Private Math Tutoring for Adults

A philosophy student struggling with a logic course?  (Please see the Logic page.)

Do you need help in preparing for a standardized math test?

Have you been away from math for many years, and are feeling overwhelmed by a math course you are taking? Or are you planning to go back to school, and think your math skills need a boost?

Or perhaps you are a parent wishing to have a better understanding of your child's school-math?

Do you find yourself in a situation where your job requires a new level of math proficiency?

Or do you simply have a desire to expand your understanding of mathematics?

Whatever your reason for seeking math tutoring, I will work with you to design a tutoring strategy and schedule to suit you. I can offer you straight tutoring for a class, or design for you special remedial lessons, a review, or a program that will help you acquire new mathematical skills or learn a new area of mathematics. My approach is highly flexible and individualized, always geared towards your specific desires or difficulties. And I write a lot of my own supplementary materials to help you with whatever areas or topics give you special trouble.

The subjects I can help you with include (but are not limited to) arithmetic and its foundations, algebra and its foundations, statistics, discrete mathematics, precalculus, calculus, analytic geometry, mathematical logic and set theory. Perhaps most importantly, I can help you overcome whatever fears, anxieties and difficulties you may have regarding basic mathematical skills and methods - such as understanding and using mathematical symbols, using variables, dealing with various levels of abstraction, approaching problems, understanding and producing proofs, or simply being able to study by yourself from a math textbook. These fears and anxieties are instilled and fostered by the appallingly bad teaching of mathematics prevalent throughout the "educational system". Overcoming them is a matter of desire, patience, time, calm, focus and guidance; it does not call for any special mathematical talent or a miraculous event.

Mathematics, when taught properly, makes sense. It does not present itself as a mixture of god-given rules, abstruse formulas, half-baked definitions, incomprehensible laws and fear-filled tedium. It requires neither genius nor rote memorization. Mathematics can be lucid, light, joyous and exciting. I believe that everybody, when taught properly, can experience it as such; and it is my business, challenge and enjoyment to teach it that way.

Unless you wish to make some other arrangements, all individual tutoring and most mini-courses are strictly one-on-one - exactly as if I was coming to your home. The main communication tools I use in my tutoring sessions are the telephone and an an electronic whiteboard. Whenever useful and appropriate, I may also use email (to send you extra materials, receive from you solutions to problems, and comment on them), instant messaging (as a text-only alternative to the whiteboard), and fax (to exchange pages or chapters of books). The whiteboard is indispensible because it acts as a "shared screen" on which both parties - the teacher and the student - can write mathematical expressions, diagrams or graphs. The most frequent way my tutoring sessions are conducted is by conversing over the telephone while writing on the whiteboard. Please see the Modus Operandi page for further details.

If you think you might like to use my math-tutoring services, contact me by phone or email. The initial information I will need is your name, how to contact you, and an indication of the nature and scope of the help you might like me to provide. I will then contact you to discuss your needs and desires in greater detail, to determine whether my approach can indeed help you, and to lay down a general plan for the best way to structure the learning process. I will also give you any help you may need in setting up the whiteboard software. And then - the tutoring can begin!