Isaac - Cambridge
BA Philosophy - University of Cambridge
I'm a recent graduate of the University of Cambridge, where I was awarded a high first class in Philosophy. I'll be starting my Master's in Philosophy later this year in London. I'm passionate about Philosophy, and I find teaching incredibly rewarding, so ultimately my hope is to combine the two as a professor.
At present, I tutor a range of ages and ability levels, from GCSE to third-year undergraduate. My approach to tutoring is firstly, to listen carefully to students, so that I know exactly what their goals are, what their time frame is, and where they struggle the most. I then put together a personalised plan for each student. I plan lessons so that students are actively participating, and have the space to actually use the skills they want to develop. I ask students to give feedback on the lessons so that I can continue to improve them as we progress.
Secondly, I am friendly and encouraging. Afterall, students need to be confident to succeed and to enjoy studying. My lessons will often involve me and a student working together, and my input will be to develop their responses in an open way, rather than critique or debate students. In this way, my lessons strike a balance between engaging students fully, but not putting them on the spot for an hour.
A GCSE student aiming for top grades wanted lessons to make sure he wouldn’t be caught out by a tricky question in his upcoming RS exams. He also wanted practice in some of his weaker topics. Given his goals, I decided we would spend lessons practising how he could respond to difficult questions by using key Christian concepts like compassion, Jesus’ example, and the Ten Commandments to create strong answers even if he was unfamiliar with the topic and working through a past paper together to practise using his knowledge to answer questions on the topics he felt less prepared for. I helped develop his responses and helped him to spot when he was straying from the question, and finally testing his knowledge and explaining key concepts where there were gaps
I also helped a finalist studying classics at Oxford who wanted to refine her philosophical skills before her examinations on ancient philosophy. In light of her goals and the areas she finds most difficult, I have helped her by discussing philosophical papers with her and exploring how she can recreate the techniques in her essays, providing close feedback on written work, including essays and essay plans, explaining how definitions can be used to plan a high-level essay, and planning several essays with her based on past papers, helping her to develop original responses by explaining where her opinions sit within the broader philosophical literature.
If you are interested in applying for philosophy at university I can help by suggesting readings and other learning resources each week so that our meetings could begin at a higher level, practising Oxbridge interviews tailored to her personal statement, providing feedback on her A-Level and competition essays based on the exam board syllabus, refining her understanding of key concepts and explaining mistakes in weekly online discussions, and explaining the broader historical and academic context of the texts and philosophers she was studying.
If you have any questions about my experience, please feel free to contact me at support@doxa.co.uk
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