Teaching
Experience
One of the beauties of math competitions is that in order to do well, you must be great not only at solving problems, but also at presenting your solution clearly and convincingly. For this purpose, during the 5+ years I spent training hard for math competitions I was also expected to prepare material and pose as teacher, in order to practice those solution-communication skills, making sure everyone was convinced of the solutions.
I trained students at state level (in Mexico) in preparation for the national olympiad, and at national level, in preparation for international competitions.
What I offer
Material
Finding the right problems to attempt can be one of the biggest obstacles for growth in math competitions. If a problem is too easy, the student is not learning much from it, and if it's too hard, the student ends up wasting time and reading the solution, often without internalizing the principles behind it since other key building blocks are missing.
From my years of competition, I gathered troves of problems of many levels. This allows me to provide my students with material that will help them build their mathematical intuition and toolset, one step at a time.
Regional and national competitions provide also fresh material every year, which I can also adapt to the skill level of the student. Math competitions are ever-evolving with new tricks and ideas, and it's key to stay up to date.
Personalized Lessons
Mastering the art of problem solving is a very slow and personal process. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and it's important to acknowledge them to work towards a balanced skillset. With my experience, I'm able to tweak existing material if needed, to adjust for each student based on their proficiency in different areas.
Students are not expected to solve all the problems they're presented with right away. Often, they'll need a small hint to nudge them in the right direction. I'm very familiar with this process from both the teacher and student perspective, and I'm able to craft hints on the go that help the student without wasting valuable learning opportunities.
Competition Preparation
Regular training sessions build all the mathematical skills necessary to solve problems in competitions. However, actual competitions require other skills like communication (writing out full, detailed solutions) and time management (a certain amount of time given to solve a list of problems).
Often, partial points are awarded for incomplete solutions, and it's critical that the student learns to squeeze as many points as they can.
My experience in many contests from the most local to the international lets me build balanced mock tests and also grade them as they would in a real competition. These learning opportunities allow me to coach my students on their test-taking skills.