A level maths tutor- is he teaching me in a silly way?

Hi,
I got a B grade in gcse maths however I have been an upward trajectory studenr with extenuating circumstances.

In order to take a course I want to do at uni I need maths. Having just taken 3 A levels, I have acquired a maths tutor. We do maths 5 days a week 2 hours a day and we are intending to have brushed over the whole AS by September so that when I go into the class in which a level maths is taken in a year I will hopefully feel up to speed.

So far all is great in the class and we are on C2 stuff now e.g circle theorems and polynomials etc.

The problem is when I get home and do the mixed exercises as the end of each chapter I'm doing crap like getting 5/25 right. We go over the questions then together and I watch him do it and I get it and understand it but some of these questions have so much stuff to do and I just can't do them.

Do you think that this is normal or do you think he is rushing through the topics ?

Reply 1

junky27

OP

11

P.s it's a private tutor and in class I get it 100%

Reply 2

Farhan.Hanif93

18

It sounds to me like a lack of emphasis on practice in sessions - different tutors have different approaches to teaching, however, so it's hard to say. Does he ever ask you to do the questions whilst he watches and attempts to guide you? Does he pass comment on regular tricks that show up in questions of this type and reinforce this with examples?

Reply 3

junky27

OP

11

Original post by Farhan.Hanif93

It sounds to me like a lack of emphasis on practice in sessions - different tutors have different approaches to teaching, however, so it's hard to say. Does he ever ask you to do the questions whilst he watches and attempts to guide you? Does he pass comment on regular tricks that show up in questions of this type and reinforce this with examples?

He tells me tricks etc however he 95% of the time writes the questions and then asks me things to do during the questions like 'how would we find that' however it's more of a prompt

Reply 4

Farhan.Hanif93

18

Original post by junky27

He tells me tricks etc however he 95% of the time writes the questions and then asks me things to do during the questions like 'how would we find that' however it's more of a prompt

My experience is that this isn't necessarily effective on it's own, in most cases. Performing as badly as you're suggesting is definitely a symptom of insufficient practice.

Getting the ideas to stick is one of the key characteristics of a good tutor, but without further knowledge on how you're approaching the work outside of lessons, it's difficult to reach a conclusion on the true barrier here.

Reply 5

junky27

OP

11

Original post by Farhan.Hanif93

My experience is that this isn't necessarily effective on it's own, in most cases. Performing as badly as you're suggesting is definitely a symptom of insufficient practice.

Getting the ideas to stick is one of the key characteristics of a good tutor, but without further knowledge on how you're approaching the work outside of lessons, it's difficult to reach a conclusion on the true barrier here.

I think a large portion of my issue is a lack of practice I mean there is tonnes of questions for me to practice and I should be doing like 2 hours or 3 hours outside of class a day but after tution and then work and gym and leisure as it's summer holiday I rarely get the practice in like I did an hour today

Reply 6

Farhan.Hanif93

18

Original post by junky27

I think a large portion of my issue is a lack of practice I mean there is tonnes of questions for me to practice and I should be doing like 2 hours or 3 hours outside of class a day but after tution and then work and gym and leisure as it's summer holiday I rarely get the practice in like I did an hour today

This is a far more likely root of the problem. I've always considered it important to make clear to students from the word go that the real work takes place outside of session, without which there's no point us even being here. The tricky part is to help them buy into this.

I'd advise watching how you progress, up your own efforts and then reconsider everything. It's likely the sessions will be better for you the more you do this, it's a snowball sort of effect and that might do your confidence some good too.

Best of luck.

Reply 7

username2324383

3

Maybe ask him/her to go over the questions you are having problems until you understand and once you do keep practicing them so you don't forget by exam time, if you feel your going to fast then tell your maths tutor and he/she should slow down teaching or change to help you learn better. I really hate maths, when I was at school and college everything had to be explained a few times for me to understand it and I had to keep practicing to not forget. I'm so glad I am not studying maths at uni now and will never do so in the future but you must enjoy maths if you're studying it at a level. Just ask your tutor for more help or recap what you did last time everyone you see him/her, read over the methods of answering questions and keep practicing!