tutored everything from high school algebra to undergraduate abstract algebra, complex analysis, and even algebraic topology. And if you need help with a course I haven't mentioned, just ask and I'll let you know what I can do!