Jake North-Brack

About me:

I am an Economics and Mathematics joint degree graduate. I have worked within the Actuarial Profession for 8 years since then working first as an Investment Consultant and more recently within Insurance Pricing. This year I decided to take a career break and study for an MSc in Data Analytics. To support my studies I have been greatly interested in providing Maths tuition to share my passion for the subject and help others improve their understanding. I am a friendly, patient and empathetic individual with plenty of experience communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences. I believe my experience and character traits are very well suited to the role of a tutor.

My Experience:

My earliest indirect experience would have to be the many hours I have spent helping my two younger sisters with their Maths over the years (they are 11 and 16 years younger than me respectively). I really enjoyed patiently talking through topics each found challenging in their homework until we reach that moment where everything begins to 'click'. My direct experience to mention comes from my voluntary work with the charity Tutor the Nation. In October 2022 I began tutoring A level Maths once matched with my Tutee for one hour a week online. In addition to that role, I also hold a part time position 'tutoring' for the online education company GCSE Catch-up. It is my responsibility to record Maths GCSE revision videos for the companies customers which include a mix of topic, exam style and Q & A videos. I have been creating the Maths content for the site since September 2022.


My Approach:

• I use the first session or perhaps a phone call prior to that as an introductory session to gauge topics already covered at school and explore topics where there is scope to boost a student's confidence

• These uncovered topics will form the basis of the initial set of lessons with a student

• Lessons start with a gentle quiz or shorter exercise that we work through verbally to get our brains in gear ready to tackle todays topic

• The lesson then focusses on working through a series of exercise questions that try to build upon each other and bring the topic to life

• I like to make sessions as interactive and visual as possible. Whether online or in person I like to make use of a whiteboard that the two of us can share

• I'll ask a student to initially have a go at questions themselves talking me through first how they intend to tackle it

• If a question is proving somewhat challenging the next step is to tackle it together where I can provide a small nudge here or there

• If a question is proving really quite difficult I can demonstrate how I would tackle it and make sure the student is following along with me taking it as slow as is needed

• I'm of the opinion that I shouldn't really be doing any more than 50% of the talking during a session for the student to get the most out of it and to ensure they remain engaged throughout

• Post-lesson I will then write myself a lesson summary and keep referring back to these as sessions progress to keep track of a pupils progression and use notes to help continually plan for the sessions ahead


What resources do I bring to the table?

• I will make use of various free online resources (Corbett maths and Dr.Frost are two sources in particular I find useful)

• I make use of Jupyter Python Notebooks to produce my own questions or Math / LaTeX style expressions as well as visuals particularly for geometric topics (graphs etc)
I have experience recording educational videos at GCSE level. I would be more than happy to provide short example recordings showing examples how to tackle questions for students between our sessions if that is helpful