"Hi, I'm Ryoko! I'm a PhD student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a master's in mathematics (and a bachelor's in math from Berkeley). I've been a graduate student TA leading discussion sections for calculus courses since Fall 2023, as well as an online, one-on-one tutor for high school math (algebra, geometry, pre-calculus) and competitive math (MATHCOUNTS, AMC 8/10/12, AIME) since 2020. Up through undergraduate, I had participated in competition math, including the AIME and Putnam Exam (top 500), and I had been part of the MATHCOUNTS Question Writing Committee from 2022-2024. I have also written questions for college math tournaments (e.g. Berkeley Math Tournament) since 2019.

I also hope to branch out to standardized test prep (SAT, ACT, GRE), as well as non-math areas (particularly essay writing sections on these exams). Although my previous tutees have generally been middle school or high school age, I am more than happy to branch out to anyone as they are comfortable, including undergrads and those preparing for the math and essay portions of standardized tests!

My tutoring experience has been mostly focused on developing problem-solving skills with a conceptual, idea-centered approach. I tend to break down the detailed steps of a few important examples, and then work our way up from there towards more applied problems at a pace appropriate for both of us. Eventually, the goal is for us to be able to generalize the ideas to broader concepts and tackle new types of problems by putting all the ideas in our toolbox together.

I welcome any suggestions or comments from both tutees and parents, such as tutoring pace, material to cover, or even new types of problems to explore. You can reach me through the Wyzant platform at any time. Please feel free to reach out at any time to schedule a lesson or if you have any questions!" less...