Academic Tutors (Private Tuition)
Provide tuition to students in academic subjects and prepare students for formal assessment tasks.
Three students, one Tuesday night
You are a private tutor with three students booked back to back this evening in a rented room, each with a different subject and a different worry. It is 4:30pm. Your first student arrives in a few minutes, and the next two follow straight after. You have no gaps for a break, so you will need to think on your feet.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
My English essay is due tomorrow and I have not started it. Could you just write the introduction for me? I will learn from it, I promise. I will rewrite it in my own words.
Write a model introduction he can base his own on, as a quick favour
He copies most of it, hands it in, and learns very little. A tutor who writes the work has stopped tutoring, and Kasper arrives next month with the same problem and a harder essay.
Say no and tell him it is his work, then move on to the next student
You hold the line, but Kasper leaves stressed and with nothing on paper. Saying no is right here, though a student who has asked for help deserves some help of the right kind.
Ask for his argument in two sentences, then help him shape it
Once he speaks, he finds he has a view. You help him order it, and he writes the first paragraph himself at the table. He finishes the rest that night and sends you a short thank-you.
This is our third month and his mark has not changed. Are we wasting our time? Can you promise it will be better by the exams? I need to know before I book more sessions.
Show her the kinds of questions he now attempts, say what you can and cannot control, and set a clear goal
She sees real changes she had missed, and the goal gives her something to measure. She is still careful, but she trusts you more because you did not oversell.
Promise a higher mark by the exams so that she keeps booking
She is thrilled for a week. You cannot control what happens in an exam room, and if the mark does not move, she will feel misled. A promise you cannot keep costs more than the booking.
Explain that learning takes time and that results are up to the student
Everything you said is true, but she hears an excuse. She does not cancel, but she asks for a different tutor at the next session. People want evidence as well as honesty.
I hate science. I am just stupid at it, so there is no point. Can we just do something else? I do not want to be here today.
Tell her she is not stupid and carry on with the worksheet you planned
Your kindness is real, but she hears a reassurance she does not believe. She does the worksheet with her arms crossed and gets most of it wrong.
Ask what part feels confusing, find one small thing she can do, and begin there
She admits the words in the textbook lose her. You start with an experiment she can explain from her own kitchen, and she gets it right. A first win matters more than a perfect plan.
Tell her that everyone finds subjects hard and that she just needs to push through it
She shuts down completely. Advice to push through can feel like being told she is not trying, and she asks her mum to cancel the next session.
How it went
The evening ends with three very different students and a few things to follow up before next week. Tutoring is partly knowing the subject and mostly working out what a person is stuck on and how to talk to the people around them. Would you enjoy being the one who figures that out?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The fractions problem hiding in Year 9
A fictional case set in a small tutoring room in a suburban shopping strip, plus kitchen tables at students' homes.
The situation
Daniel tutored Mei in maths on Tuesday afternoons at her family's kitchen table. Her mother, Lan, wanted her algebra mark up before the next school report. Mei followed every example Daniel worked through, nodding along, but fell apart on new problems and often guessed. Daniel could have kept pushing through the algebra chapters, which is what Lan was asking for. Something about the pattern of Mei's mistakes made him suspect the real problem was earlier.
What they did
Daniel gave Mei a short set of fraction questions, dressed up as a warm-up. She guessed whenever they appeared. He told Lan honestly that the fastest route might look slower for a few weeks, and that he wanted to go back and rebuild fractions first. Over the next sessions he used Mei's own mistakes as the lessons, asking her to explain why an answer felt right, and finishing each visit with one question she could do on her own.
How it turned out
Her next test was only slightly better, and Lan was impatient for a month. But Mei stopped saying she hated maths and started asking why things worked. By the end of term her marks began to move, and Lan asked Daniel to keep going.
What would you do?
- Why might going backwards sometimes be the quickest way forward?
- How would you explain a slower plan to a worried parent?
- What does it feel like to guess your way through a subject?