Ethan Tang

Ethan Tang - B.Sc. Combined Honours in Math and Statistics with Distinction, UBC Vancouver: #2-#3 in Canada! Awarded the G C Webber Memorial Prize. Currently is a math M.Sc. student in UBC O. But taking no courses this term! Taught as a lab instructor (Math 221 TA). I love explaining!



Tutor Rating:  not rated
Tutor reviews    Write a review


Tutoring Locations

British Columbia:

Kelowna

Lesson Types and Tutoring Fees

Type	Fee
Individual	$35
Group	$20
Online	$35
E-mail	$35

Lesson Languages
English

Tutoring Services and Experience
Hi!!!!1

Oops sorry for the lack of formality. But... too much formality is boring!

I'm Ethan Tang and I tutor math or statistics at university or high school level.

Although I do not do meetings I can tutor anyone anywhere through Skype!

I love math and I love explaining things! I loved talking math since I was a kid. Math fascinated me ever so much. When I first saw a 3D function grapher, I got addicted as though it was a video game, making castles out of math equations. In high school me and my friends debated math rather than go to parties. We scribbled so many math arguments and visualization on a piece of paper it became unreadable; we laughed when we tried to interpret what we wrote. I explained "you drew this heart shaped function to declare love for me."

When I was 17 I did a lot of random programming which involved math. I used group theory to write a computer program that calculates the length of repeating decimals in division*. I used linear algebra to test for collisions between arbitrarily rotated cubes (for a silly game). I used complex number functions to plot beautiful pictures.

Also when 17, I used statistical inference while designing one of a different computer game's "AI" opponent. I was tuning parameters which made the AI opponent most likely to win against another AI. I find statistics very intuitive, it's something easy to remember after you learn.

I lived in O Canada since I was 5 so don't worry about accents!

==RATE==

$35/hour; $20/hour for group tutoring

==QUALIFICATIONS==

B.Sc. Combined Honours in Mathematics and Statistics with Distinction, UBC Vancouver: the #2-#3 Canadian university
An "Honours" degree requires higher grades and a few more advanced courses, roughly 1/4 UBC math students graduate with one*
"With Distinction" is a similar note also printed on the diploma, also requiring high grades (85% on 10 300 or 400 level courses)
I could have easily chosen to graduate with Honours in Mathematics too (if I chose a few 400 math courses rather than 400 level stat courses)
The statistics department prefers students to either graduate with a thematic concentration other than statistics or have a combined degree
Awarded the G C Webber Memorial Prize: only 1 UBC math student is awarded this each graduating year
Although erm, there are actually quite a few similar prizes with different names, roughly 17... but pretend you didn't hear that!
Currently is a math M.Sc. student in UBC Okanagan. But taking no courses this term!
I'm taking no courses this term because I chose to myself, it's allowed, and everyone freely decides how fast they want to graduate
Taught as a lab instructor (Math 221 TA, teaching 75 students over 3 labs)
Experience in various programming languages: Maple, Matlab, R, Java (a bit of Python, JavaScript). I feel I'm quick at solving programming glitches and bugs.
Among the mathematics and statistics courses I took at UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan I got:
(recent) A+ A+ A- A+ A B B- B+ A B- A+ A+ A+ A A A- A A- A+ A A A+ A A (long ago)

(I can show you these qualifications (except programming) on my UBC account)

==ADVICE==

My one single biggest piece of advice, is to do the practice exams a few days before the final exam.

It doesn't sound very enlightening at all, so why is it the most important advice?

It's the most important advice because it appears unimportant, and many students don't do the practice exam. Not only do you get practice but you see the big picture of what's wrong, or confidence knowing you did well. You realize big things like "wow the time is tight, I might run out of time. I need to practice doing things fast." "Oh the exam is cumulative, the professor never told us this. It actually covers all the stuff from earlier in the course that I forgot."

Because often when we do poorly on an exam, we are filled with regrets. "Darn it if if I only knew I would run out of time like this, I would have rushed myself more at the start" (one of my classmates had this exact regret). "Oh my I thought this course was so easy, the midterms were so easy, if only I knew the exam was like this I'd study so hard during all those days!" "Darn it I can't imagine there were 5 or so questions on this little concept that I just forgot!" "Oh wow I made a single stupid mistake--forgetting to divide by sqrt{n} when calculating the standard error--on multiple questions, losing a mark for each of them" (this happened to myself).

The practice exam reduces those regrets by so much. And without those regrets school just becomes much easier.

Make sure you time yourself and finish the practice exam on time. Do it early, so if you mess up you have time to devote to improving. Read the practice exam solutions, or trade it with a friend.

I maxed out my ad length. Continue reading at:
ethanziqiangtang.wordpress.com

Subjects

College and University:

Math, Statistics

Tags
math, algebra, calculus, pre-calculus, differential, integral, linear algebra, matrix algebra, statistics, probability, inference