Chemistry and Organic Chemistry tutor

About Niral

Hi there! I'm Niral - I'm a chemist who just loves to teach. And tough as it can be to find someone who writes out organic mechanisms for fun...you've found him!

I've taught and tutored at the University of Southern California and Wake Forest over the last 8 years, including being a TA for both General and Organic Chemistry. I started tutoring students in in the athletic department at USC as well as working as a supplemental instruction (SI) leader, and then moved on to chemistry after earning my undergraduate degree. In my time in graduate school, I got to tutor nearly 150 students privately and spent a lot of time with my lecture students outside of class, throwing them pizza parties for their lab sections, late night study sessions, and impromptu lectures in the hallway outside of my research lab. I just love to teach, and nothing beats seeing the “click” moment for one of my students, when everything just falls into place.

By training, my expertise is in synthetic organic chemistry, specializing in photochemistry of organic molecules, both for the absorptive properties and intramolecular charge transfer. I’ve been lucky enough to publish 8 papers on the topic, and been awarded 2 patents as well. If you were looking for another way to put it...I'm a complete nerd. I love chemistry in every way, and I love to learn about interactions between things that we can't even see. That excitement led me to pursue my doctorate in organic chemistry as well, which further solidified my love of teaching and mentorship.

My goal in life has always to be a teacher -- having learned from fantastic AP Biology and AP Chemistry teachers in high school, and exceptional professors at USC. It's a standard that I try to hold myself to, though I’m never satisfied with the comparison. A lot of the techniques and skills that I have as an tutor came from taking what they taught me and putting my own spin on it. Beyond that, my teachers also taught me to take great pride in the success of my students, which is why I like to take time to not only teach, but get to know them on a personal level as well. Having taught math, general and organic chemistry at the middle school, high school, AP, and collegiate level, I feel that I can teach a variety of students, from any background.

In addition to teaching chemistry and math, I spent a lot of time teaching test preparation for a few large test prep companies, specializing in teaching SAT and ACT science, as well as AP and SAT II chemistry. I've also spent time in the classroom teaching high school Algebra and AP Chemistry. I found that while these were rewarding experiences, there was nothing that was as satisfying as seeing a student's eyes light up when you explained a topic to them one-on-one, in a way that made sense to them alone. That personal connection is what makes a subject not just engaging and, but also makes the material stick.

If I’m not in the kitchen pretending I'm on Top Chef (you'll find almost every chemist aspires to be in the culinary world at least once in their life), I'd love the opportunity to help you!!