We would like you to meet Andrew Williamson, one of our most experienced tutors with almost two decades of tutoring under his belt! Andrew is enthusiastically committed to fostering academic excellence in a way that is thorough and upbeat. Discover his unique approach to sessions and passions beyond the classroom.
What subjects and classes do you help our students with?
I mainly tutor all levels of math and help students in some of the sciences, including Chemistry and AP Physics. I am also experienced in test prep for the ACT and SAT, from content to strategy and beyond in all sections.
What is your educational background?
I have a bachelor’s and a master’s in mathematics (pure mathematics), and I am now about halfway through my doctorate in physics at University of Houston. In college, I worked my way up at Mathnasium to where I became the Center Director of my location after graduating college. Afterwards, I did some freelance work for Khan Academy, and then I led ACT and SAT prep classes and private tutoring sessions for Princeton Review. Now, I have been working with General Academic for the past five years as a private tutor and course instructor!
What is your favorite subject to tutor?
Since I am basically dedicating my life to it, mathematics is my absolute favorite subject to tutor.
What does a typical test prep tutoring session with you look like?
- I like to start all of my sessions with a quick non-academic check-in with my students to see how they’re doing, if they’ve done anything interesting recently, or have anything interesting coming up.
- If the student has low scores, I first discuss strategies and make sure they understand the structure of these tests before moving on to specific problems. I dissect each section on the test and how to approach them, having more of a lecture-oriented start to cover these important fundamentals.
- After they have a good grasp of the strategies, I dive into practice, review, and signaling out areas of weakness that need improvement, or what I call the remediate cycle.
- We look at missed practice questions all the way down to the problem type, topic, and step-by-step methods used for answering each question type.
- For students who start out with higher scores, I jump right into practice, review, and remediate cycle to improve their knowledge of the content and their approach to questions. I intricately go through practice with all of my students, some just require more beginning steps than others, and I shift my methods accordingly.
- At the session’s end, I assign relevant practice from the progress made during our time together that will we will discuss in future sessions. I also send them home with notes for them and their parents to be keep everyone up to speed and circle back to as needed.
What does a typical subject tutoring session with you look like?
Subject prep has the same structure as test prep, but it is a lot more student-driven since it is often focused more on problems on a specific piece of homework or lesson they are falling behind in. Because it’s not as straightforward as test prep, I try to let the student’s concerns direct the session. I take charge once the concerns are set (or when they aren’t sure what their concerns are), but this is a really good way that I practice executive functioning with my students by having them be prepared before the session and take charge of their own academic outlook from as early on as possible. Since I am very versed in most topics, especially in math, I can give them practice on the fly and really show them how to ingrain strategies and formulas so it becomes second nature to them.
What’s your typical approach with working on executive functioning with younger students?
My biggest thing is time management. There are many steps that go into organizing your time, and learning your stride sooner rather than later is always beneficial in the long run. Meticulously planning out your week down to the breaks you take is key to optimal performance and necessary when a student is challenging themselves with difficult courses or high test score goals. Which, of course, I always promote; confidence is hard to come by (especially in math), but it really is as simple as permanence through consistency.
How do you view your role as a tutor?
I would say students are half just wanting to sit down and do the work and the other half wanting to form a closer bond with someone to talk to or get advice about things outside of school. I leave it open to whatever the student is comfortable with, but I am always available to help in any way I can with a student’s success story. Teaching is my passion, and solid mentorship helps me be better by making the most difference I can with my students.
Tell me about one of your favorite sessions you’ve had.
A student I had many years ago would come to me multiple times a week to work on middle school math. He was one of those who absolutely despised math, and all of his motivation to be there was external: his parents and his failing grades. We had a pretty intense schedule of remediating the learning loss from the previous year and stacking the current semester’s work on top of that. So, this kid was kept very busy to say the least.
As the semester progressed, he began to pick up on things and understand them more quickly. Routine really set him straight, which is a typical trend with my students. My favorite session came from a conversation I had with him after his semester grades came out.
He had an F before he started working with me, and he was able to pull up his grades up to a B. After some congratulations on his hard work, I jokingly asked, “So, why not an A?” “Next semester,” he answered simply. “Oh yeah?” “Yeah, lets work on it today,” he said.
Not only was he now motivated to do well, he wanted to challenge himself further to trump his already-huge feat. Coming from someone who would not even speak to me during our first couple of sessions, I was elated with his eager 180. It was incredibly satisfying to see our efforts culminate in the molding of an academic warrior!
What is your favorite part of being a tutor?
I love it when students hate math! Boy, have I gotten some students with a burning passion against numbers in general. Some come to me with nothing—no problems, no study guides—just a cast into the “tutoring pool” with a prayer in their pocket. When they work with me, who is borderline obsessed with math, I help open their minds to a different way of thinking about math: let’s hate math together and find an avenue that is less painful!
Math is not all formulas and memorizing different word problems—it’s way more interconnected than that. Getting a student to slowly change their views about how math “works” is as freeing as it is fun! Personalized, adaptable learning is the key to success, so I try and use my knowledge to lead each student down a path perfectly paved for them.
Outside of tutoring for us, what do you like to do for fun?
I’m a bit of a nerd! My wife and I routinely attend some comic-cons each year, and I probably spend a little too much time playing video games. I like to read, mostly sci-fi and fantasy, and I’ve recently begun the herculean task of reading the Discworld books.
If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be and why?
Bertrand Russell. Russell was a Mathematician, yes, but also a philosopher and a political activist. I would be fascinated to hear his take on the world today and the choices that we, collectively, have made. I wonder, to what extent, he would approve of the world that we have made?
Tutoring with General Academic
General Academic’s subject and test prep tutors provide the structured support to accommodate your student wherever they’re at. We help our students with a wide range of materials, ranging from 1st through 12th grade subject prep, ISEE, and SAT. To get the ball rolling, give us a call at (713) 838-7774 or fill out our tutoring request form.
