Osman Akar


        Graduate Student at UCLA Mathematics Department

    Math Olympiad Tutoring

I have been in Math Olympiad environment since sixth grade as a student and mentor. As a student I won a gold medal at International Mathematical Olympiads and numerous other awards in national and international levels. As a mentor I have been teaching competitive math in various levels since high school. If you want mentoring and private tutoring for your child you can contact me via email.

Class Structure

I usually meet with my students once or twice a week for about 2 hours, then I require at least 5-8 hours of own study between the sessions. This can increase if the student is willing, I would be happy to provide more material. Each session we go over a problem set on some topic (e.g. probability, analytic geometry, inequalities, etc.).

A typical session looks like as follows
  1. We start by solving the homework problems of previous week that the student missed. This involves AMC/AIME
    tests that I give as homework.
  2. Then we do a little bit lecturing/introduction of the current week’s topic.
  3. The rest of the session is mostly problem solving.

Then I give a follow up problem set as homework, which involves questions related to current topic along with miscellaneous questions and proof writing practices. Here I attach two sample problem sets: [sample_PS1] and [sample_PS2]. In addition we might follow a book, but that I decide later after I meet with the student.

Due to pandemic, I only do online tutoring over Zoom. Moreover I require my students to have a tablet that they can write on (like iPad with Apple Pencil, or Microsoft Surface with Stylus Pen) because we work together on problems on the live sessions.


Experience

Apart from tutoring, I occasionally work with instutitions. Here are some of my past experiences:

  • Lead of the instructor group of Olympiads Class in UCLA Olga Radko Endowed Math Circle (ORMC) in 21-21 and 22F school years.
    See math circle 21-23 for the worksheets I prepared.

  • Instructor at Star League, INC
  • I am working with Star League occasionally. As a lecturer I taught math olympiad course in AIME level and prepared course curriculum.

    • AIME Problem Solving, 6-day intensive interactive Winter Camp (20F)
    • Prepared AIME Advanced material for 3-week Summer Camp. The material consist of 15-days of
      lectures and problem sets under 4 main topics: Algebra, Combinatorics, Geometry and Number Theory.

  • Assistant Instructor at Los Angeles Math Circle (LAMC)

    In 18F, 19W and 19S, I was Assistant Instructor in Advanced level (8-9 grades).


  • Teaching Assistant at Turkish National Mathematical Olympiad Training Camp

    The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) organizes 2-4 weeks National Mathematical Olympiad Training camps for top 50 high school students twice a year. I participated 9 of these camps as a student. After graduation from high school, I was teaching assistant in 2015 winter camp and 2014 summer camp. As teaching assistant, I assisted the main instructor, held discussion sections approximately 25 advanced high school students, and tutored participating students in and after discussion sections. Lectured on a variety of mathematical fields, including Number Theory, Combinatorics, Elementary Geometry, Analysis and Algebra. Presented problems from earlier years’ math olympiads competitions.