Excel and Math explained in easy to understand language

Nancy S.

I started tutoring nearly 30 years ago, when I was 14 and I tutored students in math and chemistry. I did most of the math and science tutoring for the schools learning disabled students, including teaching two students with cerebral palsy how to do Algebra II.

My specialty was taking complex ideas and breaking them down into simple parts. I've been a database administrator now for over 5 years. My specialty has been getting Excel and GIS (mapping software) to interface with a database used by non-profits.

Often I have had to learn Excel tricks that most people would use SQL or Access for, because it was a lot more efficient to learn one more function of Excel than a whole new program. This wide breadth of knowledge, combined with my past tutoring experience, means I am excellent at teaching advanced skills in an easy to learn way. The most common things I teach are VLOOKUP, pivot tables, IF statements, combining IF with AND, OR, and IFERROR, filters, and conditional formatting.

I am a great fan of the maieutic method of teaching, also known as the Socratic method. It means teaching by question and answer. Ask the student the right questions about something they are struggling with, and they are likely to figure out the answer themselves. While it can take longer than just explaining the answer, they will retain it much better.

Whether you want help with a specific project in Excel, or just to brush up on your skills in general, I can help you unlock some of the more powerful functions so that you can use Excel for more then just storing information, you can use it for real processing and analysis.

I have worked as an Educational Clinician at a Lindamood-Bell reading clinic, a special ed classroom aid, and an in-classroom math tutor at an inner city 7th grade class. After I had been in that classroom for only 3 weeks the students had a benchmark test, and the average score for the class was 8 points higher than their previous one.