My name is Dora, and I am an experienced IB Maths teacher. I qualified as a Pamoja teacher in June, and in October I became a Pamoja Tutor. In this blog post, I offer some tips on how online tutoring can help you prep for summer.
Using the summer holidays
As an IB Diploma Maths teacher, I always found my last few weeks with my IB1 class crucial. Students would have covered around 60-70% of the syllabus by then, completed their Mid-IBDP examinations, and given guidance on their internal assessment.
I always make sure my students receive a very detailed and individualised report based on their whole year and their final exam performance, along with a number of specific and individual targets to work on over the summer holidays. Yes, over the summer holidays!
The Mid IBDP summer is a very important one, and can make a huge difference in how you manage your second IB year.
The second year starts off fast-paced, with many IA deadlines to comply with, along with learning new topics in all your subjects. The workload is immense, and students often arrive to their mock exams stressed, as they haven’t studied as much as they planned to.
With some gaps in their knowledge, students can find they are low in confidence as well. So how do we avoid this?
Return prepared in September!
Catch–up on topics which you find difficult and push yourselves further on the topics you were finding easier.
Improve your exam techniques, such as your comprehension of exam-style questions, your time management techniques, your precision and speed, and finally your calculator skills.
Unfortunately, this year most of you were affected by months of school closures and a few of you were only allowed to return to school for the last few weeks of semester, so being prepared is even more crucial.
So what do you do to prepare for September?
A tutor is a great way to help you feel motivated and can help you use the summer holiday to get ahead. Here are my top tips for those of you thinking of hiring a tutor:
Planning well is key! An experienced tutor can help you to set up a reasonable, challenging, yet manageable individualised plan. Looking at your most recent test results and reports, you can discuss the areas of improvement to focus on.
Be efficient! Having a tutor helps you to stay focused on your goals, spending less time studying, yet able to achieve more. You can decide together how many sessions per week you need, and the intensity of the course. Do you want a few sessions of intensive revision or weekly sessions spread over the whole summer?
A second chance! We all have those topics that we just do not get…or you may have missed a few lessons and never managed to catch up on your own. Your tutor may have a different approach to explaining the topic, helping your understanding. All Pamoja tutors are experienced, some with examining background, and will be able to use their wide range of resources created over many years of their teaching, to help you understand the topics you find difficult.
One-to-one sessions. Lesson times are dedicated to your needs, tailored to your individual level of knowledge and skills. You can ask your questions whenever you need to and clarify any misunderstandings. One-to-one tuition can lead to more confidence, and the ability to tackle IB examination questions which require creative thinking.
