Will M

My Passion & How I Inspire

After graduating from Bristol with a first in 2015, I taught Maths and English (as a foreign language) in a small town in Thailand. My love of maths remained strong and I returned after a year to study an MSc in Pure Maths at Mansfield College, Oxford. This led to two years at the independent co-educational Rugby School, where I taught classes from year 9 to 13, including Further Maths at A level. The experience involved a number of duties both in and out of the classroom – perhaps the most important of these for me was the guidance of 9 boys through their GCSE years, acting as an academic tutor as well as a mentor and friend they could talk to. Others include Oxbridge preparation help and mock interviews for both Rugby School and visiting pupils.

Returning to academia once again, I will start a PhD in Pure Maths at City University, London, in October 2019. My passion and love for the subject is a core value that I aim to convey in all aspects of my teaching; at Rugby I gave a lecture on the interesting mathematics used in cryptography and will be involved in various teaching opportunities at City University.

I am a firm believer that showing the utility of each individual topic in maths is key to encouraging students to learn – too often it is presented as abstract reasoning with no ultimate end goal. To that end I will always motivate lessons and topics with applications and examples of use.

I, or rather my students should expect a hands on approach to working through the material – and in particular be ready to jump into problem solving from the start. My lessons are usually based around Powerpoints I have created and will share with the students, requiring minimal note taking if desired, and providing fully worked answers where necessary.

The Edexcel GCSEs and A levels have changed in their structure and content somewhat over the last few years – there is a lot more “problem solving” required: for the harder problems very little direction is given as to the topic area and methods the student should use to answer the problem. My teaching reflects this change, and I aim to guide but also push students to their maximum potential.

I am always aware that different abilities require different approaches, and can easily change the pace and difficulty of a lesson if required.

My Experience

I began tutoring Maths whilst at Bristol, initially to friends and via word of mouth, for ages 11 through to 18. I often delivered tuition in person, cycling or driving as required, although sometimes via Skype, and was also part of a volunteer tutor program for a local girls’ school in Bristol. Since then I have delivered personal tuition to a number of students for reasons including 11+ and 13+ entry, university entry and even for a pilot’s licence exam!

In 2015/2016 I taught the Thai mathematics syllabus to students aged 15 to 18 , as part of an extra program whereby students are taught the core subjects in English. This was at Thabo school on the North-Eastern border of Thailand – a popular local government school with over 3000 students. I also taught English as a Foreign Language to classes from ages 13 to 18.

From September 2017 I taught Maths at Rugby School, beginning my first year on a reduced timetable before moving to a full one in 2018/2019. I taught all age ranges, Edexcel A level and Cambridge Pre-U, A level Further Maths, and worked with the Computer Science Oxbridge entry program – giving mock interviews and helping with personal statements. I ran a weekly critical thinking session for the Cambridge TSA tests, and even gave a lecture entitled The Secrets of Cryptography!

Subjects That I Teach

  • ACT
  • ACT - A-Level
  • ACT - SAT
  • ACT - Further
  • Excel
  • Excel - A-Level
  • Excel - SAT
  • Excel - Further

My Qualifications

City University, London 2019 – 2022

PhD in Pure Mathematics (Representation Theory of Finite Dimensional Algebras)

Full ESPRC funding awarded for three years

Full tuition fee waiver awarded

University of Oxford 2016 – 2017

MSc Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science

Pass; awarded 86 marks for dissertation

Dissertation supervised by Professor Dan Ciubotaru:

Ore’s Conjecture, Character Theory and the Special Linear Group

University of Bristol 2012 – 2015

BSc Mathematics

First Class Honours

American TESOL Institute August 2014

120hr, 3 week TESOL certificate

Rugby School 2005 – 2010

A levels: Maths (Edexcel A*, Pre-U D2) , Further Maths (A*), Physics (A*), Spanish (A)

GCSEs: 11A*s, 1A

Fun fact

I was in an extra in a Bollywood movie!