Why I Became a Calculus Tutor: From Engineering Student to Educator

I want to tell you how I ended up doing this for a living. Not because my story is particularly dramatic — it's not. But because it explains why I care about this the way I do.

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The Thing I Kept Seeing at BU

When I was an engineering student at Boston University, I watched something happen that stuck with me.

Smart, capable people — people who were passionate about engineering, science, medicine, business — were getting knocked out of their programs because of calculus. Not because they weren't intelligent enough. Not because they didn't work hard. Most of them worked incredibly hard.

They just didn't have someone in their corner who could explain the material in a way that actually clicked for them.

The lectures were huge. The TAs were doing their best but were overwhelmed. Office hours had lines out the door. And by the time most students realized they were in trouble, they were already two or three weeks behind — which in calculus is a big hole to climb out of.

I'd help people in the common areas of our dorm. Grab a whiteboard in the study room. Walk someone through the chain rule or integration by parts. And I kept having the same experience: the person would look at me and say something like "why didn't my professor explain it like that?"

It wasn't that I was smarter than their professor. It was that I was sitting next to them, watching where they got confused, and adjusting in real time. Their professor was teaching 200 students at once. I was teaching one person.

That difference mattered more than anything else.

From Engineering to Teaching

I graduated from BU and went on to get my Master's in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida. I kept tutoring throughout grad school — it was partly how I paid the bills, but honestly, I just liked it. There's a specific feeling you get when you watch someone go from "I have no idea what's happening" to "oh wait, I actually get it." It's addictive in the best way.

After grad school, I started teaching as an adjunct professor at Santa Fe College in Gainesville. I taught college calculus courses — the same ones that were giving UF students headaches. And I saw the same patterns I'd seen at BU: hardworking students falling through the cracks of a system that wasn't built to help them individually.

That's when I started building CalcPrep.

What CalcPrep Actually Is

CalcPrep isn't a tutoring factory. I don't have a team of random tutors I've never met covering every subject from elementary school through graduate school.

It's me. I teach calculus. That's what I do, and it's all I do.

Over the years I've built out a full set of resources — course notes and quizzes for Calculus 1 and Calculus 2, free formula sheets, an FRQ Finder for AP exam prep, and the Final Stretch AP exam prep program. But the core of what I do hasn't changed since those study room sessions at BU: I sit with a student, figure out where they're stuck, and help them get unstuck.

I work with AP Calculus students preparing for the May exam. I work with college students at UF and other universities across the country. I work with students who are earning A's and want to keep it that way, and students who just failed their first exam and need a plan.

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Why Calculus Specifically?

People ask me this sometimes. Why not expand into physics, or chemistry, or SAT prep?

Because I think specialization matters. Calculus is a deep subject with a lot of nuance in how it can be taught, and the difference between a tutor who teaches calculus occasionally and one who teaches it every single day is enormous.

I've taught every concept in the Calculus 1 and Calculus 2 curriculum hundreds of times. That repetition has given me something I don't think you can get any other way: multiple explanations for every single topic. If the first approach doesn't click, I have a second, third, and fourth ready to go. I know where students get stuck because I've seen the same stumbling blocks hundreds of times, across every kind of student.

That depth is why my students get results. It's not magic. It's reps.

What I Actually Believe

I believe every student who's willing to put in the work deserves to have someone who can meet them where they are and help them get where they want to go.

I believe calculus isn't a filter that should eliminate capable people from their chosen careers. It's a challenge that can be overcome with the right support.

I believe online tutoring works — really works — when sessions are structured, focused, and adaptive. I've been doing it for years, and I've watched students go from failing to finishing with A's without ever meeting me in person.

And I believe that asking for help isn't a sign of weakness. The students I work with who succeed are the ones who recognized they needed support and went out and got it, instead of struggling in silence.

If Your Family Needs Help

If your child is in Pre-Calculus, AP Calculus, or college Calculus right now, and they're struggling — or even if they're doing fine but you want to make sure they stay that way — I'd genuinely love to help.

You can browse the free course materials to get a sense of how I teach. You can check out the AP Calculus Final Stretch program if your child is preparing for the May exam. Or you can reach out about one-on-one tutoring and we'll figure out the right plan together.

No pressure. No hard sell. Just a conversation about where your child is and what would help them most.

That's what CalcPrep is. That's what I do. And after all these years, I still get that same feeling when a student finally gets it. I don't think that's ever going to get old.

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