About the Author

Namaste! Running this blog am I, Jyotika, a private home tutor of Psychology in Mumbai. I have an overview of my journey as a teacher so far to share with you -

Having qualified the UGC-SET for professorship in Psychology alongwith my Masters and the UGC-NET in Psychology as I gained experience teaching undergraduate students half a year later, I made private tutoring my career when one of my students asked me to tutor her for her Masters in the following year. My unpredictable journey continued as I was then approached by parents of students from international schools within the next few months. From that point onwards, there has been no looking back. In my nearly four years of experience in tutoring now, I have had the opportunity of successfully teaching students from the IGCSE, IB and HSC boards as also students pursuing their Masters and Bachelors from regular and distance modes of Universities including the University of Mumbai, SNDT Women's University and why, also from MDU, Rohtak! The unique experiences that I've had tutoring my students who have been so diversified in their backgrounds have taught me much more than what I ever learnt by lecturing students, conducting research, making research presentations and conducting workshops as a lecturer in college.

While I am very grateful to the online platform for helping me reach out to interested parents and students for my tutoring work, I understand the scepticism of parents who use this platform for arranging a tutor for their children. In a time when paid advertising, presentation of fabricated achievements and fake testimonials have become the norm rather than the exception, no parent's concern is misplaced. With this view in mind, I decided to put some of my work online, so that parents could for themselves decide whether I would be able to give them the tutoring experience that they are looking out for. This led me to create my very first blog - excellingpsychology.blogspot.com. As I had planned, it served as a useful medium for parents as they began calling me after appreciating my work on the blog. Beyond what I had planned, however, this blog also gave me an opportunity to reach out to international learners far and wide, outside of my country and garner compliments for my work. I also benefited in a similar manner from joining the open question-answer platform Quora, which went a step further by allowing me to present my knowledge and opinions on topics far beyond any standard curriculum. I shared and learnt a lot from both, public and personal interactions with so many different people there. These have been experiences for which I am eternally grateful. Such online opportunities have allowed my work to speak for itself, which goes a much longer way in helping any interested parent or student make a decision for hiring a tutor than any personal experience of any student in the past.

I am also happy to share that at this point, I have successfully completed the theoretical component of a course I chose to pursue alongwith my work called PGDHE (Post-Graduate Diploma in Higher Education) from IGNOU. I am now awaiting the opportunity to begin with the practical component as well, which is to happen soon. I believe in constantly upgrading my skills for I know that the present educational scenario permits no stagnation, particularly not to the teacher. Higher education has been my career for years now and I seek to not only master my subject as much as I can but also master this domain for teaching is not about acquiring knowledge but instilling knowledge, abilities and a desire to learn.

As I keep updating myself, I will keep adding to this page. For those of you who are interested in the details of my educational and work achievements, I am listing them below:

My educational experience has been as follows -

• I have completed the theoretical component of IGNOU's PGDHE course in December 2018;

• I qualified the UGC-NET for professorship in India in 2014 in my first attempt;

• I qualified the UGC-SET for professorship in Maharashtra in 2013 in my first attempt, securing the highest rank in the city and the second-highest in the state;

• I completed my Masters in Counseling Psychology from SNDT Women's University, Churchgate in 2014 with an A grade;

• I completed my Bachelors in Psychology from D.G. Ruparel College, Mumbai University in 2012 with distinction.

I secured various ranks through my years in college and also participated and contributed towards psychology-related events.

My work experience has been as follows -

• I have been home-tutoring students since September 2015. My experience has included teaching students from national and international boards; and from various universities right from standard 11th upto the final year of Masters' in Psychology. I have tutored students from Billabong High International School, Aditya Birla World Academy, Nagindas Khandwala College, R.D. & S.H. National College, Mumbai University IDOL,  MDU, SNDT Women's University, etc. My forte has been propelling students repeating a year or reattempting examinations into gaining top ranks in the very subject. Some of my most prominent achievements I am listing below:

• My very first tutee, an M.A. Part I student from Maniben Nanavati College (affiliated to SNDT Women’s University) received a straight A in both semesters;

• An S.Y.B.A. tutee of mine from R.D. & S.H. National College (affiliated to Mumbai University) with ATKT cleared her terms and received admission in T.Y.B.A. psychology, scoring the highest GPA in the class in her S.Y.B.A. finals, securing first position in the T.Y.B.A. list. She went on to receive an A grade in semester V;

• An A.S. Level & A level tutee from Billabong High International School (IGCSE) moved from U grade to D within ten hours of tutoring, and qualified both A.S. and A levels in first attempt;

• A current IB tutee from Aditya Birla World Academy has secured the highest marks in her IA for psychology in her school;

• (For ratings and testimonials from some of my students and their parents, please visit the 'reviews' section on my business site, the link for which I have posted at the end of this page)
  
  

• I have continuously been working online, which has garnered much viewership and appreciation internationally, the most popular of which I am listing below:
• Excelling Psychology blog;
• Model Answers blog;
• My work on Quora;
• Excelling Psychology site;
• (I have also created a channel on YouTube, but have not been able to make the time to update it regularly. You can visit it here.)

• Previously, I worked on contractual basis in R.D. & S.H. National College in Bandra, where I taught undergraduate students in their second and third years of Psychology, covering subjects ranging from Developmental and Social Psychology right through to the challenging papers of Statistics, Practicum and Cognitive Psychology. During this period, I also conducted research which I presented in national and international conferences, including the BPA (Bombay Psychological Association); as well as had published in international journals. The most notable of these I am listing below:

• The Impact of Sexual Harassment on the Self Esteem of Working Women. India Calling-A World of Opportunities, vol(2), 144-147. ISBN: 978-93-83072-70-5. Received a certificate for best paper in the International Conference held by Mumbai University where this was presented;

• Overcoming Autism’s Barriers: A Case Study. Journal of Psychosocial Research, vol(10-1), 159-166. Presented in the 22nd Annual Conference of the Bombay Psychological Association;

• A Study of Sources of Positive Emotions at the Workplace. Proceedings of the 2nd Asia Pacific International Conference, pg. 42. ISBN: 978-1-60566-790-4
  

• Prior to my career in teaching, I interned as a counselor in M.M. Pupils' Own School, Khar which was a part of my M.A. and received an A+ grade for my work there;

• I have also worked in the back-office of different local companies for sales and administration when I was a student for I firmly believe in the dignity of labor and in being a perpetual student of the experiences life has to offer.

Thank you for taking an interest in my profile! To contact me for tutoring, please visit my work site below:
https://psychology-tuition-jyotika-varmani-creator-of.business.site/

For any enquiries, I can be reached at:

Contact no. - +919892507784

email-id - jyo.aaj@gmail.com

Happy learning :)