Ilya

I am an aspiring scientist/academic, with a recent PhD completion in physics, with my dissertation title being «Quantum optics phenomena in artificial atoms». I find great passion in teaching and developing unique approaches, engaging with students from university down to pre-school levels.

It was not so long ago, that I was myself an undergraduate and sixth form student and the very recent experience with GCSE, A-Level, University examinations, have resulted in invaluable first-hand understanding of learning techniques and revision dilemmas, which I wish to project onto motivated and expectant students. Exams have become the standard way of assessing the capability of an individual (whether it is indeed so, is a topic for another discussion), and span such a wide range that efficiency and clarity is required to succeed in this competition. I teach my students to always work up from the fundamentals and identify «grade scoring» elements to demonstrate this core knowledge. This strategy has reflected in personal achievements made alongside other engagements:

• Numerous awards within the Royal Holloway Science faculty including «Best student» in the 1st, 2nd, 4th years;
• A* A* A* A* A* at A-Level (Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Russian);
• Programming in 7 languages, utilised professional work and research around the department (Programming digitisers, FPGAs, control measurements and subsequent analysis);
• Multiple academic research projects at Royal Holloway University of London as both an undergraduate, PhD, and postdoctoral researcher;
• Author and co-author of multiple scientific publication in the fields of quantum metrology and quantum optics.

It is my belief, that with an open mind and motivation for self-improvement, the tutoring lessons will not only impact the formal exam results, but begin to develop more powerful skills: structuring short and long term plans; constructive self-criticism and setting goals that address the most vulnerable positions identified; competent utilisation of acquired knowledge/mathematical techniques to solve new problems ground -> up. Ultimately, for me teaching has always been an engaging and stimulating process - this core value makes the hours I spend tutoring full of technical fun and positivity.

My fixed location is Royal Holloway, Egham, Surrey. Lessons are run across Skype, but I am more than willing to discuss face-to-face lessons, should that be considered the most effective approach.

Tutoring Experience

First real teaching experiences came around naturally during A-Levels and first undergraduate years - my colleagues would seek advise on subjects not fully understood during lectures and ask for explanations/ideas to problem sets. Identifying the potential I proceeded to:

• 2014-onwards 2 students/year Lessons to undergraduate physics students on short term basis (electro-magnetism, atomic and nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, mathematics…);
• 2015-onwards 2 student/year A-level Physics tutoring on a year-long basis.
• 2017-onwards 1 student/year Programming for 13 year olds. We do creative game and website building activities, advancing through HTML and Javascript to learn programming in an engaging way.
• 2017-onwards 12 students/term Lecture series on building models, given across schools in South England

Tutoring Approach

Tutoring lessons would be exemplified by three words: dynamic, fundamental, overload. I am in full support of the idea that the acquisition of knowledge occurs via different input channels, and that students favour different approaches. The small number of students that I cater gives me the flexibility to adapt to each individual. I am just as comfortable of holding lessons based on reading/going through slides, as I am with holding «workshops» were we focus on derivation in an interactive manner. A steady guidance direction will ensure progress, no matter what strategy is used to fuel it.

Fundamental coverage of the content from elemental principles cuts down on the «crude memorising» of formulas and information, meaning that over the year we together paint a fuller picture of the physics universe. Understanding developed in this way is more persistent and is reflected in the ability of solving non-trivial problems in exams and forming a more fertile base for a (possible?) career in physics/mathematics.

Finally, overload develops the logical apparatus for cracking strenuous, multi-stage problems that lie beyond the scope of standard exams. Overloading pushes the student to assess the problems first qualitatively, speaking out their estimate and ideas and capturing the physics models hidden in the problem. Numerical application of formulas and mathematical techniques comes second, at which point more direct «substitute and evaluate» exercises, required by exams, are covered. The linking of such exercises in multi-stage problems establishes their purpose, cementing textbook knowledge in concrete examples.

I break down the tutoring process into sectors:
1) Break down of topics covered in school and decision whether we are going to cover the content in sync with the school or with a specific phase delay (e.g. 2 weeks behind);
2) Identify the topics of insecurity and confidence through spontaneous formative assessment with the student. This will determine the level of detail addressed to each topic;
3) Develop a strategy for ingesting the information in the most productive way: covering notes; going over slides; questions; past papers; personal derivation workshops; reading and discussing; making posters; demonstrations;
4) Apply to each section of the course, revisiting two-week old content at the start of every lesson, to develop the initially implanted ideas.

I will supply my student with:
• Tailored slides with the course notes;
• Personal homework sheets and feedback discussions;
• Papers and articles for further reading;
• Separate discussions and preparation for exams, lectures and revision techniques;
• 6 hour response time for urgent questions;
• Happy to go through school homework and assignments/projects, so as achieve immediate term-time results.