State the Reason You Want A Tutor

After tutoring for over 17 years, I have realized that not all parents and students same goals.  I am going to summarize the different goals in three distinct levels, and with each level there is a greater depth in tutoring.

The first level is wanting the tutor to just help students finish their homework, which requires the tutor to just sit and watch the student work, offering advice only when the student gets stuck.  If you are at this level, I only recommend a professional if there is no support from the math teacher or after school tutoring programs.  Most schools and teachers have free after school programs that help students or there are student tutors that are excellent and cost effective for this level of tutoring.  However, certain students need the one-on-one and feel more comfortable just having someone sitting next to them in case they run into trouble.

The second level is wanting the tutor to help students to raise their grades through homework assistance and studying for quizzes and tests.  This requires a lot more skill from the tutor because they have to know what is being tested and be able to create their own problems either beforehand or on the spot.  In this case, most peer tutoring ends up in social hour, so the tutoring sessions end up taking 2-3 hours, when a professional tutor could get it done in an hour.  Keep in mind that the best option is always tutoring by the teacher, since the teacher knows exactly what is on the test and is free.

The third level is wanting to grow in their mathematical ability or filling in holes of mathematical knowledge.  A teacher usually does not have time and group tutoring will also not help with this difficulty either.  This is usually what parents desire in a tutoring session, but is impossible to accomplish with only once a week tutoring, unless done in the summer.  Once a week tutoring is intended to keep a student on track with the current material.  The tutor should meet with the student at least twice a week and it is necessary for the student to be on board as well, otherwise you are wasting your money, because a tutor cannot force learning down a student's throat.

So when making an appointment with a tutor, make sure you, your student, and your tutor understand what the goal of the tutoring sessions are, so you get exactly what you want.