Online Tuition in Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry. All grades up to 1st Year University. A level Specialist CIE, Oxford AQA, Edexcel.

Methodology

I have a hands-on teaching approach that guides the learner through the process of scaffolding to master the material bit by bit. My main aim is to build confidence and skills in problem-solving which will lead to academic achievement. I use both Zoom and Google meet as my platforms for effective and entertaining online tuition. I teach in Afrikaans or English.

Feedback from Previous student

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

My name is Herman Rossouw. I am currently a BSc student at Stellenbosch University. I have always aspired to study and work in a scientific field, but like many young students at high school level, I found mathematics to be a daunting challenge. I felt as though those of us who were struggling with Mathematics were being discouraged to continue with it. The teachers appeared to be content to focus their time and energy on only the students who naturally excelled at mathematics and quickly grasped the concepts they were being taught, while those that struggled had to make do on their own, often with disastrous effects. Many students inevitably swapped over to Mathematics Literacy, some because they did not require mathematics for their future studies or careers, but many more because they simply could not manage to cope without the benefit of additional support and assistance from their teachers. After constantly being told by my teachers that I would not be able to continue with Mathematics and for the sake of maintaining high grades with my other subjects, I also swapped over to Mathematics Literacy in the middle of grade 10, with the intention to complete my Mathematics the year after I passed matric. In addition, I would also fit in an entire three year high school curriculum for Chemistry
and Physics, due to my university of choice changing the prerequisites for my particular BSc. course halfway through my matric year. I am happy to say that hard work and determination paid off for my Chemistry and Physics. I passed them both with an average of 77% during this gap year after Matric. Unfortunately, it did not go quite as well with my Mathematics. I ended up barely “passing” with 34% (and please note, I say “pass” in the sense that the South African education board would consider 30% and up a pass. I felt as though I had failed miserably). Through good fortune, I was lucky enough to be accepted into the BSc. alternative access course at the University of Stellenbosch for 2011. This is a long abridged first year course that gives academically disadvantaged students an opportunity to both acquaint themselves with the steep rise in the complexity levels between high school and university while simultaneously providing them with a chance to gain access to the mainstream B.Sc. and Engineering courses. It was at this point in early 2011 that I was first introduced to Louis Saayman. A Physics major himself, Louis spent a good deal of his free time tutoring students in Mathematics, physics and chemistry. I signed up for regular classes with Louis in the hope that his hands on tuition approach would help me to both overcome my fear of mathematics and to pass it with an acceptable grade. (At the time I felt that it would take a miracle to just see the required mark of 50% for my university Mathematics results paper). At this point, I should mention that my abridged course’s mathematics was a combination of Engineering and BSc mathematics. It was designed to give prospective students of both faculties a chance to gain access to the mainstream courses. As a result, the mathematics was on a difficulty level that I had not experienced before in School Mathematics or since. Without a perfect understanding of the concepts, passing the Mathematics papers, let alone doing well in them, became a monumental challenge. For my first Mathematics paper, I only scored 24%. As you can imagine, it did little for my self esteem or hope for a positive outcome at the end of the year. I am happy to say that thanks to Louis, things didn’t turn out nearly as bad as I had expected. Louis managed to convey complex mathematical concepts in a manner that I found surprisingly easy and quick to grasp. At points where I still struggled to understand the work, he would patiently sit and explain the work to me again and again until I understood it perfectly. All this was done with a smile on his face and a reassurance that, as daunting as the work looked, he would provide me with the skills needed to pass it exceptionally well. For someone who has been struggling with mathematics ever since the 8th grade, his optimism regarding my chances and the outcome of my end results was a welcome change from the teachers who treated me as if I would never be able to do Mathematics or pass the subject. While I initially didn’t pass every test or tutorial, he would be quick to help me understand where I went wrong and would often provide me with “mock test” examples which I had to do while he was sitting next to me so he could make sure I understood how to do the work. By the middle of 2011, I achieved my first pass mark for university grade mathematics - 50% on the dot! I cannot begin to explain how amazing it felt to actually be able to say I passed a test in mathematics, something I had