Tyler

Certified Tutor

I am an honors graduate of Western Carolina University (WCU), with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a minor in German. During my time as a student at WCU I worked as a Mathematics tutor- starting my freshman year- helping students with subjects including but not limited to Algebra, Pre-Calculus, Calculus (1, 2, and 3), Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations. I enjoyed all tutoring interactions, with my favorite subject to tutor being any form of Calculus.

Being a naive freshman I initially believed the tutors were volunteers, and upon becoming one I learned it was a job. I was very happy to be hired as a tutor at WCU, because I believe both parties involved in tutoring benefit; the student receives the assistance he or she needs, while the tutor receives the opportunity to solidify his or her own understanding and refresh topics already learned but left behind, thereby staying sharp in subjects no longer required to study. Most of all though, I simply enjoyed knowing that I helped another student improve his or her own grades, and more importantly, understanding of the subject, even when it meant I had less time to study for myself.

I believe that a tutor's job is to make students not need a tutor. Rather than showing a student how to solve a problem, I think it is more important to teach the student how to ask him- or herself what the question is, and then think about how to answer it applying any methods learned, in other words- how to think and work through difficult problems independently. I sometimes find that you do not need to memorize mathematical formulas, if you understand the fundamentals of the problem.

During my time as a tutor at WCU I often asked students to show me how to do the problem, occasionally asking why they did certain things, to make sure they weren't just "doing what the teacher did," but rather they understand why each step in solving a problem is important and works.

My biggest interest/hobby is language-learning. I learned so much in my own independent studying, that my German professor often told me I could have probably tested into a higher-level class. For me, German was a hobby, not just another class. My other interests include history, reading, kayaking, paddle-boarding, and skiing.