I believe that there is no concept too difficult for someone to learn; everyone can learn when they find the method that is best for them.

In a first session, I find it important that I not only get to know the student, but, more importantly, that the student gets to know me. It is essential to the success of a tutor that the student understands that the tutor's sole purpose is their success.

Learning is not about memorizing specific concepts so much as it is about familiarizing yourself with concepts that may later help you synthesize knowledge alone. It is essential that students develop good study and active learning techniques early on in the session that they may then bring with them to the classroom.

Depending on the age group, hands-on methods of teaching tend to be significantly effective for teaching more 'abstract' concepts in mathematics. For older students, methods utilizing real-life applications may be appropriate to keep a student motivated.

If a student is demonstrating difficulty learning a skill or concept, it is often effective to approach the problem from a new perspective. For example, if a hands-on approach isn't effective at teaching a problem, perhaps a visual or 'real-life' example may be a better method.