Michail

Experience

My specialization lies in Physics. This is my 5th year of teaching physics, both at standard and at 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. I have also taught 3 intensive courses for students re-sitting exams.

Mathematics was my highest IB exam grade, 89%. During my university degree I continued my path in mathematics, engaging in engineering advanced mathematics, scoring again a high average of 75%. Now, using my 5 years of teaching experience, I am compiling a new suite of teaching material specifically aimed at IB mathematics. With this new suite at hand, I feel I can support IB mathematics students in their journey to understanding and loving maths.

Biography

Born in a relatively small city in Greece, I would have never dreamt of studying abroad if it wasn't for my parents. They instilled into me the idea and insisted I enrolled in the IB programme of my school. And so I did. During my 2 years in the IB, I was exposed to its values and approach to learning which truly resonated with me and motivated me to study hard and excel. 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 to finance 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 comprehensive and systematic set of teaching material for each subject and I then choose which parts 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 or a cliché, 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 its 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 full responsibility for a student’s struggle of understanding. Despite having invested countless hours on developing this skill, my primary focus still is to further improve on it and never settle.

Another source of motivation comes from providing context to the knowledge presented. Learning interesting facts 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 more 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

My primary focus right now lies in learning music.

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)