Michail

Experience

- IB Physics

My specialization lies in Physics. I have tutored IB Physics for a total of 4 years, both in standard and higher level. I have worked with students that started from a point of struggle and aimed for a decent grade and with students that started from a point of decent understanding and aimed for excellence. My students have been from around the world, and I have taught both face-to-face and online.

In my second year of tutoring, I was given the opportunity to lead an intensive revision course on IB Physics. Over the duration of 3 days, I covered the most important parts of the syllabus for a group of 3 students. Since then, I have been selected to lead another two courses for classes of 4-5 students.

Biography

Born in a relatively small city in Greece, I would have never dreamt of studying and living abroad if it wasn't for my parents. They instilled into me the idea and then insisted I enrolled in the IB programme of the American College of my city. And so I did. During my 2 years in the IB I was immersed in its values and approach to learning, which truly resonated with me and motivated me to study hard and excel in it. As a result, I was accepted in Imperial College London to do a 4-year integrated-masters (Meng) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. I also received their Hancock scholarship for IB excellence.

While in university I was looking for a way to earn a bit of money for my summer vacations. Having had an amazing IB experience, I decided to start tutoring IB students and share my passion for the programme and the knowledge I gained through it. This small decision led me to a journey of tutoring which continues to this day.

Personal Approach

Each student is unique but the material to be learnt is the same for everyone. My personal approach aims to find the balance between the two.

To achieve this balance, I have compiled a full set of teaching materials for each subject and I then choose which parts and in which order to teach based on the student’s specific needs and wants at the time.

Throughout my tutoring journey, I have always paid attention to the ways in which students get motivated. Most of their motivation comes from being presented with simple and clear explanations they can effortlessly understand. This might sound obvious and dull, but it is what ultimately separates a great tutor from the rest. A truly masterful tutor should be able to break down a complex concept to simpler constituents as much as needed until the student is able to grasp it. It requires the tutor to have an astoundingly deep understanding of the syllabus and the maturity to take responsibility for a student’s struggle of understanding. Hence, my primary focus has always been mastering this skill.

Another source of motivation comes from providing context to the knowledge presented. Learning a fun fact about a concept, such as its real-life applications, its historical significance or its contribution to the science as a whole, always grasps my students’ attention and elevates their respect for the concept, hence motivating them to make effort to understand it.

In a nutshell, my personal approach is very practical with a touch of motivational flair.

What I do when I am not tutoring

It might not come as a surprise that I love learning new things.

I am currently learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, cooking/baking, and theory of music while practising the guitar.

Testimonials

''Dear Michail, Thank you for your support over the last few months. X has made some good progress.'' (Parent of IB Physics student)

''IB results came out the other day. I got a 6 in Physics. All thanks to your help!'' (IB Physics student)

''The IB scores came out yesterday. I got a 5 for Physics which was my goal so I’m happy how it turned out. Thanks for everything!'' (IB Physics student)