Best Math Tutor

I have a lot of experience teaching classes and tutoring individuals, since, already in the first grade, my teacher asked me to tutor other students who needed help. Patience is a key point, and making the material interesting and exciting is another. However, they are not the only keys to successful tutoring. I have a deep and clear understanding of the material as well as ability to explain things clearly, step by step. I often find that teachers and textbooks do not always break things down to the most basic level; they may inadvertently assume certain things, and this implicit understanding must be made explicit to many who need help.

I also spend time with each student to see where he or she is stuck—it is often on an earlier concept than the one for which the student asks for help. By tracing the source of confusion—often to earlier material and working with that first, I enable the students to gain a much better understanding by working with me and they are less likely to need tutoring in the future.

In terms of my own education, I have a very thorough and diverse background. I am interested in many things, and enjoy learning new ideas and explaining them to others. I hold a doctorate in mathematics and have six other degrees in such diverse fields such as math & physics as well as history. I have also studied other fields such as music, chemistry, astronomy, and others without earning degrees.

For example, I used to help operate the telescope at Brooklyn College, and when NASA built the Hubble Telescope—which was the first high quality telescope to be deployed in space enabling it to take better pictures by avoiding the aberrations cause by the earth’ atmosphere—NASA sent me a letter (as well as to other scientists and mathematicians) inviting me to design experiments for telescope exploration of deep space. They also sent a list of experiments designed by their own time of astronomers and physicists at NASA. I thought these experiments were very clever and important scientifically. To devise more experiments on that level of scientific ingenuity and expertise would require much more time than I had, so I declined. Nevertheless, I felt honored that they chose to invite me to join them.

Similarly, in music, I won honors as a piano player in the Auditions of the National Guild of Piano Teachers, for five consecutive years, starting when I was six years old, and I played the violin in an orchestra when I was thirteen. I also took first place in various contests including math, Bible, and mythology contests. I started taking graduate level math courses at the age of 17, was the only student in my college’s history to be nominated for the senior math award as a freshman (but the award was delayed until I was a senior), and scored what was the highest score ever for a student in my college on the prestigious William Lowell Putnam math competition while still a freshman in college. I designed a special course called “Fun with Mathematics” for The New School, designed for students who thought they hated math—many said they loved it after they took my course—and taught math and physics there for nearly 30 years. I also won a special teaching award for my work at The New School.

I was elected to membership in Who’s Who in American College and Universities, while just a junior in college, am a former member of Mensa, the high-IQ society, and have been a member of the Mathematical Association of America for decades.

See:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidseff/

davidsefftutoring.com

http://bestmathtutor.wixsite.com/bestmathtutor2

I like tutoring very much. It gives me great feeling when I see a student’s face light up when he or she finally understands something he or she did not before. I feel I am doing something good by teaching or tutoring, thereby using the abilities G-D gave me to help others.