One student emailed me prior to week 3. I knew him from class. At the end of week 1 he had not been as advanced as the lesson plan but said he would work on the material in between classes. The module specification allows 3 hours work at home for each 2 hour session, so this seemed fine. The next week he had caught up to the lesson plan. He told me he visited the Maths Support Centre in between weeks 1 and 2 and I had told him that was a good idea since this is a friendly atmosphere where one-to-one tuition from a very capable tutor was available. As he left in week 2 he was again behind the lesson plan and said he would work on it in his own time.
In the email he said he was finding the material difficult and the sessions weren't useful for him as his fellow classmates just wanted to chat and not do the work while he was struggling. He said it takes him a long time to get to university and he could be working. He complimented me as a tutor, said I was likable and had a "fantastic knowledge". He said he wasn't going to send this message to any one else as he didn't want me getting into trouble but he felt more comfortable carrying on at his own pace alone. He added at the end that he might be a little embarrassed "struggling so far behind the others."
I was pretty upset by this; he was at that point the only student sticking to the lesson plan! My reply is below.
I am sorry to hear you are not finding the lessons useful but I sympathise with the points you make. Of course you understand I can’t recommend non-attendance as a course of action, rather it is your choice.
I must confess I am surprised by the number of students who have sufficient mathematical knowledge already to take the course and I am a bit put off by people leaving half way through but it is their choice. I had been told to expect students who were perfectly capable but rusty (i.e. hadn’t done maths for a while) and I think you fit that description well, and that the material would be largely unseen by the students before. I think from talking to you last week that you are moving along at the speed of the lesson plan I was given that was used in previous years so you have nothing to worry about on that respect.
I also think that as the course goes on more students will encounter unfamiliar material and the need for class teaching might be more acute. For example, this week I have prepared myself to work through a set of simultaneous equations and a couple of quadratic equations as I imagine more students will struggle with these concepts. I worry a little how well students will cope unaided with the differentiation and integration concepts towards the end of the course.
One suggestion might be if you would like to come and stay for the second hour, which people mostly seem to be leaving for, and I can help you more intensely. Otherwise I know you have been to the Maths Support drop in centre and I think that is really good as Sarah is an excellent tutor. I imagine you know but she runs sessions in the City as well as Clifton so that might be less of a journey for you? In case you haven’t seen, the information is on the VLP at:
https://elearn.ntu.ac.uk/mle/system/resources/maths.asp?section=skills
If you aren’t going to be in classes it would be good if you could keep me up to date on how you are progressing through the course notes. Via email to this address is fine. Also if you have any questions.
They have finally got me onto the course on the VLP so I will put up last years coursework and test for students to take as a mock. You might find this useful to see the kind of thing that will be on this years tests.
All the best, and I hope to see you in class sometime
I didn't hear back.
