Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 tutor

About Richard

I'm Ricky, an alum from the California Institute of Technology. I have tutored individually for private families for the past four years at the high school and college level, and all of my students have been very successful at becoming more interested in and comfortable with the topic. For each individual I have tutored, they have reported increasing their grade in the subject by at least one full letter grade throughout the course of the semester. I enjoy the actual process of meeting, learning to interact with, and finding good study strategies for a specific student just as much as I enjoy hearing about the positive results my students have experienced after working with me.

To me, one of the most important factors to becoming proficient in a subject is to become interested in the topic and engaged in following the material as it develops throughout the semester. As a result, I make a conscious effort to engage my students, draw parallels between the material and "real life" or subjects they are more interested in, and encourage interest in the topic by choosing specific examples and problems primarily to make difficult concepts more easy to relate to. This also tends to reduce the student's anxiety around doing math, and even find it fun! Additionally, watching a student become more actively engaged in the material is the most rewarding parts of tutoring.

In my free time, I have participated in chemistry research through Caltech focusing on organic and polymer synthesis, independently research topics in chemistry, mathematics, and business, and gained work experience in various types of sales and product research. I am excited to see the variety of ways I can learn to apply my interests, and how many of my seemingly different interests can be closely related. Because of hands-on experience in have in both academic and professional labs, I am particularly adept at being able to remember rules, trends, and patterns that many students have trouble memorizing; often, I have actually seen a given pattern or trend first-hand in my lab experiences, which is a uniquely effective way to memorize it and understand why the trend behaves the way it does.

Being able to interact with students and see someone finally "get" something for the first time is extremely rewarding to me. I'm excited to hear from you and talk about what we could work on together.