Welcome UBC CHEM 233 student!

Trevor Tutors CHEM233 introduces...

CHEM 233 Continuous Group Tutoring Winter 2009

Hi CHEM 233 Student! (Beware, this is a long read)

My name is Trevor and I’m a UBC student who graduated with a Major in Microbiology and Immunology in 2008. I received my Masters in Management at Sauder School of Business in 2009. And I have recently been accepted into UBC Medical School Class of 2013. I will be offering small group tutoring for CHEM 233 Organic Chemistry. This course is infamous for significantly lowering GPA averages which threatens your 2nd year success and thus your chances into getting into your preferred 3rd year majors. Moreover, your success and understanding in the course will also become important when it comes to professional school applications (ie. Med school, Dentistry, Pharmacy etc.)

THE EVIL HISTORY OF CHEM 233

CHEM 233 is considered to be a “weeder” course to separate and identify the students who are not necessarily geniuses, but who actually know how to think. It looks very good on one’s transcript to do well in this course when the class average every year ranges from 50-60% (and that’s a fact). You have your few students who do amazingly well in the course and you have the majority who cannot seem to find success in the course no matter how hard they try. Many students fail because of a very simple reason and I know exactly why after talking to many science students and my classmates. I will tell you that reason and help you to avoid doing poorly in the course as most people do. You may be surprised to know that even in my class of Microbiology major students (which is composed of many of the brightest and hard working students in UBC science), there were people who hated organic chemistry (or in other words, they achieved a low mark in the course). Don’t get me wrong, there were lots of students among this bright group who did well in CHEM 233 too, and after talking to them, I noticed the difference that made someone an A- person in the course or an A+ person.

After the midterm which everybody claims they have studied their hearts out for, you will find massive disappointment from the majority of your classmates. This has never changed over so many years that it has become a cliché. I recall when I was taking the course, the discussion board was pretty empty leading up to the midterm, but as soon as the marks were out, there were like 500 posts on the discussion board with post after post of complaints that the midterm was unfair (too many questions, too little time) and the whole course was bonkers. Students wrote essays on the posts (and I kid you not) proclaiming their God-given right to have high marks and “nothing less than an A ever in their life.” Many students were also in complete denial of their sudden failures saying that it could not be possible because they “play on a hockey team, do many extracurricular activities and do excel in all aspects of academics.” Another student thought it was very clever (feeling fully confident in his statistical skills from STATS 200 Intro to Stats) to establish a statistical proof that the class average on the midterm cannot possibly be below 50% and undoubtedly stating that the likelihood of him scoring a 50% on the midterm was not statistically possible given his usual A+ standard in ALL of his other courses. I could go on and on, but I won’t. To be honest, reading all these posts was extremely amusing to me and it raised my awareness as to how many people were still so full of themselves even after a finishing a year already at UBC. What I say to all these people is “Give me a break.” What I noticed is a lot of attitude and no self-humility towards a challenge. This course is so “evil” in fact that you don’t see many people offering to tutor on this subject on a regular basis. Some people do well, but they don’t understand well enough how they do well in the course. I on the other hand know exactly how to do well and it works for almost everyone (not just smart people). You will also have many tutors who offer to tutor the course, but they don’t have the enthusiasm or excitement to get you engaged in the right learning attitude for this course.

THAT’S WHERE I COME TO THE RESCUE

I have LOTS of experience tutoring CHEM 233 in the recent years for UBC students and I am proven to be a very good teacher. I am so familiar with CHEM 233 knowledge and all the tricks, pitfalls and hints because I have been tutoring this course almost exclusively for 5 years now. I am truly confident in my ability to get you to fully understand CHEM 233 and be able to approach any question with a systematic and logical way of thinking. Once you establish the right approach and mindset to deal with the questions, answering any question no matter how twisted it is can be is possible as you will encounter such questions on the exams. I scored the highest grade in my CHEM 233 class at 93% over the class average of 51% (I scored an 80% on my midterm, but ended by scoring a perfect final exam) where everyone agreed the professor was not very effective in teaching the course. In fact, only about 30 out of the 250 students in the class ever showed up for our class. Overall, I scored in the top 0.1% of all the CHEM 233 sections combined in the whole 2nd year science class.

MY APPROACH

My approach to doing well does not involve blaming the teacher and boycotting “useless” lectures. In fact there is a huge misconception that has been plaguing generations of science students that if the professor sucks, you shall too. The professor may in fact be incapable of explaining the material clearly and give you difficult exam questions to make it even worse, but that is NO EXCUSE that you do poorly. It’s about time we mature as University students and take the proper approach to scoring well in a course. I guarantee you I am NOT a genius. I am a very simple minded person and I make difficult things easy for me by translating everything I see to “ABC, 123 language.” I do well in the toughest science courses at UBC and in my major because I have the right mindset in learning and approaching the courses. Call me crazy, but CHEM 233 was my favourite course at UBC because I was so successful at working through it. I am a very energetic person and I teach with a serious and friendly attitude. I will make CHEM 233 easy for you. I never waste your time telling you stuff you don't need to know because that's the natural way I think. I believe I have the ability and confidence to destroy old misconceptions about this course and make this course “student friendly”, something UBC has failed to do from the beginning of time as we know it. This is my goal and my mission. No other tutor out there in any of those tutoring institutions has that mindset and can match my ability to teach CHEM 233 effectively.

