Has anyone had a tutor?

I'm a final year Biology student and I would like to go into teaching after I graduate so I've started tutoring a student for their A Level Biology exam.

I'm looking forward to starting, but I'm not quite sure what to expect. If anyone has had a tutor I'd really appreciate hearing what you found helpful and what you didn't find helpful (obviously everyone is different, but something would be better than nothing!). Also if you haven't had a tutor, what sort of thing would you like the tutor to do?

Thanks for any replies!

What topics are in that unit? They've changed a lot of the A Levels since I've done them so I wouldn't want to say yes just to realise I don't know any of the topics

I'm a final year Biology student and I would like to go into teaching after I graduate so I've started tutoring a student for their A Level Biology exam.

I'm looking forward to starting, but I'm not quite sure what to expect. If anyone has had a tutor I'd really appreciate hearing what you found helpful and what you didn't find helpful (obviously everyone is different, but something would be better than nothing!). Also if you haven't had a tutor, what sort of thing would you like the tutor to do?

Thanks for any replies!

I've had many tutors. Each one works differently depending on why I had that tutor.

It's best to have everything planned for the lesson beforehand but I'm sure you already knew that.

My tutor would take notes of what I could do and what I couldn't do. They'd then make a quick starter where I'll have some question that I could do and some that I couldn't. They would be repeated and changed slightly each lesson. That would increase the recall the next time o come to that question or a similar one.

On the first lesson, once you know what topics the student struggles at, you can plan around those topics until they're comfortable.

I don't know if this made sense, it probably didn't and I also probably repeated myself but I hope it helps a little


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That really helps, you've given me some great ideas! Thank you

I had a tutor for Accounting and Economics ($40/hr!).
After 3 months (and a hefty $2500 later) intensive tutoring I managed to get a grade of 90%, which was the best of the class.

Didactic techniques I found helpful:

- careful and in-context explanation
- explanation of the origin of concepts and how they work together
- calmness
- repeated (prepared!) exercises
- acceptance to any and any amount of questions
- correct agreeements between student and tutor so they both know what to expect of each other
- tutor preparing each of his lessons from A to Z, including answers to the questions
- alternative exercises
- repetition of principles
- explanation of everything I ask
- questioning the student of the principles during lessons so that he is reminded of them and show him where they fit into the picture of the current exercise
- explain everything (practice, theory) on paper and give this to the student so he can keep it and consult it on his own time; this is important to absorb the material.
- making the student do pre-existing exams way before the exams start (if he can get access to those - they are a big help!), going over all the questions first and make the exam together, later reviewing it
- re-iterate everything I can/can't do until I can do it and I understand it

Didactic techniques I didn't find helpful:

- yelling
- calling me dumb and saying "any kid could figure this out" (this only worsens my performance to a freezing halt)
- surprise tests
- almost getting mad at me when I asked for a delay of payment
- doubting my performance

I will always remember what a successful medical student (now doctor) always told me:
"The human brain does not have enough information with a mere blueprint, in the same way a student does not have enough information to pass a course by being exposed to a subset of the matter (e.g. powerpoint slides). It needs all the information it can get - it needs the full picture in order to successfully grasp (new) concepts".

P.S. Mindmaps work well for me, but not for everyone.

Thank you for spending time to write that out, it's really helpful to me. I hope you didn't pay £40 a week to be called dumb very often though!!!

Well done on your results though, that's amazing

Can I ask how you got into tutoring e.g. how did you find your clients ?

Im off to start a maths degree and want to tutor gcse maths but I know you can't get a criminal record check done on yourself and i worry people won't take me seriously

how do i go about advertising my tutoring service and how do i get clients ?

sorry if this was confusing

I found the same problem. Someone else who wanted to be a teacher suggested the TutorHunt website. I signed up to that and had a search for anyone interested in my area and luckily there was someone. I think the best thing to do is talk to people looking for a tutor, rather than waiting for someone to contact you. I tried that and I heard nothing back!

Good luck! Feel free to send me a PM if you want more information about how I found my tutee

Thank you, I do love to help people. To translate to British pounds, it was 33£ per hour. That's right, per hour. My 90% grade cost me 2123£. Some people just need that much help.. I was not good in high school due to a history of being severely bullied (anyway). I am slightly ashamed of admitting I flunked Accounting and Economics four times before I got that 90% grade. My first exam was 10%.. second time 25%.. third time 35%.. fourth time 40%. And of course, I used a digital voice recorder to record all lectures (including his tutoring). My memory sucks that way sometimes. In fact, that voice recorder has been responsible for all my good grades (to a greater extent). As you can find in the quote below, the human brain needs all the information, not just a part of it. By the way.. I also took all the extra-curricular classes.

The tutor only called me dumb once or twice in one lesson because I had been lazy and he was pulling his hair out at how I couldn't do basic equations.. Let me tell you, a hungry, food-deprived, sleep-deprived, confidence-deprived and poor student is the same as letting that student take an exam while he's loaded drunk, unconscious of his actions (that's how it felt as well).

Happy tutoring!

I'm a final year Biology student and I would like to go into teaching after I graduate so I've started tutoring a student for their A Level Biology exam.

I'm looking forward to starting, but I'm not quite sure what to expect. If anyone has had a tutor I'd really appreciate hearing what you found helpful and what you didn't find helpful (obviously everyone is different, but something would be better than nothing!). Also if you haven't had a tutor, what sort of thing would you like the tutor to do?

Thanks for any replies!

ah I literally just went on the tutor account website again cause I made an account months ago but kinda forgot about it ... this seems like the best way to go for it ... I will update my profile and hopefully I can find at least one person who wants some help with maths