A career in calculus review sessions

Few students are eager to attend a three-hour 7:30 p.m. review session, but every Tuesday evening this semester, a group of around 30 students assemble in Fine 214 completely of their volition. Few classrooms are so packed well before the arrival of the instructor. Then again, few lecturers are like Adrian Banner GS ’02, whose entrance brings a hush over the chatty room.

This is one of Banner’s typical weekly review meetings for MAT 103: Calculus I and MAT 104: Calculus II. He has been conducting these reviews since late 1999 when he was a third-year graduate student, and since then their popularity has spread, making Banner’s name well-recognized among students across different academic disciplines.

Banner's first teaching experience came shortly after high school, when he began tutoring 11th and 12th graders at his parents’ home. He recalled using vomit analogies to teach students about the reverse chain rule but found that the technique did not always bring success.

One student “thought this was really great, being a teen and talking about barf,” Banner said. “I tried it on the next student, and they looked at me and said, ‘What are you talking about? that’s gross.’ ”

The incident taught Banner that different students learn in different ways. His tutoring experience helped Banner realize that he wanted formal teaching to be a part of his life.

He found that opportunity soon after coming to Princeton as a graduate student in 1997. In his third year, he was asked to teach a section of MAT 103. Though the course’s professors simply wanted to host Q-and-A sessions during reading period, Banner pressed for a full review session.

“They said 'No, we never do that,’ ” Banner said. “I must’ve tried a third time, and finally I think the attitude was, 'If you want to do it so badly why don’t you teach it!’ And I said, 'I will!’ ”

For the sessions, Banner booked Fine 314, which seats 50. A few days after the first session, Banner recalled, there were around 130 people present.

The department noticed the success of the review sessions, and the chair of the department asked Banner to run them for the rest of the year. Soon he was running more reviews and grading fewer assignments. Later, he put together a proposal to conduct weekly sessions for other classes beginning with MAT 104.

“People are free to come to all or part of it — it’s optional,” Banner said. "[The sessions are] two hours a week, with an extra hour before a quiz. Before a midterm they’re four, sometimes five, hours. Often they’ll drag longer because students have questions — if they’re asking for help, I can’t just leave.”

After graduating, Banner began working in the Princeton area and continued holding the review sessions as a part-time job. He still holds the sessions to this day, and these experiences provided the material for him to publish a book in 2007 called "The Calculus Lifesaver."

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“It took me four years of successfully polished iterations of notes,” Banner said, noting that he had always hoped to publish an instructional mathematics book.

"The Calculus Lifesaver" — conversational in tone and extremely detailed — reflects his own teaching style. Banner said he particularly emphasizes types of problems and how to recognize what the student is dealing with when teaching.

The same year the book was published, Banner was asked to tape his review sessions. It is from these videos — freely available for download — that many calculus students, both on and off campus, know his name.

“My goal, when solving a problem in front of the class, is not just to explain how to solve it, but if possible, try to explain how to know how to solve the problem so next time they could solve it for themselves," Banner said. "I’m really teaching problem-solving techniques in disguise.”

Once, Banner received an email from someone in Bangalore asking for a copy of the calculus videos. The email also informed him that he had a fan club, a Facebook page called “Adrian Banner is a math god.”

“I don’t accept sacrifice and prayers — I hope that’s gone,” Banner said of the club. “It didn’t have many members anyway.”

Rosalie Stoner ’15 attended every one of Banner’s MAT 103 review sessions last semester.

“He’s a great teacher; he’s very good at setting you completely at ease,” she said. “His presentation of material really delves into what’s going on the backstage of calculus more than just the problems you’d need for the quizzes. It’s so scintillating.”

Mathematics professor Edward Nelson, who used to teach the MAT 104 course for which Banner conducted review sessions, said Banner did a superb job.

“He has a very lively, outgoing personality,” Nelson said. “He has the knack of understanding what blocks students have. It’s quite a gift.”

Due to the immense popularity of his review sessions, many students have asked him to formally teach a course, something he has never done and said he does not see himself doing. Banner noted that he needs to balance teaching with other obligations in his life.

During the day, Banner is the director of research at Enhanced Investment Technologies, a company “that uses math to do investing,” Banner said.

He also has a part-time professional career as a pianist playing jazz and folk music. Banner plays in a band formed by fellow Princeton graduates called "The Klez Dispensers." Banner has performed frequently at weddings and parties, as well as at Lincoln Center and performances in Canada and London. Having started playing the piano around age 3, Banner said he hopes to play in Carnegie Hall.

Though music has not been his principle pursuit, Banner has gained many fans through his teaching career.

In evaluations of his review sessions that he administers himself — “probably against University policy,” he noted — he often receives a whole range of anonymous notes from students.

“I got the title of my book from comments that the sessions were a lifesaver,” Banner said. “I’ve had people invite me to parties, like ‘Come to this room on Wednesday.’ I’ve had a few marriage proposals, but I can’t respond because it’s anonymous. They’ll say, ‘I heart AB, will you marry me?’ I probably got more when I was younger. I get to see all the slang. One semester it was 'You’re a beast.' I know I don’t always shave.”

Though he said he struggles to balance his three jobs, Banner noted that many of the students he works with in the review sessions have just as many responsibilities.

“I suppose life’s a big juggling act,” Banner said.

Though he hopes to one day add to these juggling acts — by writing the "Multivariable Lifesaver," perhaps, or teaching a course on financial mathematics from his work in the industry — Banner said he is content with what’s on his plate.

“I’ve reached an equilibrium,” he said of his current situation. “I’m not perturbing it now.”