Alexander Kwadwo Sapong

In my 2nd year of studying at The University of Manchester, I was enlisted as a Peer assisted study session (PASS) tutor. PASS is a system that required weekly study sessions with 1st years, discussing the topics that they had been taught that week, using provided learning aids to help solidify the new topics, and create new learning aids and exercises to further engage 1st year students with the course material. These out-of-lecture-hours sessions required a understanding of the material, an understanding of where students often struggle, the patience and understanding to take the time needed to help students make break throughs, and the experience required to point to useful educational tools so that students could learn on their own time if need be.
Being a PASS tutor required good time keeping as sessions where placed in specific timeslots, being open to communication as the sessions were led by pairs of tutors, and being understanding of the different grasp of knowledge of each student.
When teaching and supplementing my strategy to ensure the best learning experience possible for the student is to first ensure they have a strong baseline understanding of the topic at hand. This may require going over specific aspects of the syllabus and breaking down larger, more complex pieces of information into smaller more understandable nuggets of information. Second ensure that the student is familiar with the topic in the examination form; by using past paper questions (both short answer and multiple choice) to help the student become familiar with how exams will ask the questions.