Experienced High School & College Level Tutor with a PhD in Math

Ben W.

I'm Ben! I graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Providence College in 2016. I earned straight A's in the over twenty courses I took in math. After that, I got my PhD in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over the nine years I was in higher education, I tutored hundreds of high school and college students in 1-on-1 sessions and groups in subjects including pre-calculus, introductory calculus, integral calculus, multivariable calculus, probability, linear algebra, and differential equations. I also taught calculus and linear algebra in the university classroom for 5 years during my graduate-level studies.

The years of experience I spent practicing the subject material, communicating with students, and improving my teaching methods allow me to identify and adapt my communication of the subject to the unique style and needs of each student. I can switch between doing example problems for the student to solidify understanding, explaining why certain ideas are important for a class or for real-world applications to drive motivation, or figuring out how a student thinks about math by watching them work on problems to identify missing conceptual or technical steps. I do this without interrupting - offering help only when asked or required. Moreover, I recognize patterns in how a student works (do they always forget middle terms with distributing? parentheses when deriving with the chain rule? or the constraint equation when solving with Lagrange multipliers?) to give targeted advice on what to focus on in practice to best improve so that the value of the tutoring session isn't just limited to the time we spend together.

I believe anyone can succeed, meet their goals, or rise to a new challenge in math with someone paying attention to their unique needs. Whether a student feels they are catching up or staying ahead, I can help them see a new side of the subject and connect it with their interests, motivations, and learning style.