PrepNow Tutor - Austen A.
A physicist by trade with extensive tutoring and teaching experience, Austen is patient and flexible with instructional needs. Austen holds three degrees from the University of Texas at Dallas: a BSc in physics; an MSc in physics; and a PhD in applied physics. As a graduate student, he conducted research in LED/solar panel fabrication and applied machine learning. In addition to teaching and tutoring, he continues to do research in the same area.
As a high school student, Austen worked ahead and tested into higher-level courses. He soon began tutoring his friends and peers in the subjects that he had completed the year prior. “This grew into larger tutoring work and eventually academic teaching and tutoring!” Austen shares. His proudest teaching moments have come as his more recent students have matriculated into graduate programs of their own after conducting coursework and/or research with him during their undergraduate programs. Since 2014, Austen has tutored SAT/ACT prep as well as various AP courses, including AP Physics, AP Calculus, and AP Statistics. He’s also tutored college physics and taught college physics II and upper-level physics labs.
Austen’s tutoring style is highly collaborative and focused on identifying and addressing gaps in student knowledge. “I like to work with students to find weak points in their knowledge base and make plans and practice to fill said gaps,” he says. “Having students explain their line of thinking in questions that they are both confident and unsure of also helps me to understand their comprehension, while also reinforcing their own ability to check themselves and solve unique problems as they arise.”
Throughout high school, Austen participated in track and theater. In college, he was involved in the Society of Physics Students and peer advising. He’s received numerous recognitions, including the Departmental Teaching Assistant Award, Outstanding Graduate Talks, and acclaim from the Texas Section of the American Physical Society.
These days, Austen enjoys reading, board games, and rock climbing. “I'm slowly working on visiting every national park!”
