Martin P.

Experience Summary

My desire to teach comes from a love of learning and a passion to help others succeed. As a recent magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Biology, I know that while learning always requires time, dedication, and patience, it also differs greatly from person to person. My experiences as a chemistry tutor for 2 years at St. Joseph's High School, and as a physics 101 and 102 tutor for 1 year at the Tutoring Center at Penn have allowed me to help over a dozen students increase their grades/scores and have shown me the difference that a personalized approach to learning can make. As a tutor my goal is to cater to your individual learning needs by discovering a style that works best for you, developing a personalized program of learning, and ultimately helping you to gain the skills, knowledge, and motivation to improve your grades or scores. I tutor in high school and college-level general biology, chemistry, and physics. Typically, my tutoring approach involves 3 parts: a complementary pre-session debriefing, the tutoring session itself, and a post-session email. During the pre-session debriefing, I like to spend time usually through Skype or the phone getting to learn about you, your goals, expectations, and learning style, and your strengths and weaknesses as well as delineating my expectations and a lesson plan for the first session and answering any questions you may have. The purpose of this pre-session is to learn about you and to begin to build an open relationship of trust and communication so that each session can be productive. The following week this pre-session is replaced by a phone call or email 1-2 days before the tutoring session where we can briefly go over concerns or questions going into the next session. During the first session I really like to spend the beginning portion of the session seeing what your current strengths and weaknesses are by working through basic problems, asking you to explain concepts, and constantly engaging you with questions to see how you like to learn and approach material. After the first session I usually spend the beginning portion going over homework assigned from the previous session and making sure you have a mastery of the topic. After the review, I will move onto teaching/reviewing new material, then move onto more challenging problem-solving followed by homework assignment. Each session will be followed-up within 24 -36 hours with a post-session email detailing some of the main concepts we reviewed, any study tips we talked about, and a couple of questions asking for some feedback about the previous session to ensure that I always maintain a high standard of tutoring that caters to your needs. As a tutor, I am dedicated to helping you succeed by providing a comfortable and open learning environment, developing a personalized approach to your learning style, and helping you gain the skills and confidence to excel. I look forward to hearing from you and helping you achieve greater academic success.

Teaching Style

As mentioned above, my tutoring style is open, personalized, and catered to you. I believe that every student is a unique individual with a personal style of learning and studying. As such, my goal is to maintain a high standard of tutoring that works for you. Above all else, I aim to establish a comfortable learning environment and to help you succeed and move forward in your academic pursuits.

My Hobbies

Volunteering, powerlifting, soccer, tennis, running.

All Subjects I Tutor

• Biology

• Chemistry

• Physics