Affnafee R.

I hail from the distant and vibrant land of Bangladesh and came to the UK in 2016 to study at the University of Oxford, graduating four years later with an MEng in Engineering Science.   

Although my day job is working as a mechanical engineer in Nuclear and Power currently for Rolls Royce, I have always been passionate about tutoring ever since I was in high school. Therefore, I have always tutored students even when I was in education myself, be it at high school as an undergraduate or during my graduate research.

I find meaning and purpose in sharing the wealth of knowledge I have gathered over the years with young students at every level and be a role model to them which I lacked growing up, being the only member of my family to ever travel abroad for higher education and that too at a world-renowned institution such as Oxford.

TUTORING EXPERIENCE

UniAdmissions, Tutor 

2020-Present

Over 400 hours of experience supporting students anywhere from GCSE/IGCSEs, A levels, UCAS Personal Statement, Supplementary Questions, Essays, PAT/ENGAA (Oxbridge Admissions Test for Engineering) and Mock Interviews.

University of Oxford, PAT Mentor

2019-2020

Over 30 hours of experience providing prospective students (from low-income backgrounds) advice on interviews, personal statements and practical tips on approaching STEM questions.

Private Tutor 

2014-Present

Since I was in high school, I have tutored students privately and continue to do so. I help them with STEM subjects, GCSE/IGCSE’s, A levels and University applications. 

Each student is different and so the tutoring style is catered to the individual's needs. In saying that, I follow some general principles when tutoring students. 

Generally, after our initial introduction through email exchanges I will ask for some background information about the student such as:

1. Which subjects are they taking at GCSE/IGCSE/A Level and which ones specifically do they need my help with: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry?

2. What grade are they currently expected to achieve? If someone is already sitting on an A* for example, then my goal would be to ensure they remain consistent in their approach and I will cater my sessions accordingly. If however, I see someone sitting on a B for example, my goal would be to improve upon that grade; push them to attain an A or even an A*. 

3. Once we identify what grade they are sitting on, the next step is to identify which topics they struggle with the most. This is extremely important because we only have a finite amount of time and we need to address the biggest and most worrisome areas first. 

4. After the specific topic in which the student is weakest has been identified, then I begin my bespoke approach of helping the student. I will begin from the very basics of that particular topic and work my way up to the complexities of the 'final problem'. In my experience, if the fundamentals of a student is not strong, then they will almost inevitably struggle with the more complex questions.

5. I like to listen to my students attentively. I always start from the 1st principles of any topic and take a very interactive approach, asking the students to always ask me questions/stop me if they don't understand something at any given point. After every idea I explain, I will stop and ask, 'Any questions?' or 'Does that make sense?', etc

6. In my 4 years of attending tutorials with personal tutors at Oxford, one big takeaway as a student is always be communicative with the tutor. Treat it more as a conversation with a peer rather than something very formal with an authoritative figure. This has helped me a lot in life and when I tutor, I try to adopt those qualities- i.e. being an approachable and friendly figure with whom students will find it easy to share their ideas, express their questions, confusions or concerns and not be intimidated by a daunting figure.

7. Generally, after explaining an idea, I will first do an example problem and then follow it up by setting them a problem. I will slowly increase the difficulty of the problem so I can see how they are cognitively using the ideas I have just taught them in their problem-solving pursuits.

8. I will typically also set homeworks/problem sets. This could be past papers from official Edexcel, AQA, Cambridge websites or even problems I set myself. This is very important because we only have a set number of hours with a student and the eventual development of a student is largley dependent on how much and how often they practice the relevant topic which usually cannot be covered with the limited tutoring hours we have.

9. The homeworks will have deadlines and I will ask them to send the completed works to me so we can have a look at the problems they struggled with in the following lesson.

10. I have a tracking system where I record what I have taught a student in a session, what the next session will be on and what homework I have set them. I will also add things such as how I think the student is doing, what areas they could improve upon and a few pointers/tips to bear in mind. I will report this back to the parent so everybody is well within the loop of things.

My methods are tried and tested and have helped numerous students over the years, many of whom have gone on to study at world renowned institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Imperial, University of Toronto, McGill and many more