Background

Jacob is an Imperial college Physics BSc graduate (physics), with interests in physics: electromagnetism, waves and Fourier analysis. Outside of tutoring he enjoys hiking and cycling.

Teaching Experience and Approach

Jacob has tutored since 2010 and has amassed over 8000 hours of experience, with the vast majority of his A level students achieving A and A* grades. He has worked with students from many of the top London day schools: Westminster, St Paul’s (boys and girls), NLCS, Kings Wimbledon, UCS, UCS, City of London (boys and girls), Francis Holland and Putney GDST, and tutors pupils online from all over the world – China, Israel, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Russia, Switzerland and the US. He has also worked with children who have special educational needs.

A skilled Maths and Physics demonstrator (using Desmos graphical calculator) he likes to tailor his approach to his student: from HW help and demystifying textbooks, to writing original questions that make a topic just click. Jacob focuses on generating an excellent rapport and maintaining student trust and tutored a King’s College Wimbledon student from the bottom set to be one of the school’s top performing mathematicians. He improved the Science and Maths GCSE grades of two students by 3 levels each and revolutionised the progress of one 11 year old by using creative projects to learn (through drawing and animation on Desmos).

Jacob has held the following teaching positions:
2012-2013, Pavement Sixth Form College – Volunteer assistant A level Physics teacher
2012-2013, Pavement Sixth Form College – Volunteer assistant A level Maths teacher

Why Tutoring

My interest in teaching began in 2008 during high school. That year I had an excellent English Language teacher who really tackled fundamental grammar and comprehension issues to eventually overhaul my writing skills. She showed me the immeasurable value of an expert teacher. The next year, I tutored Maths for the first time. I loved rapidly filling the gaps in students’ knowledge and the sense of satisfaction that gave me.

I am passionate about building the confidence of each student by helping them master their course. This not only boosts their grades through the current course, but also boost them at the next level and changes the way they see the world. The moment when the penny drops, the smile when a student realises an idea is simple, or the laugh when they immediately forget why they couldn’t understand – these are the things for which I work hard.

My favourite books are How not to be wrong by Jordan Ellenberg (which I constantly recommend to my students), The Dispossessed by Ursala Le Guin, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and Prodigal Soul by John Davidson.