

Octavian's profile and their contact details have been verified by our experts
Octavian
- Rate $299
- Response 1h

$299/h
1st lesson free
- Engineering
- Mechanical engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Civil engineering
- Electricity
Engineering Tutor — Oxford-Trained, BEng | Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, AI — College Level and Beyond
- Engineering
- Mechanical engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Civil engineering
- Electricity
Lesson location
-
At Octavian's house: New York
- online
-
at your home or a public place : will travel up to 20 mi. from New York
-
Recommended
Octavian is a respected tutor in our community. They have been highly recommended for their commitment and the quality of their lessons — an excellent choice to progress with confidence.
About Octavian
I am a full-time private Engineering tutor with a BEng from Toulouse and a research background at the University of Oxford, specializing in college- and graduate-level Engineering. In the UK, I built my practice around students at Imperial College, UCL, King's College London, Oxford, and Glasgow; the engineering core is the same on either side of the Atlantic, and I now bring that experience to students at New York's engineering programs — Columbia, NYU Tandon, Cooper Union, City College, Stevens, and beyond. I have been tutoring Engineering privately since 2009 — more than 4,500 hours across Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Thermodynamics, Structural Mechanics, Electronics, and Quantitative Methods.
My background is not purely academic. My Oxford research applied advanced mathematical optimization to physical engineering problems in Medical Physics, which means I understand Engineering the way a practicing engineer does — not as a set of procedures to memorize, but as a body of principles that must be understood deeply enough to apply to problems you have never seen before. That distinction matters enormously at the college level, where exams are designed to test exactly that.
My students' outcomes reflect this. A third-year Engineering student at Glasgow had failed multiple exams before we worked together — after our sessions he passed all of them and graduated. A student at King's College London raised his course marks to between 60 and 95% — in the British system, where 70% is first-class work. A student at Imperial College passed a Mechanics retake through targeted preparation after previous attempts had failed. One student summarized it well: I broke down concepts he had previously found very challenging in a simple, direct way, and rather than simply explaining, I asked questions — which is what builds real understanding rather than surface familiarity.
I cover the core Engineering curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate level: Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Thermodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, Structural Mechanics, Electronics, and Quantitative Methods for Finance. I am equally effective at rescuing students in crisis before a retake or final and building the foundations that take a student from passing to excelling.
I work with a small number of students at a time and take on only those who are committed to genuine improvement. Get in touch to discuss your specific courses and timeline.
About the lesson
- All Levels
- English
All languages in which the lesson is available :
English
Engineering at the college level fails students in a very specific way: they learn to follow procedures without understanding why those procedures work. This produces students who can solve textbook examples but collapse when the question is slightly unfamiliar — which is precisely what college exams are designed to test.
My approach is diagnostic first. Before covering any material, I identify exactly where the understanding breaks down — not just which topics the student finds difficult, but why. Is it the underlying mathematics? A missing physical intuition? A gap in a prerequisite course? The answer to that question determines everything that follows.
Sessions are demanding. I use the explain-then-question method: after working through a concept, I ask the student to explain it back and apply it to an unfamiliar problem. This is uncomfortable at first, but it is the only reliable way to build the genuine understanding that college exams require.
For students in crisis before a retake, final, or qualifying exam, I work intensively on the highest-yield material — past exam analysis, awareness of how graders award points, and closing the specific gaps that are costing them. For students building from a solid base, I develop the deeper understanding that separates a B-plus student from an A student.
Within 24 hours of every session, I send the student fully typed notes of what we covered, theoretical refreshers on the concepts that need further attention, and a written summary of where they stand and what to focus on before next time. Parents are copied in as standard. This is part of every lesson I teach, without exception.
I teach online and in person throughout New York City. Minimum one hour per session. I have a strict cancellation policy: lessons canceled with less than 24 hours' notice are charged in full.
Recommendations
Recommendations come from relatives, friends and acquaintances of the teacher
Octavian helped my daughter Sandra overcome her dyslexia and be among the best in her class. She scored 780 on the Math portion of the SAT. Sandra now actually thinks and no longer learns formulas by heart without understanding their meaning. Her fear of Math is gone and she is now doing very well, majoring in Economics.
My son Jerry worked with Octavian throughout high school, and I saw firsthand the impact he had. Jerry always put in the effort, but math never came easily to him. Octavian helped him develop a much deeper understanding of the material instead of just showing him how to get through homework problems.
Over time, Jerry earned A's in both Algebra and Calculus and scored a perfect 800 on the SAT Math section. He was also admitted to Columbia University, which meant he could receive an outstanding education without having to move across the country.
What I appreciated most was that Octavian treated tutoring as more than preparing for the next test. He expected Jerry to think, explain his reasoning, and really master the concepts. That approach paid off.
I would recommend Octavian to any student who is willing to work hard but finds math more difficult than other subjects. He has a way of making challenging ideas much more approachable, and in Jerry's case, the results spoke for themselves.View more recommendations
Rates
Rate
- $299
Pack rates
- 5h: $1495
- 10h: $2990
online
- $299/h
free lessons
This first lesson offered with Octavian will allow you to get to know each other and clearly specify your needs for your next lessons.
- 1hr
Other tutors in Engineering
Tallal
New York & online
- $15/h
- 1st lesson free
Pradeep
New York
- $30/h
- 1st lesson free
Ronav
Jersey City & online
- $35/h
- 1st lesson free
Bhavana
Brooklyn & online
- $26/h
- 1st lesson free
SRIRAMNARAYAN KOUSHIK
Brooklyn & online
- $30/h
- 1st lesson free
Sayed
Brooklyn & online
- $45/h
- 1st lesson free
Simran
Newark & online
- $30/h
- 1st lesson free
Avery
Long Beach & online
- $34/h
- 1st lesson free
Riya
Madison & online
- $31/h
- 1st lesson free
Parham
New York & online
- $35/h
- 1st lesson free
Sevan
San Marcos & online
- $79/h
Reza
Brooklyn & online
- $40/h
- 1st lesson free
Chas
Dallas & online
- $150/h
- 1st lesson free
Dr․ Joshua
Urbana & online
- $50/h
- 1st lesson free
Jose
Philadelphia & online
- $35/h
- 1st lesson free
Tommaso
Millersville & online
- $90/h
- 1st lesson free
Rehan
Hawthorn Woods & online
- $20/h
- 1st lesson free
Andrei
California City & online
- $50/h
- 1st lesson free
Jawad
College Park & online
- $25/h
Matias Ignacio
Miami & online
- $39/h
-
See Engineering tutors
