Marcus Lingard

Some days you curse the day you signed up for extra work tutoring undergraduate students. Your PhD doesn’t write itself and the mathematical modelling you’ve been using seems to be growing more complex by the day. But this is how you pay for your gym membership. And some of these students are diverting, distracting even. You turn up at the library at the time appointed to meet this latest student. You read the email that the module leader has sent you again: “Marcus is a student that shows aptitude for some aspects of mathematics but time and time again fails to submit work, and misses classes. He has to improve or he will fail the class, leaving us no choice but to exit him from the programme. You are his last hope.” Oh great. Guilt and responsibility. You sigh and look for him. He’s standing by the desk, waiting.