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Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

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Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

#71

Post by nonameiguess »

andrewlgood wrote: post #46

I am always curious regarding new education solutions. I firmly believe the US pre-college education systems are fundamentally broken most benefit from edtech (huge fan of Khan Academy). As an MIT alum myself ('89), I am surprised to hear your description of your experience at MIT. Did you experience this across all classes and departments or only for a few (e.g. 18.01 which is required for most freshman)? While cert…

I didn't attend MIT, but the existence of OCW is exactly what made me wince a bit reading this. This guy really experienced professors refusing to record lectures to encourage attendance? That doesn't track with MIT being a pioneer among US universities in recording lectures and making them freely available, not just for their own students, but for anyone anywhere with an Internet connection. I used OCW extensively when going back to school for grad school, even though it was not at MIT. Those resources are terrific and invaluable.

Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

#72

Post by gfodor »

VyseofArcadia wrote: post #52

> Help resources become inefficient - because so much material is restricted, and so much time is spent on delivering live lectures, there’d often be 40 students competing for help from 2 TAs in a 2-hour Office Hours I had the exact opposite problem when I was both a TA and later a professor. I would beg and plead for my students to come to office hours. "It's free one on one tutoring from the guy who writes the test…

When I went to school office hours was where you went if you wanted to get hints on what you needed to know for the exam, not to learn stuff. It was a means to an end. Honestly I never even considered the idea that office hours could help me better understand the material. Goes to show you what the mind of a college student is like.

Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

#73

Post by WhitneyLand »

PheonixPharts wrote: post #45
jsqu99 wrote: post #23

I am 53 and cramming while relearning linear algebra, statistics, and calculus, after a 30 year break from college, in preparation for my first semester at GA Tech's online MS CS program in the fall. I love this! But...before I check it out, I'm going to be surprised if it competes with the already-incredible free help i've gotten from chatgpt-3.5. Recently I asked it the following (where it made a mistake that confu…

As someone who has used linear algebra, statistics and calculus as part of my day-to-day work for years, I would be very cautious of relying on ChatGPT as your "tutor". Occasionally I've tried to substitute ChatGPT for the shelf of reference books in my office and nearly always had poor results. The trouble is that the outputs of these models, by their very nature, look convincing . Even as an expert it takes a fair…

Have the opposite experience, it’s been a fantastic resource.

Were you using 3.5 or 4.0?

Do you have an example of of the type of question that performs poorly?

Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

#74

Post by brianbreslin »

SimonDuerr wrote: post #37

Interesting concept, and a unique landing page! The 3D carousel confused me a bit, especially when it kept rotating while I tried watching one of the videos.

this threw me off as well. I thought hitting play would pause the rotation.

Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

#75

Post by butwho »

nonameiguess wrote: post #71
andrewlgood wrote: post #46

I am always curious regarding new education solutions. I firmly believe the US pre-college education systems are fundamentally broken most benefit from edtech (huge fan of Khan Academy). As an MIT alum myself ('89), I am surprised to hear your description of your experience at MIT. Did you experience this across all classes and departments or only for a few (e.g. 18.01 which is required for most freshman)? While cert…

I didn't attend MIT, but the existence of OCW is exactly what made me wince a bit reading this. This guy really experienced professors refusing to record lectures to encourage attendance? That doesn't track with MIT being a pioneer among US universities in recording lectures and making them freely available, not just for their own students, but for anyone anywhere with an Internet connection. I used OCW extensively w…

I'm not in the USA but my universities in the 90s used to offer at least 5 online 5-year courses (CE, EE, Chemical, Mechanics and Energy) and you would have to go only one month a year for the labs. Now they offer ZERO. It wouldn't surprise me that some professors feel "offended" that people choose to follow the lectures online instead of taking the "advantage" of his prestigious person.

Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

#76

Post by lolbullshit »

in nature it is the restriction that affords growth. Not growth itself. Growth is like cancer. Restriction is like selection. Upvoting alone also doesnt outline content that is toxic, incorrect and makes it harder to find content that we are interested in. Afterall, you have a title that explains if the content is of our own intrest fairly well.. the upvote is a popularity contest. Downvoteing alone allows our own allows ourselves to decide what We care to endeavor in.

The way this supposed enlightened website grays text that speaks contentously as a way to tell people, "he is being negative we think" seeks to reenforce the popularity contest sort of aggregation.

I wish It didnt happen here. This persons post got to the top but HN wants to still put their own 2 cents into the matter.

Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

#78

Post by butwho »

tayo42 wrote: post #31

> but very expensive e.g. $100/hour Yeah getting specialized human help that is worth while for anything is expensive. I tried to being a tutor/mentor on some site, forgot off the top of my head. I'm pretty sure in and out or target pays more. 100/hr seems right to charge. Probably still not even enough. If you break it down, you spend a ton of time unpaid doing prep and searching for clients, the work it self is inc…

>I also just got asked to answer homework questions for cheap.

My exact experience as a tutor. The clients do not want tutoring, they want an afterschool homework program.

Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

#79

Post by bee_rider »

VyseofArcadia wrote: post #52

> Help resources become inefficient - because so much material is restricted, and so much time is spent on delivering live lectures, there’d often be 40 students competing for help from 2 TAs in a 2-hour Office Hours I had the exact opposite problem when I was both a TA and later a professor. I would beg and plead for my students to come to office hours. "It's free one on one tutoring from the guy who writes the test…

Also the general level of confusion of students coming in to office hours can be a valuable part of the feedback loop.

Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring

#80

Post by deuplonicus »

gfodor wrote: post #72
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #52

> Help resources become inefficient - because so much material is restricted, and so much time is spent on delivering live lectures, there’d often be 40 students competing for help from 2 TAs in a 2-hour Office Hours I had the exact opposite problem when I was both a TA and later a professor. I would beg and plead for my students to come to office hours. "It's free one on one tutoring from the guy who writes the test…

When I went to school office hours was where you went if you wanted to get hints on what you needed to know for the exam, not to learn stuff. It was a means to an end. Honestly I never even considered the idea that office hours could help me better understand the material. Goes to show you what the mind of a college student is like.

Not all college students are the same, I used office hours to get help building things, designing things, and to better understand the materials, especially when I got into silicon fabrication and electromagnetics, it was fascinating, learning exactly, in detail, how a PC works at the atomic level.
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