SO WHAT SETS MY TUTORING APART FROM THE COMPETITION?

What I am offering is a new concept called “Continuous Group Tutoring” or CGT for short. That means we don’t meet for tutoring days or a week before the midterm and final like what most tutoring services offer or what you choose to do for the matter. Something that I have learned the hard way is that mastering CHEM 233 does not happen days or within weeks before the exams. It takes constant commitment and effort right from the start. And sometimes, it is hard to put in so much commitment into one course not only because of our busy schedules as students but also because it’s hard to stay committed when you’re not absolutely sure you’re on the right studying track.

So in order to save your time and effort to study in the most constructive and effective way possible, I am offering this new tutoring system which will most definitely help you achieve a higher mark in this course. In groups of 10-15 students, we will meet for 2 hours at the end of every week to go over all the material that the professor had just covered that week. During the meet, I will also give you ideal practice problems and equip you with all the necessary hints/tricks in mastering that section of your notes (stuff your professor wants you to figure out on your own and takes away lots of precious time). You are also free to ask questions or concerns out loud while I am speaking.

For non-believers of this new tutoring system, I have ran this concept in the recent CHEM 233 winter 2008 course and summer 2009 course and I have received great feedback on the effectiveness of this program structure. When asked if their learning was inhibited by learning in small groups versus individual private tutoring, they said that learning in groups actually benefitted them because important questions were asked and helped them to see the material in different lights. Group learning is also helpful because different students bring up important things that I may have overlooked or were not aware of for particular classes/professors.

DO I TUTOR PRIVATELY?

Some people in fact didn’t want to tell others how good I was in order to keep me all to themselves. Unfortunately, I will never be tutoring privately 1-on-1 anymore due to the increasing demand of students and my lack of time. Due to my lack of time, my sister also had to attend my group lessons when she completed CHEM 233 last year.

HOW THE PROGRAM WILL RUN

I will take a maximum of 4 groups of students (about 40 students with 10 students per group). I will meet with each of the 4 groups once per week for 2 hours. From past experience, it is wise for you to join one cohort and stick with its schedule for the whole term to keep with the right pace/lecture material covered. If you cannot make your scheduled day for good reason, you must e-mail me ahead of time so somebody else can take your spot. On these occasions, I will allow you to attend another time slot that week. It is most important that you keep on your scheduled date and not deviate as it will cause chaos for the other students. In that case, you will lose your spot in my class.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED!

If you’re interested, send me an email at tsangt@interchange.ubc.ca
1) Name
2) What year you are in (1st, 2nd etc.)

Once I have you registered, I will e-mail all of you with timely updates regarding confirmed lesson times and location. I will try my best to accomodate as many people as possible as I understand everyone has different timetables.

SESSIONS WILL START hopefully in THE 2nd Week of school depending on how fast you guys respond to me. The winter version of CHEM 233 moves at a somewhat slower pace than what you encounter taking it in the summer -which is a good thing - but sometimes the slowness becomes ineffecient in terms of teaching and students unlucky enough to get the bad profs will find that they are behind when finals come. The winter session also spends much more time (1st week and a half usually) on review at the beginning which I find kinda pointless cause most of that stuff isn't tested anyway on the 1st midterm. My sessions will actually put you ahead of the class a little bit every week in terms of material understanding so when you spend time in class learning, you're actually catching on and you're not wasting your time with your professor. Pre-reading before class has been proven to significantly increase comprehension and course performance. However, most students can't find time to do this. This is where my lessons come in handy. My past group of students I worked with were always on the ball.

There are about 1300 students taking the winter course 5 sections combined. My spots will fill up fast because many people are serious about doing well in this course. This is a very unique opportunity for all of you CHEM 233 students. No other generation of CHEM 233 students have gotten a chance to reap the benefits of such a program and learn from someone who is extremely confident with CHEM 233 over an extensive period of time.

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT TREVOR

Trevor Tsang most recently graduated with a Master of Management from the Sauder School of Business 2009. Last year, he graduated with a Bachelor in Science in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of British Columbia. Just recently, he was accepted into UBC Medical School and will start his 1st year studies in the Vancouver-Fraser Medical Program on UBC campus. He lived in Burnaby his whole life and still lives with his family (it’s time to move out, but it’s amazing the amount of time and money you save living at home). He attended Notre Dame Regional Secondary high school in Vancouver where being smart and hardworking was not “cool” back in the day. He has discovered a love for business, managing people and optimizing processes after completing his business program. For the past years, he has been working as a research assistant in UBC's Life Science Centre aiding in the search for potential cancer drugs using high-throughput screening microscopes and yeast models.

In his spare time, Trevor enjoys reading non-fiction/business books, photography and style. He also enjoys kung-fu, running, biking and hiking. Trevor has also been the President of the UBC Cancer Association last term, a student-run organization on campus that raises awareness on cancer and holds fundraisers including our successful and annual “Cuts for Cancer” event. The club takes donations of hair 10 inches or longer and sends them off to Angel Hair for Kids in Ontario, a company that makes wigs for cancer patients suffering from hair loss as a result of chemotherapy. If you are interested in helping out to organize, joining the UBC Cancer Association or donating please visit our new website http://www.cutsforcancer.net/