Maths PhD student, 4 years experience tutoring degree level - Maths tutor with Joel

Dr. Joel Cawte tutored me in a class of around fifteen for a year in my first year of undergraduate study of Mathematics. He took tutorials for a course called methods and applications and then in mathematical analysis. As a former student I am more than pleased to recommend his services as a tutor and completely endorse his ability to teach.
Each week, Joel’s tutorials were looked forward to by everyone and well attended. I found that I would often gain a lot clarity over the material from lectures during the hour lesson as well as learn valuable insights that weren’t explained in the lecture notes. Difficult concepts that had mystified me would become easy to grasp through Joel’s explanations, diagrams and analogies. Alongside this, Joel would also work through problems from our problem sheets that the class were struggling with. He was most perceptive when it came to what knowledge or understanding students were lacking, holding them back from being able to answer certain questions, and what details may be confusing them. One example of this that I can recall, was Joel noticing that the tutor group for Analysis was reading mathematical statements as direct translations into English, so that the statement was then interpreted ambiguously. He explained that you had to ‘read like a computer’ and that variables in a statement could not depend on proceeding variables. He then worked through examples until everyone understood it.
This example demonstrates well how Joel teaches. As someone who has tutored Mathematics myself, I am familiar with the clear distinction between teaching a student how to answer maths problems and teaching a student to understand Mathematics and think like a Mathematician. The latter is what Joel does skilfully and is far more valuable.
As well as being an effective tutor, Joel was likeable and friendly whilst still being able to command respect in the tutorials. His sense of humour and the rapport that he built with the class made the lessons fun and maintained the energy of the group.
With that said, I am most confident in my recommendation that Joel will continue to be a great tutor.

Joel tutored me across 3 semesters for 2 different modules, analysis and methods, at the University of Bath. I really struggled with analysis and Joel's tutorials really helped me. He would take the time to explain topics I didnt understand in different ways, using diagrams to aid explanation. He always believed in me even when I didn't and would push me when I thought I couldn't do it. He made tutorials interesting and engaging whilst providing clear explanations with lots of knowledge of the subject. His feedback was clear and useful and he was happy to explain when I didn't understand. Joel is a fantastic tutor that helped me through one of my hardest module at university with his brilliant tutorials.