Joe Broughton

I like to keep lessons relaxed and foster a friendly environment where people are comfortable revealing their mathematical weaknesses but learning in a methodical and efficient manner to achieve their target results.

I started tutoring as a peer mentor at uni (13 years ago!), helping the students in the years below me, with the chemistry, physics & maths. I soon realised this ad hoc pro bono work was not only good revision for me, but also really fun to do! :)

I found it really rewarding to see the story arch of somebody struggling with something, tweaking it to correct their mistakes and then going over example questions to cement in the new/corrected way and seeing their confidence grow.

I often get students to say out loud what they’re thinking and explain their thought process to problems. This is particularly effective because if you can correct the thought process before they write down the mistake it’s quicker to solve the problem. When students look at a question and don’t start writing or speaking straight away I ask “So, what are you thinking”. This allows me to identify if the issue is:
• question interpretation
• exam technique
• approach to this style of question or
• technical issues with the beginning, middle or end part of the question (often, each needing different skills in long answer questions)

This way we can much more effectively work on the problem area and not the question as a hole - we can focus practicing on the issue at hand.