Experienced University Mathematics and Statistics Tutor - Innovative Learning Methods to Stop Memorizing - Tilburg or Online - by Operations Research and Data Science MSc.

Kom meer te weten over Enis Lucas

• 1) Wanneer is jouw interesse in dit onderwerp en voor het geven van privéles ontstaan?

  1. My interest in mathematical subject appeared when I was around 15-16 years old. I was never bad at mathematics. Rather, I was usually among the best in my class since secondary school. I just fell prey to the "Maths is hard and useless." jokes circulating the internet. Thanks to my mother, than saw this and forced me to go on a mathematical study during my high school, I am now where I am. In the 10th grade we did matrices, among others, and in the 11th grade we started calculus. This is where my private tutor started to be able to relate mathematics to his passions and the real world: enclosing the entire universe in an infinitely big matrix, spirituality, why we cannot divide by 0, astronomy facts, logical paradoxes and riddles, etc. His passion in talking about the subjects was transferred to us. The moment I arrived in Tilburg, the Mathematics course I did first was very easy compared to my private sessions with him. So I immediately started teaching to my friend with a non-mathematical background. Since then, I just increased in teaching various subjects beyond simple mathematics.

• 2) Vertel ons meer over het vak waarin je lesgeeft en over de thema's die je graag met jouw leerlingen bespreekt (en eventueel ook de onderwerpen die je minder leuk vindt).

  2. As for academic topics, I can deal with most math-related topics: Calculus, Linear Algebra, Statistics, Graph Theory, Linear Optimization, Combinatorial Optimization (basic to medium level). I always have discussions with my students before the first lecture to assess their personality: Do they like to work alone and make mistakes? Do they just want to be explained? Based on this I design a curriculum and agree with them on it. I am currently preparing to start teaching secondary school and high school students in Romania as well. Though I cannot recall too much on trigonometry, I believe from September 2026 that will not be an issue anymore either.

• 3) Vertel ons over jouw grote voorbeeld of rolmodel, of het nou een leraar of lerares is waar je zelf les van hebt gehad of een genie in jouw veld.

  3. A great role model in the mathematical and pedagogical field is my private tutor from Romania, that changed my hatred for mathematics into pure love and curiosity. His curiosity was contagious. I still recall him having a big stack papers with failed attempts to solve one of the hardest problems in geometry. He was doing this in between classes. His big library on spiritual beliefs, and his way of being interested in the social norms nowadays so that he can emphasize with his students were noticeable to me. I know he was the one that sparked this journey for me. Further down the line, university professors such as mr. Serhan Sadigoklu intensified my desire to teach as well, not just to learn. Seeing him explain such "abstract and obscurely new" topics while cracking a joke and giving simple examples made me curious if I could do it myself.

• 4) Wat zijn, volgens jou, de vereiste kwaliteiten om een expert in jouw vak te zijn?

  4. In the field of mathematics, the most important characteristic is patience. Staring at a formula for 2 hours not understanding how "it came about" is a real struggle while learning. In the field of pedagogy, knowing how to communicate that formula that "fell out of the sky" in the most banal way. Translating complex mathematical encryption into real-life examples people can relate to.

• 5) Kan je ons een leuke anekdote vertellen die met jouw beroep of schooltijd te maken heeft?

  5. A few years ago, I was working as a receptionist while reviewing papers for a business planning course. My schedule was pushed to the absolute limit. I would type out feedback in the brief moments between greeting clients, surviving on way too much coffee and going to sleep at 2 AM just to wake up at 5 AM. The peak of this happened when my grandmother had a sudden medical emergency, and we had to rush to a hospital in another city. While my mother drove, I sat in the passenger seat and finished reviewing my last batch of papers. I didn’t bring my laptop, so I ended up standing in the hospital parking lot sending my students detailed WhatsApp voice memos with their feedback. I only stopped when we were called inside. It was an intense week, but it showed me that if you are disciplined, you can execute your work from literally anywhere.

• 6) De tijd is nu gekomen om ons te vertellen dat je misschien ook wel wat moeilijkheden op school hebt gehad...

  6. During my bachelor in Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, I used to take courses from Econometrics and Operations Research, to prepare for my master in Operations Research. The classes were different: everyone was quiet, no smartphones during lectures, people actually asking questions, people fighting for the first rows instead of the last, and not being very energic physically during breaks. It was like another reality. I felt like the intruder - I was doing courses from all 3 generations in the same semester. "These people have 120 ECTS in heavy math courses. I am doing the A B C of Linear Algebra again while sitting with them?" However, given my social anxiety, I took the readers of all courses, my iPad, and read and practiced everyday, everywhere: at home, at university, during friend gatherings, ping pong tournaments (during the breaks). This allowed me to catch up in just a couple of months. I ended almost all courses in the top percentile of the class. I never had to retake a course.

• 7) Help ons je wat beter te leren kennen door ons wat meer over jouw passies te vertellen (die je misschien ook van plan bent via Superprof te delen).

  7. I am a quiet, introspective person who values silence, solitude, and deep work. However, in the recent years, I started to feel a daily need to socialize, thus I seek beneficial conversations between my tasks. My highest life priority is my religion; I dedicate significant time to memorizing the Quran, and mastering the Arabic language. I also love to bike and ride the sky jet (having been the team leader at a sky jet point in 2022).

• 8) Wat maakt jou een Superprof (naast het beantwoorden van dit interview 😉)?

  8. I have a great awareness of my professors. I have been "collecting data" for the past years on teaching methods. What works, what frustrates students, what seemingly is fine yet has no performance results? Small things such as mentioning the name of the student, asking a follow-up after they say: "I understand", not "bombarding" them with files, etc. make a tiny difference when independent, but have a huge effect when combined. What makes me effective is that I don't just help them survive the next exam, but I dismantle their bad study habits and build a logical, long-term framework they can rely on for any mathematical course. My motto relies on NOT memorizing formulas, but understanding the "WHY."