not been able to do in years. By the end of 2011, I had gone from a low 22% average in the first term of the abridged course, up to an average of 48%. Not only did I manage a high enough mark for predicate allowing me to write the final exams, but for the first time in years I really felt I had a chance at passing the final exams and finally getting accepted into the main stream course. Make no mistake that it required hard work and the right attitude on my part, but without Louis to explain the work and to show me where (and how) I had done equations incorrectly, I doubt whether I would even have achieved a predicate mark to write the final exams. Unfortunately, years of having failed Mathematics made me extremely anxious before and during tests and exams. This anxiety often led me to stress so much about passing the paper, that I often lost a good percentage of marks due to rather simple mistakes. I ended up scoring 45% for my first attempt at the final exam paper. I was completely devastated. I didn’t think I’d stand a chance at passing the second attempt, which as any university student would tell you, is commonly accepted to be considerably more difficult than the first exam). Again, Louis went beyond what I would expect of a tutor and offered to revise the work with me in day long sessions for several days before my second attempt. Despite everything, he managed to not only give me a full revision of the work, with plenty of mock test runs in between, but he again managed to salvage and rebuild my sense of confidence in my own abilities with regards to being able to in fact do mathematics. While the second attempt didn’t get me a passing grade, the massive improvement on my starting average for mathematics, coupled with the very high end scores I received in my other subjects, was enough to convince the university to allow me through to mainstream BSc, on the premise that me passing my first semester mathematics in 2012 would count for a pass on both years. Again, Louis offered to help me prepare for what I thought would be an imposing year, and with his help I prepared well ahead of time for the first semester (which basically constituted 80% of the work dealt with in the abridged course, with integrals making up the remaining 20%). Suffice to say that all the hard work and effort finally started to pay off. I started scoring between 60 to 80% for my weekly tutorials, and scored my highest mark yet for a mathematics test, 64%. Suddenly, I really started to feel that my new confidence about being able to do mathematics was justified. I not
only understood the work, I was actually starting to enjoy Mathematics!
I continued revision of the work with Louis throughout this period, and I have to say, I could myself notice the change when attending our tuition sessions. I had progressed from not even understanding the work at the beginning of the 2011 year before to the point where I could ask advanced questions about particularly challenging equations. We continued our sessions with the exams and the pre-exam’s final test in mind. I scored 88% percent for my pre-exam test. I was in the top three in my class of over 200 students, with a class average of 54%. I still have the paper. I keep it as a reminder of what can be done through hard work and staying determined to achieve success. My predicate mark for the 2012 first semester university-level mathematics, (a combination of my final test and my marks achieved in my weekly practical tests), was 77%. My final mark, post exams, was 70%. In a year and a half, I went from 24% to 70% for university-grade mathematics. I worked hard to achieve that mark. But without Louis’ help, support and talent for explaining complex concepts in a simple to follow and understandable manner, I doubt that I would still be at university. He has given me the confidence and the skills needed to excel in not just Mathematics, but my general university studies as well. I’m typing this letter because I know there are other people who struggle with mathematics just as much as I used to. So, if you have a child who was told that he or she could never do mathematics, or if you yourself were
told as much by your teachers, if you feel you just can’t understand mathematics, or if you feel you can’t keep up with your lectures or you don't understand your lecturer’s way of explaining the work or if
you’ve ever felt anxiety during a mathematics test to the point where you feel you just can’t think straight, but despite all of this you have a dream and goals that you want to fulfill and which require that you conquer your fear of Mathematics, then I am happy to bring you hope and say that I believe that with the help and assistance of Louis Saayman, you can do it! I highly recommend giving Louis Saayman and his method of tutoring the chance to help you conquer mathematics and reaching your goals. As a tutor, I have found him to often go well beyond what you’d expect someone to do for the sake of helping his students. I particularly recommend his private, oneon-one sessions and weekend group-revision sessions as I have found these to be the most effective at acquiring both an understanding of the work and to establish that you do indeed know how to do the work. I can recommend Louis Saayman to anybody who wishes to not only cope with Mathematics, but eventually actually even wants to learn to enjoy and achieve in Mathematics and science.