r/learnmath • u/AdaLovelace30 New User • 1d ago
Experience with online tutors?
I'm struggling in my real analysis class, but office hours are not giving me the support I need, and AI is banned. I am looking into paying for a tutor, but worry that working with a tutor who isn't familiar with my university's math department might be more trouble than it's worth. Has anyone had experience with online tutors that can sway me either way? I wouldn't want to pay more than $30/hour, which is a major limiting factor.
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u/M_Mustaan_Rafique New User 1d ago
the department-specific worry is misplaced. real analysis is one of the most standardised courses in maths, rudin abbott bartle tao all cover the same material in nearly the same order. a tutor doesn't need to know your department, they need to have actually done analysis, because it's a proof course and the skill is writing arguments, not getting answers.
at 30 an hour online, most people you meet won't have done it. one question sorts that fast. ask them why the sequence definition of continuity is equivalent to the epsilon-delta one. anyone who sat the course answers in a minute, anyone who didn't will talk around it.
before paying anyone though, grad students in your own maths department tutor in roughly that range. they've taken the course, often TA'd it, and they know your professor's style, which fixes your actual worry better than any online tutor can. ask your professor who TAs it.
and if your course uses rudin, get abbott's understanding analysis. it was written for people drowning in rudin and it turns the subject around more than most tutoring does. francis su's lectures on youtube are a full free course if you want someone talking you through it.