You’re skeptical how the nearby tutoring center fares with advanced math like AP Calculus. Ideally, you want a certified teacher, but what if you can’t find an AP Calculus tutor near you?
It’s 11p.m. on a Wednesday night—you’re just about to go to bed—until you realize your child is still sitting at the kitchen table with Calculus homework. From the doorway, you watch as your child's blank stare turns into aggressively erasing mistakes. You’re proud they work hard to excel in their classes but Calculus seems to keep them up later than math has in the past.
The worst part is you don’t know how to help.
You showed your child my post on how to pass Calculus.
You’ve tried to find a Calculus tutor in your area, but you’ve only found local tutoring centers or college students who passed Calculus last semester.
You’ve read my tips on how to find an AP Calculus tutor, and you want to find a trustworthy, personalized tutor who has experience teaching and has exceptional results.
You helplessly watch your child look over their notes; you see frustration growing, and hear groans and complaints that the examples seem nothing like their current assignment.
Where do they look for help?
· Reading the textbook
· Searching the problem on Google
· Finding videos on YouTube or Khan Academy
Based on my experience with my students, I’m also going to guess that they are more likely to watch a video than read a website or textbook.
Assuming this is true, that videos help them learn, or at least help them understand math a little better when they’re in a bind late at night, then use that online method of instruction to help your child in the long run.
No AP Calculus Tutor Near You? No problem!
Students today are accustomed to technology and enjoy using it! The best part about technology in education is the potential for individualization.
Even better than your child watching videos for help, they can get an online Calculus tutor.
This allows students to ask specific questions and work on the exact problem they’re struggling with. Interactive whiteboards and screen sharing allows for working out problems on the computer screen in real time. I can send a copy of our notes or a video of our lesson for students to refer back to so there are no more late nights of defeat.
Does Online Calculus Tutoring Work?
I admit it. I was skeptical of online tutoring in the beginning after only having experience teaching and tutoring in person.
Could it be as effective as in person tutoring? Would I be able to build rapport with students without being face to face?
I first tutored online because it was the only option—a friend of mine had gone back to college and was desperate for math help but lived in a different state. I never would have been able to help him had online technology not existed.
Immediately I was able to see that online tutoring was different from in person tutoring.
No one had to worry about being late with traffic, students were more relaxed in their own home, and we were able to accomplish more in an online tutoring session than an in person tutoring session.
With the interactive whiteboard and screen share features, I can easily pull extra problems from online resources (read more and see a video about how online Calculus tutoring works).
The online tutoring setting allows for me to copy new problem sets or change the direction of the lesson instantly as I am observing a student either struggle or excel in the planned lesson. If students have a worksheet or textbook problems they want to work on, they can take a picture and email it to me or pull it up on their screen and we can annotate instantly.
I send students writing tablets so their writing appears on the screen. I can double check understanding and correct notation--it's just like sitting face-to-face with a student!
Furthermore, I am able to send a PDF of our session notes and/or videos of the session so students can review the topics again later.
I also noticed improved communication and math language/vocabulary with my online students because they had to explain the problem-solving steps clearly instead of pointing and saying, “We do the same thing as this problem.”
This dialogue led to deeper understanding because I had students explain why they chose a certain problem-solving process and we generalized the process to other types of problems.
After realizing online tutoring was just as effective as in person tutoring for building rapport with students and helping them achieve their goals, I knew I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.
I wanted to be able to reach students in different cities, states, and even countries.
I know that you want similar results for your child and may not know how to help with the high level of math.
Fill out our New Student Form to get started today!
AP® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, this website.