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Montreal, 10 years of experience

Ahmed Squalli Houssaini, private math and science tutor in Montreal

I have been teaching mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science in Montreal for more than 10 years, in English and in French. My students come from McGill and Concordia, from CEGEP, from English secondary schools, and from the French schools of the city, Lycée Marie de France and Collège Stanislas.

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Ahmed Squalli Houssaini, math, physics and computer science tutor in Montreal

Education

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M.Sc. Applied Computer Science, Concordia University

Master's degree in computer science with a focus on algorithms and systems. Concordia University, Montreal.

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B.Sc. Computer Science, Finance and Mathematics, McGill University

A three-subject bachelor's degree covering advanced mathematics, computer science and quantitative finance. McGill University, Montreal.

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French Baccalaureate, series S, mathematics specialisation

The French scientific Baccalaureate, taken inside the French national curriculum. This is why the AEFE program is not something I learned about second hand.

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10+ years tutoring in Montreal

From Sixième and Secondary 1 up to first-year university, across mathematics, physics, chemistry and programming.

Two school systems, one tutor

Montreal is one of the few cities in North America where a student can sit a French Baccalaureate on one side of the street and a Quebec ministerial examination on the other. Most tutors know one of those systems. I went through both: the French curriculum as a student, then McGill and Concordia as a graduate, and that is the reason a family moving between the two does not have to start over with someone new.

It matters in practice more than it sounds on paper. The French program teaches limits and derivatives a full year before the Quebec program does, and it teaches vectors much later. A student arriving from Paris into Secondary 5 is ahead in one place and behind in another, and telling those two apart in the first session is what stops a term from being wasted.

The same is true at the other end. A CEGEP student entering McGill discovers that 201-SN2-RE (formerly 201-NYA), the CEGEP differential calculus course, and MATH 140 cover almost the same ground with different notation and a very different exam culture. Knowing where those two courses genuinely differ is worth more than another hour of practice problems.

How I teach

Find the real gap first. A student who cannot integrate is usually a student who cannot factor. A student who cannot balance an equation often cannot read a mole ratio. Drilling the visible failure never fixes the invisible one, so the first session is spent finding where the chain actually breaks, even if that means going back two years.

Name the method, then the trap. Every chapter has three or four errors that cost almost all the lost marks. They are not random. Once a student can name the trap out loud before making it, the mark moves, and it moves quickly.

Write like the marker reads. In the French system a correct answer with no justification earns very little; in a Quebec ministerial problem the modelling is worth more than the arithmetic. Knowing what the person holding the red pen is looking for is a skill of its own, and it is teachable.

Between sessions counts. Students can message me the night before an exam. The scheduled hour is not where most of the damage is prevented.

The platform I write: free, not a sales funnel

This site publishes 928 sets of corrected exercises, more than 10890 problems in all, and 759 revision sheets. Everything is read on the page with the full worked solution visible. Nothing to download, no email capture, no paywall, and no account needed to read anything. Students who never contact me use it every day, and that is the point: a correction that is hidden behind a form is not a correction, it is an advertisement.

A set comes in the format of a real test, with a full worked solution for every exercise, and every exercise can be checked on the page before the solution opens. An optional free account, with no password, adds the memory: exercises done and to review, right answers and the points earned on the first try, favourites, the next step computed from each chapter's prerequisites, and a request box at the bottom of every page, where a student tells me which type of exercise is missing and hears back once I have written it. It is what I look at with a student in a session, and what they can do alone between two lessons.

Create my free account Browse the exercise bank Revision sheets in English Frequently asked questions

Subjects and levels

Mathematics

Secondary, CEGEP calculus and linear algebra, McGill MATH 133, 139, 140, 141 and 222, Concordia first year.

Physics

Secondary 5, CEGEP mechanics, electricity and waves, McGill PHYS 101 and 102, Concordia PHYS 204 and 205.

Chemistry

Secondary 5, CEGEP general and solution chemistry, organic chemistry, first-year university.

Computer science

McGill COMP 202, 204, 206 and 250, Concordia COMP 248 and 249. Python, Java, C, Linux, algorithms.

French Baccalaureate (AEFE)

Collège and lycée, spécialité mathematics and physics-chemistry, Brevet and Baccalaureate preparation.

Guide for parents

The French school system explained in plain English: grade equivalents, spécialités, the Brevet and the Baccalaureate.

Looking for a tutor in Montreal?

Get in touch to talk about what your student needs. I adapt to the level and the program of your child.

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