Why do I need to send the assignment before Tutoring?

I require that you send me the assignment or notes that we’ll discuss when we meet.

You may not be used to this, and wonder why I have this policy!

1. Your teacher, and your TAs, all get an opportunity to review the material that they are teaching before they teach it to you. In order to teach this material well, I also need to review the material.

2. Not every two courses are the same. You may be used to classes like calculus, where everyone learns pretty much the same content. Beyond calculus that is not true, and if you don’t show me the assignment or notes, then I might teach you too much or too little. It is not enough to merely give me the names of topics. A syllabus which says “differential equations” will not tell me which differential equations and which techniques of solving differential equations that you need to learn. So I actually need to see the specific problems or notes that you want me to teach.

3. In advanced courses, some of the problems just are hard. It’s not like calculus where, if you know the subject, you can just solve any problem immediately. In advanced courses, the problems don’t have systematic methods, and I might need to think for ten or fifteen minutes before I’m able to solve a problem. That means ten or fifteen minutes of silence while you’re paying by the hour—which I don’t want to do. So I’d much prefer to see the problems in advance, and have time to think about them.

Help me to do a good job

Some courses are standardized enough that I can probably tutor them without seeing the exercises in advance. But I’d rather not take the chance.

So please, help me to help you. Send the exercises, every time that you want to make an appointment.

Depending on how busy I am with my other students, I may need a day or two to look over the exercises before I’m ready to schedule.