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tutoring

i kinda wanna start tutoring GCSE Maths. ive just finished my AS in maths and further maths, waiting for results, but after getting about 97% in GCSE i wanna teach others. no clue how to go about it though... any ideas?

Reply 1

username3101236

i'm in a similar position, would like to start tutoring gcse spanish or english so suggestions would b great

Reply 2

Reality Check

Original post by Branndddooonnn

This is a common question. It's not the pupils who will be employing you- it's the parents. But would you, as a parent, employ a child who's only got AS maths as a highest qualification to tutor their child, regardless of the GCSE/AS level results?

It's just not very realistic. You might be able to pick up a bit of work for family friends etc, but to tutor in any meaningful sense it's sort of expected you'd have a degree in the subject you're proposing to teach, or at least one very closely related to it.

Reply 3

DisneylandChina

Original post by Branndddooonnn

Just letting you know, as a student that just finished GCSE maths, the specification has changed a lot, and its gotten a lot harder in general. What i think changed is the difficulty of questions - while content is still relatively easy to learn, applying them got a lot harder. You should consider this and take a look at what you're getting yourself into before you jump to make any actions.

Good luck if you do decide to tutor though!

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 4

username987675

Original post by Branndddooonnn

I think it's possible to tutor without a degree, and many University students do just that. However, I slightly agree with the point someone has already made, if you just have an AS in maths it makes parents a lot less likely to want to hire you. On saying that, the main thing is convincing people you're able, if you've got relevant experience then I think that massively helps and also makes someone more likely to want to hire you in the very first place. You could get experience from tutoring family/friends, but also you could potentially volunteer in some capacity to tutor (this of course, is pending on what opportunities are available to you in your local area).

In terms of actually finding work, there are many websites out there that let you register with them, then parents can view your profile and message you directly. Be wary of this though, there are some sites that in my opinion massively exploit tutors. For example I used a site before that paid £11 a (hour) session, but after a few weeks of using it, I realised I was spending quite a bit of time prepping tutorials and in reality wasn't getting paid that much for it. Whilst I was paid £11, the parents were paying £20, which is just ridiculous when you think about it. So since then I've stopped using it and get by tutoring totally privately (without a website in the middle) or by using other sites that don't take anywhere near the same amount away (paying £17 when the parent pays £20).

It's definitely harder to become a tutor as an A level student but not impossible. If all fails, it becomes a lot easier to do it at university (in my opinion anyway). Good luck! :smile:

Reply 5

Notnek

Original post by Branndddooonnn

As others have said, the spec has changed a lot so whilst you may have felt that you knew everything about the old GCSE, it is now very different. Good tutors aren't just experts in the maths but also know the exam inside out which I'm assuming you don't. Plus you are not a mathe expert yet since you are only at AS.

The best way you'll get work initially is by finding e.g family friends who weren't actively looking for a tutor. And you would need to charge a low rate or possibly even volunteer to begin with. You won't be able to get work in the summer since most students won't be doing maths.

Reply 6

mathcool

Firstly, TSR is a good forum to check whether you have ability to explain clearly and whether your explanation is understood by students. I accidentally ended up in TSR when I was looking 9-1 maths stuff for helping some local students, free of charge or at negligible cost
. This is to make them realise, there is a value in what they are getting.

I selected challenging questions (well mentioned by TSR members) and answered them to see whether students can understand my explantion. The first hardest question I answered, which I did more than 25 years ago and I forgot it. However, after looking the details for about 5 minitues, I got it back. This was a GCSE stats question.

I have been explaining to both GCSE and A levels, Furher maths etc when I get time.

Though I am qualified up to MSc in engineering and computer science, I still learn higher mathematics using youtube, MIT courseware etc for keeping in the trend. For example, tensor calculas in Youtube's MathTheBeautiful channel. Maths can be taught and developed to some extent and I believe it is a natural talent as well as a skill, and this is not boasting.

Maths is some thing I enjoy, learning, teaching and researching both for fun and profit, although my profession is completely different.

Some of the methods, like mathematical deduction and observing mathematical patterns (espeicially when solving elipse with parameterised coordinates for further maths), I think may well have been lost in the teaching side. May be I am wrong because I have not been teaching.
I am still finding to correct point for teaching or helping students because I feel I must not teach them over the limit of GCSE or A levels, or for Furhter Maths I must not under teach them. However, one of the fundamental in Pure Mathamatics is understanding and application of first principles, esepcailly in calculas, algebra, trig etc.

I also agree with nontek about knowing examinations. However, as I previously said in one of the other post (see below in quotes copy of the text of my post) and this is purely my opinion after seeing 9-1 maths and Syllabus explanation by OCR in youtube for 9-1 maths.

"As I said, all examination boards are making maths learning and examinations to be more analytical in approach and original thinking and planning by students in both learning and examinations.

This is now confirmed by this year (9-1) maths GCSE, where students who found it relatively easier now find it examinations challenging, hard, tough, to various degree.

However, I think this is partly to do with previous style of teaching and approach in schools. That is more on mathematical fact & guidance based, and the students were guided through questions. In addition, questions progress with increasing difficulty. This has been generally true for all boards for previous maths syllabus.

Now the change is that students are expected to figure out approach & guidance, and that migh/will involve using more than two topics (like say, algebra, geometry, coordinate geometry, number analysis etc). You are now expected to remeber more formulae, which I think is difficult without analytical approach (i.e. how the formulae were derived in the first place).

I think this is major step for GCSE (and in some ways it is moving to old style examinations, although not in every ways)."

I do welcome any correction of my observation about 9-1 maths from those who are alreadt in-and-out of syllabus, teaching etc.

Hope this helps.

(edited 6 years ago)