Are you considering a home tutor for your child, but debating if it’s worth the cost? Here’s how to make the most out of an investment in tutoring!
1. Set realistic goals.
The top reason families hire a tutor is in response to a considerably negative academic experience. This can range from a bad report card to a failed exam. Ideally, students should start working with a tutor before it gets to this point – but we understand that it’s not always easy to tell when a bad couple of months is turning into a downward trend.
The first thing any effective tutor will do is take ample time to identify problem areas in a student’s foundational knowledge, as well as measure the degree to which they are behind. For some students, this may be more than one grade level. For others, it may just be a few weeks of core material that never really “clicked.” Every student will be different and have their own unique needs.
Either way, parents should remember that tutoring isn’t a magic solution! And while many students do show immediate improvement, it can be a more gradual process for others. Just remember to manage your expectations and set realistic goals, as the last thing a struggling student needs is additional pressure to deliver instant results.
2. Ensure a good match.
Put simply: if your student doesn’t like their tutor, their progress will be seriously hampered. This is why we feel individually matching students with their perfect tutor is such an important part of the process. At Tutor Doctor, we pair students and tutors based on their personality traits, common interests, learning style preferences, and more.
Ensuring that your student is comfortable with their tutor is incredibly important. To learn more, check out 6 Things You Should Look For in a Tutor!
3. Consider your personal needs.
Although the primary focus of tutoring is obviously centered around the student, parents should also consider their own personal needs as well – especially how a tutoring program will fit into their existing schedule.
The end goal of most tutoring programs is to help students achieve better grades, but how this process is accomplished varies widely. It’s not uncommon for parents to see tutoring sessions as an opportunity to run errands (or even relax for a bit). While there’s certainly nothing wrong with this, remember that private tutoring sessions do require a legal guardian to remain present at home in case of an emergency. This means that if no other adults are around, a trip to the grocery store simply isn’t an option!
Still, for most parents, the convenience of at-home sessions is the main appeal of private tutoring. With this in mind, it’s important to remember that personalized tutoring is very much a collaborative process and a certain degree of parental involvement is required.
- Tutor Doctor Tip: For middle and high school students, sessions can often be arranged in community spaces (like public libraries and schools) without needing a legal guardian present. Keep this in mind if you have a tight schedule, but still want the benefits of one-to-one sessions for your child!
Unlike group learning centers (where multiple students are supervised in a classroom-like setting and parents can simply “drop off” their kids), private tutoring programs focus on addressing the individual needs of a single student. And while we believe private tutoring is a far more effective approach to addressing academic struggles, the last thing we want is for parents to see tutoring as an inconvenience. Click here to learn more about the differences between private tutoring and group learning centers.