Today I had the pleasure of observing Zac’s first session with a Math Advanced student Harrison. One thing I noticed straight away was that Zac didn’t jump into content at the start. He took a few minutes to get to know the student — kept it casual — and asked him what he was hoping to get out of the sessions. While a simple act, it put the student at ease, and allowed them to feel like the active agent in their learning journey.

Once into the material, he would check whether the student had the relevant background knowledge before working through a question, rather than after. Where there were gaps, Zac filled them with short, targeted explanations — just enough to move forward without loading the student up with more than they needed. It kept things feeling manageable, which is especially important in a first session when the student doesn’t yet know what to expect.

The check-ins were consistent throughout. Rather than explaining at length and asking “does that make sense?” at the end, he was threading small questions into his explanations as he went. This struck me as a more reliable way to catch confusion early, and something I want to be more deliberate about in my own sessions.

The tone was also relaxed and conversational throughout which visibly put the student at ease, loosening up as the session went on. It never felt like a tutor performing at a student. The dynamic was commendably more like a collaborative effort of two people working through something together, as Zac wasn’t afraid to admit mistakes on his own part; this reinforced mistakes as human, rather than treating them as something to fear.

Overall Zac effectively balanced building rapport and assessing baseline knowledge while simultaneously covering the content. Great work!

Thea Macarthur-Lassen