With numbers and words jumping through his head, Sophomore Chinmay Karyekar scrambles his mind to find a way to put complex problems into words to help his student. Suddenly, he remembers that what helped him would probably help his student. When the student finally gets the topic right, Karyekar feels a sense of satisfaction.
Karyekar has been working at Kumon for just over a year. At Kumon, Karyekar teaches students in many subjects, from elementary to college level coursework.
“I teach a little bit of everything,” Karyekar said. “Although I teach many subjects, I’m better at teaching math. There are many levels of it that I teach, it goes from basic addition to calculus.”
Although Karyekar is comfortable teaching many classes, he enjoys teaching math more because he feels that he excels more in math than other classes at school, making it easier for him to teach a student learning math topics.
“I find math way more straightforward than reading or writing because there’s always an objective answer,” Karyekar said, “My thought process with math is always more linear and less complicated to explain to the students.”
Because Karyekar enjoys math both while tutoring and in his own high school classes, he is able to teach math at a higher level. These high level classes introduce more challenges for him as he has to teach more complex topics.
“It’s pretty interesting teaching the harder math topics because I start to remember when I was learning [harder math classes],” Karyekar said. “Then, I can try to explain them in a way that clicked for me in the past that might just help the student understand it.”
Complex math problems can prove to be difficult to learn and teach, but tutoring comes with more challenges for Karyekar than just the content.
“The biggest challenge is staying patient when a student constantly requires explanations over the same topics,” Karyekar said. “I just try to picture myself in their shoes and try to be as nice as possible because sometimes the kids are stressed or just very young.”
Trying to teach students may be stressful for Karyekar, but when the student finally understands the topic, he says it is a great moment, knowing that he has helped another student with something they had struggled to learn.
“There have been multiple times where a student is struggling to understand a topic,” Karyekar said. “When they finally get it it’s a moment of relief, not just because I have to sit there helping them anymore, but because I feel better that they understood it and they’re learning more.”
On top of these enjoyable moments at tutoring, Karyekar enjoys teaching content to his students and his peers. He wants to give back to his community, because he knows he can help them with their own academic goals.
“I’ve always liked helping others, and in school I help my friends with their homework when I can,” Karyekar said. “I thought there would be no better way to continue accomplishing this with the skills that I have from tutoring. Not only am I helping others, but I get to do it in an area that I’ve always been good at.”
