I got to observe Maya’s Chemistry session. While I don’t take chemistry, I found her methods of tutoring very insightful ! The bulk of their session was going through practice questions the student had trouble with at home. Since the test was coming up, Maya focused on helping her understand exactly where and why she lost marks and how she could improve her answers. Rather than blatantly correcting the students mistakes, she would ask for their thinking process and prompt them to think why it was wrong. As such, I think it helped the student develop their critical thinking in regards to that question. By coming to the conclusion themselves, it is more likely that they wont make the same mistake in the exam. When they finished going through the exam, Maya would direct the student to more practice questions on the topics she was least confident with. As they worked through each question, the tutor broke down the tricky parts into simple steps and used quick diagrams to show what was actually happening in the reaction or calculation.

She also gave small exam tips along the way, like how to structure long-response answers or what key words markers look for. The student became more confident as she realised most of her mistakes were small and fixable. The whole session felt really supportive and practical and it clearly helped the student understand what to do differently next time.

Annaliese Lakis