How I Started V's Online Math Tutoring (And Why I Still Love Teaching Math Today)
- Vasudha Uddavan
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
People sometimes ask me how I started tutoring.
The short answer is that I sort of stumbled into it.
The longer answer starts much earlier.
I Was Probably Always Going To Be A Math Nerd
As a child, I loved mathematics.
My mom used to confiscate my math books on a fairly regular basis because she was convinced I was spending too much time on math and not enough time on my other subjects.
Well, she did have a point. 😄
The problem was that I got very little math practice as a result.
So when it came time for exams, I often couldn't remember every formula. I remembered a few basic ones and derived the rest on the answer sheet.
After grading one of my exam papers, my teacher said
"Why does this look more like a PhD research thesis than a simple answer sheet?"
He was quite amused by it. Then he complained to my mother.
"She can't write her board exams like this. An external examiner isn't going to appreciate pages of derivations. They'll strike out the answers completely"
That conversation finally achieved what I had been unable to achieve for years.
My math books stopped getting confiscated. 😄
Unfortunately, it came with an unintended side effect.
My teacher and my mom then made me memorize every single problem in the textbook.
That pretty much squashed my interest in mathematics for a while.
I didn't stop liking mathematics.
I stopped enjoying memorising it.
There was a difference.
My fascination with problem-solving never really disappeared
Years later, when I started tutoring, I realised I was creating the kind of classes I would have loved as a student—classes where asking "Why?" or "What if...?" wasn't a distraction from the lesson. It was the lesson.
The Accidental Beginning
Years later, while I was living in the United States, I visited a friend's house.
Her daughter's sixth-grade math textbook was sitting on the table, and so naturally I picked it up and started flipping through it.
"Oh, I remember doing this chapter in Grade 7," I said. "And this one in Grade 8."
My friend stared at me. "How do you even remember that?"
I was surprised by the question.
I thought that was normal.
She laughed and asked whether I would help her daughter prepare for Math Kangaroo.
I said, "Sure."
What I thought would be a quick session somehow turned into an hour and a half. We completely lost track of time.
The only reason we stopped was because my phone rang and snapped us back to reality.
Her mother was delighted to see her daughter's interest in mathematics returning.
Word spread, and before long, I was tutoring several of her friends.
The Move That Was Supposed To End It
About a year and a half later, I had to move back to India. My friend organized a farewell gathering, and many of my students came.
The girls gave me big hugs, and the boys gave me high-fives.
I remember telling them:
"Aww, I'm going to miss you all so much. I'll miss teaching you."
One of the parents overheard me.
"What do you mean you'll miss teaching them?"
I wasn't sure what she meant.
"Why can't you teach from there? It's online anyway. Figure out a time, and we'll make it work."
That simple comment changed everything.
She said it so casually, as though the solution was obvious.
I hadn't imagined they'd want to continue once I moved halfway across the world. I was touched that they not only wanted to continue, but were willing to make the logistics work.
What I thought was the end of my tutoring journey turned out to be the beginning of V's Online Math Tutoring.
Why I Still Love Teaching
Many parents tell me that one of the reasons they chose to work with me is my enthusiasm for mathematics.
They hope some of that enthusiasm will rub off on their child. Sometimes it does.
We don't always stay on the lesson plan. If a question sends us down a rabbit hole, we go down it.
This is one of my favorite memories.
Student A and I were working on a really interesting problem. (Which, in math tutor language, usually means "very difficult." 😄) It took us quite a while, but eventually he cracked it.
The moment he understood the solution, he got SO excited that he jumped out of his chair and — without even realizing what he was doing — hung face-forward off the back of the chair like a bat while simultaneously yelling out the answer and typing furiously.
At that exact moment, his mom walked in to investigate the noise. She stopped, stared at him hanging upside down from the chair, and asked:
“What is happening here? Why are you like this?!”
Student A barely even heard her because he was still completely focused on the problem.
Finally, she tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.
And he immediately said, “Mom, you should see how we solved this question!” …and launched into a full, enthusiastic explanation of the solution.
“Oh, God. I’m not getting into this. But please SIT and work like a normal human being". And with that, she walked away.
Moments like that remind me why I love teaching.
Not because every student becomes a math enthusiast or enters competitions.
And certainly not because every student ends up hanging upside down while doing mathematics. (Although quite a few have jumped out of their chairs while solving a problem)
But because there is something special about watching a student discover that they can solve a problem they once thought was impossible.
Looking back on How I Started V's Online Math Tutoring
When I picked up that sixth-grade math book at my friend's house, I had no idea it would eventually lead to V's Online Math Tutoring.
What began as helping one student prepare for Math Kangaroo grew into the opportunity to work with students around the world through Beast Academy, Art of Problem Solving, math competitions, and enrichment classes.
Over the years, something else happened that I never expected.
Most parents don't actually ask me what we do in every lesson. After the first few classes, many of them simply notice that their child looks forward to math.
I've lost count of how many parents have said some version of:
"Oh, he enjoys your classes. He's yours now." 😄
If you're a parent reading this before deciding whether to work with me, though, you might be wondering why my lessons involve so many questions.
As a student, I had questions too. Lots of them. So much so that when my Computer Science teacher met my mom at a wedding 8 years after my graduation, the first question she asked was,
"Does she still ask 'Enthukku' for everything?" (Tamil for "why").
I wasn't even there! I was on a different continent at that time.
I wanted to know why something worked, what would happen if we changed the problem, and how the author had thought of the question in the first place.
There wasn't always time to explore those questions in school.
So when I became a tutor, I decided my students would never feel they had to stop asking theirs.
If anything, I encourage them to ask more.
Sometimes the best part of a lesson starts after we've solved the problem.
Because solving the question is only one kind of success.
Watching a student become curious enough to ask the next question—or even invent one of their own—is the part I still enjoy most.
To read more on My Philosophy on how I teach, here's a blog on it
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