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Michael's Tutor Profile

Information About Michael:

Personal Description:

Qualifications and Academic Experience:

Master of Mathematics and Physics with Honours First Class (MMath & Phys) at the University of Manchester (Graduation: 16th July 2009)
Average grade: 77%, with first class honours in all four years of study.

A level: Mathematics (92%), Physics (97%), Chemistry (93%), Economics (90%) at Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College.
GCSE: Mathematics (A), Physics (A*), plus 8 more (4 A*, 3*, 1 B) and one GNVQ in ICT at Blatchington Mill Secondary School.

Staff Student liaison for 4th year undergraduate mathematics course at Manchester
Visiting day helper for prospective mathematics students at Manchester

Personal Details:

I was born in Brighton in 1987 and am now living in Manchester as a 22 year old graduate. I am working part-time over the summer in IT data management and would like to maintain my knowledge and understanding and supplement my income by tutoring in mathematics and physics, as I am planning to begin applications for postgraduate research (DPhil) positions later in the year. My academic interests include cosmology, especially early universe cosmology involving inflation theories and cosmic structure formation. I am also interested in fluid mechanics and combustion theory, such as the mathematics analysis of flame balls and diffusion flames.

My non-academic interests include football (as a former and hopefully future season ticket holder of Brighton and Hove Albion), skiing (hoping to travel twice a year, if this is financially possible), running (having just completed the Manchester 10km I am now training for a half marathon) and popular non-fiction books on biology, finance, and general science or economics.

Teaching Experience:

I always work in groups with coursemates at university to tackle the hardest parts of the courses before exams, and frequently split courses up into sections, each section to be learnt by a different person and then taught to the group at the next meeting. This informal style of teaching works very well in an undergraduate setting. I have also frequently had to prepare presentations on vacation essays (extra-solar planets, for example), laboratory findings and my dissertation (asteroid dynamics).

Outside of my degree I am a trained in first aid by the British Red Cross and have taught basic CPR and other aspects of first aid (bandaging and checking for breathing) as a part of the British Red Cross roadshow outside the University of Manchester students union to students and members of the public.

I have recently begun formally tutoring friends in A level mathematics.

Tutoring Approach:

In my opinion, the physical sciences (specifically physics and mathematics) at A level are the easiest to score very highly in if sufficient preparation is done; I also believe that they are the easiest to fail in if no preparation is done. This is due to the objective nature of the marking process: a mathematics answer has to be either right or wrong, and it is not improbable for a student with a good knowledge and understanding of the course to achieve full marks.

The first aim of my tuition will be to understanding the basic concepts behind each area of the course: for example, why differentiation is done, what it means practically and the understanding of it as a simple input-output process where one differentiable function becomes another. The second aim will be in learning the standard rules associated with differentiation which are expected in the exam, and the third aim is to practice applying these rules until the capacity for error (the main way good students lose marks) is minimised. In most areas of the course this simple formula works, and there are only a very small number of areas in my opinion which require more than mechanical action. For example, integration can be defined as "reverse-differentiation" and is not as easy as differentiation- whereas a smooth function has a known and measurable gradient; there exist many functions whose integrals require very subtle tricks to find, and indeed some which are impossible to integrate analytically. An exam question involving integration may therefore require active thought and understanding to achieve full marks, as might a question asking to prove that two trigonometric expressions are equal in all cases (a general approach is helpful but practice and understanding will give some students a significant time advantage in these situations).

This approach will work well for a student simply wanting to score the highest mark possible in an exam, but there may exist certain situations where there is also an aim to understand more fundamentally the processes involved, for example, in the case where a student will begin university in September and would like to refresh their memory and prepare for what may be a difficult first few weeks adapting to the teaching style, speed and material. This is especially the case when studying mathematics or physics at university without having studied further mathematics at A level (as I did). Having been through this process and spent essentially a whole year going over the first four weeks of my lecture notes I am aware of what mathematics is required in these courses, and what tricks you may be expected to know from lecturers who (in my personal experience), at the time they studied GCEs, may have learnt very different things (such as matrices, hyperbolic geometry and complex numbers in depth) to those which are taught as part of a standard A level in mathematics now.


I believe I am asking for a relatively small amount in payment for my tutoring services in comparison to some friends who are currently being paid twice what I am, per hour. I have chosen a low figure not because I believe I am a worse tutor- I believe I understand the fundemental mathematics very well and that I can teach the material in a very clear and consice way. There are two reasons: (a) I so far have only a small amount of directly relevant private tutoring experience and believe that a low price would compensate for any doubts the student may have about my ability, and (b) my objective in this is not to make money, it is because I genuinely believe I can help people get very high grades in mathematics and physics, and also for personal development (tutoring looks very good on a CV!). I hope the price will not disuade anyone from asking for help.

Thank you VERY much for taking the time to read this,
Michael Wood

Qualifications:

• GCSE: Mathematics (A), Physics (A*)
• A level: Mathematics (A, UMS: 92), Physics (A, UMS: 97)
• MMath & Phys Mathematics and Physics with Honours First Class at the University of Manchester (obtained)

Further Information:

Availability:	Weekends / Weekdays (all times)
Types of Tutoring:	Travels to you / Online
References Supplied?	Yes