Software Engineer & Teaching Assistant at University of Auckland. Straight E's NCEA graduate with 3 scholarship awards in Calculus

Find out more about Aref

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  I’ve enjoyed maths for as long as I can remember. Seeing those classic arithmetic operations and hefty cubic equations waiting to be solved really got my heart racing. These days, to de-stress after a long day of university classes, I pull out a notebook and scribble some (perhaps illegible) equations and formulae. I only developed a keen interest for tutoring subconsciously, after I started tutoring at 14. Since then, I have tutored over 50 high school students in Calculus and Physics with phenomenal results and feedback.

• Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  I teach NCEA L2 Maths and L3 Calculus, and formerly taught L2 & L3 Physics. I enjoy teaching L3 Complex Numbers the most, which can – despite its brave introduction to such a new realm of mathematics – do an excellent job in giving NCEA students a comprehensive and intuitive understanding on the topic.
  
  I enjoy teaching all courses (NCEA standards) in Calculus and Physics, though I currently only tutor for Calculus to accommodate for an increasingly busy schedule alongside university study.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  I have been fortunate enough to have had many positive influences on my academic upbringing at high school by my teachers. Some (but far from all) of the people that I’m happy to have met and am grateful for are, Ms Gundugollu, Ms Faiva, Mrs Ashok, Mr Smith and Mr Vimal.
  
  You’re probably indifferent to these names, but trust that these are people who have helped shape not only my future, but thousands of other students. All these teachers have taught me with love and care, skills both within and beyond the classroom. I owe a special thanks to Mr Smith, for recommending me as a tutor to my first student, but also for challenging me to advance myself to higher levels earlier in my high school years.

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  1) Mastery; It is one thing to be good at a subject, but another to truly master it. I pride myself in mastering all branches of NCEA Maths & Calculus and continuing to grow myself every day.
  
  2) Humbleness; However, it’s also important to remain humble, and acknowledge limitations to my knowledge. A tutor who will tutor your child must be honest and true to both themselves and you about what they know and what they don’t know. I employ full and utmost transparency with my skills and capabilities from the get-go to provide what’s
  best for your child.
  
  3) Great communication skills; With all that being said, a good tutor has excellent communication skills, ones that allow for an open, stress-free interaction between themselves and their student. I strive to be a good communicator by listening to my students and being compassionate while also being myself.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  I used to tutor maths during lunchtimes at my high school’s “maths help hub.” We didn’t have much activity, but there was one student who showed up regularly. She would come in to consolidate her understanding on new topics as they resumed in her class, but also towards end of topic tests, when she was getting ready for them. I always enjoyed having her come in regularly and ask for help with practice questions, assessments and all sorts of other coursework, as the help hub wasn’t being used by many people.
  
  After the help hub had stopped running for the year, I came across this student again around NCEA exams, and she told me that she had aced her maths school exams! I was ecstatic, to say the least, to see the tangible impact of my efforts first-hand. This invoked a special kind of happiness in me, starting to see the extent of positive impact that I can be having on others simply by sharing my knowledge with them. That’s when I decided to pursue tutoring. Soon after, I discovered Superprof, and the rest is history.

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  A challenge I face with my students very often is that they find that the maths (and sometimes the physics) they learn is inapplicable to real life. Maths can be a difficult subject for many students, especially when they don’t see how it can be used outside the classroom. I deal with this by sharing some stories from personal experiences where I’ve used maths in daily life, how I continue to use it every day and what opportunities it can provide for my & their future.

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  Both! I discovered my passion for teaching through my passion for maths. By sharing this passion with others, I discovered what significant impact I could be having if I taught maths to other students.
  
  My favourite part about teaching is the oooooh’s and ahhhhh’s I get once something clicks in for the students. I really love seeing them understand the different topics, but the moment the gears turn and their face lights up in excitement, I get this fuzzy warm feeling that I can’t put in words.

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions)

  1) My skills, qualifications and passion. I bring to the table a combination of all three that help me deliver lessons that are thorough, individually paced for each student and help students meet and exceed their academic goals.
  
  2) I always request feedback on my tutoring, especially during lessons, to keep the lesson engaging and effective. It’s in both my students’ and my own’s best interests to be on the same page, so that I can teach them what they need to know, as efficiently as possible (“best bang for your buck”), while maintaining the high quality of tuition that I strive to
  achieve.
  
  3) Lastly, I am a recent NCEA graduate. I graduated last year with Excellence in all mathematics standards, perfect exam scores and have also, in three different, consecutive years passed the Calculus Scholarship Exam (~3% of NCEA L3 students pass yearly), first time when I was 15. Simply put, not only am I super fresh on the content, but I’m good at it; I know what I’m doing.
  
  Let’s connect and set up your first lesson today!