Student Reference

Phil Trinh was the tutorial leader (not the lecturer) for APC 350: Introduction to Differential Equations when I took the course my sophomore spring. Every week, we had a two to three hour “tutorial”, which was basically a problem session in which we worked on a packet made by Phil, getting help if needed from two “helper” students who Phil prepared for the tutorial and Phil himself. The packet reinforced concepts from lecture and extended them. The tutorials that Phil led were crucial in helping me learn the material – I don’t think I would have gotten half as much out of this class as I did if we didn’t have tutorials – because they efficiently hit all the key points and there were effective teachers there to help me when I frequently got stuck. Moreover, the tutorial structure, which only Phil uses out of all the math instructors at Princeton, gave the class an entirely different feel from other math classes I’ve taken. Because we spent time together every week collaborating in tutorial, I got to know every other student in the class, and I also talked to Phil more than I have with any other math or science professor. All of this made for an academic experience that felt very rich.

The two tutorials that I helped teach as a helper student were really great experiences. Phil met with me twice before the tutorial to go over the material to be done that week, and I really enjoyed the process of learning the material thoroughly and then facilitating the tutorial. I especially liked Phil’s insistence that we hint without giving too much away, to make students think and arrive at the answers themselves. The learning and teaching process prior to and during these two tutorials were very rewarding for me, both in terms of learning the math involved and enjoying teaching others.

What set Phil apart from other instructors I’ve had was his willingness to engage with me and really help me understand something, even if it took a while. Towards the beginning of the semester, I was struggling with the material and just really couldn’t understand what was going on in lecture. In those first few weeks, Phil probably spent an hour a week with me teaching me the material and giving me help on the homework. It all felt kind of hopeless sometimes, and I might have dropped the course if there wasn’t someone like Phil who I knew I could go to for help if I really needed it. He was patient, approachable, and really cared that I understood the material. Eventually I caught up and became comfortable with the pace of the class, but it would have been a much more painful process without Phil’s help.

Due in large part to Phil, this is my favorite class out of all the ones I’ve taken at Princeton so far. In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to major in math afterwards, a decision I had been hesitant to make before partially because the math professors all seemed so distant and unrelateable to. Phil I felt like I could talk to and relate to though, and I guess in this sense he was kind of a role model who gave me the confidence to major in math, knowing that not all math doers reside in some crazy arcane thought world. If all of the math instructors at Princeton were as patient, approachable, and committed to teaching as Phil is, then majoring in math here would be a much more fulfilling experience than it is currently.

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