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not good enough for tutoring?

before I start this, I ought to add that I've always struggled with self-worth regarding my grades; I'm never satisfied with them. so I genuinely don't know if I'm overreacting or not with this.

I took my a levels last year and I'm now preparing to enter my second year at uni. long story short I received a mental health diagnosis the year before (I had shown symptoms for years so this wasn't sprung upon recently before) and was told by my uni that I was actually supposed to get extra time, which made sense, bc I somehow wasn't able to finish any of my A level exams on time. this essentially - in my opinion - made me hugely underperform, and people I know expressed the same. a subject that stood out was French: it was my highest grade (A). I was really hoping to get an A*. by then I kind of knew that my other subjects couldn't really be saved as they were fully essay-based and I crumbled in all the exams. that being said, when I got a mark breakdown by my sf, for French I got around 60% in the writing (20% of grade), 80% in the listening/reading (50% of grade) and 100% in the speaking. I was so upset when I found out that I had done so well in the speaking only to be let down by my writing (I knew the mistakes I'd made as soon as I walked out; I didn't have time to correct them). overall I was around 14 marks away from an A* to put it into perspective - marks I would've easily got given the penalties given for grammar errors being around 8 marks or more for each essay - and I know fully well where they were .to this day I still remember the words they were and the context I wrote them in, so I still hate myself for it.
that being said, I enjoy helping people with their a level speaking. I helped a couple people online and some of my friends taking it to proofread speeches and do run-throughs etc. but some of the websites I'm looking at for tutoring only want students with A* grades. all I want to do is tutor speaking, given that I don't feel too confident/qualified to do either of the other parts. I would argue that French speaking has always been my strength despite not being a native. am I good enough to just say that I can tutor a level speaking, even though I only got an A and I'm not a native speaker? (I'm currently doing French as a joint honours degree at a Russell group uni if that helps contextually. I'll be starting my year abroad next September.) honest advice would be appreciated.

Reply 1

Meltboy7778

People don't want someone who's good at French to tutor their child, they want someone who's good at French A-level.
An A doesn't inspire confidence. If you couldn't get an A*, how could you get their child one?
They won't be sympathetic to excuses about why you got an A (regardless of their validity).
If you had a (joint) degree in French, I'm sure they'd be happy for you to tutor, but then I presume you want to tutor while you're a student.

That's my take, anyway.

Reply 2

mrswoods9000

Original post by flâneuse

before I start this, I ought to add that I've always struggled with self-worth regarding my grades; I'm never satisfied with them. so I genuinely don't know if I'm overreacting or not with this.
I took my a levels last year and I'm now preparing to enter my second year at uni. long story short I received a mental health diagnosis the year before (I had shown symptoms for years so this wasn't sprung upon recently before) and was told by my uni that I was actually supposed to get extra time, which made sense, bc I somehow wasn't able to finish any of my A level exams on time. this essentially - in my opinion - made me hugely underperform, and people I know expressed the same. a subject that stood out was French: it was my highest grade (A). I was really hoping to get an A*. by then I kind of knew that my other subjects couldn't really be saved as they were fully essay-based and I crumbled in all the exams. that being said, when I got a mark breakdown by my sf, for French I got around 60% in the writing (20% of grade), 80% in the listening/reading (50% of grade) and 100% in the speaking. I was so upset when I found out that I had done so well in the speaking only to be let down by my writing (I knew the mistakes I'd made as soon as I walked out; I didn't have time to correct them). overall I was around 14 marks away from an A* to put it into perspective - marks I would've easily got given the penalties given for grammar errors being around 8 marks or more for each essay - and I know fully well where they were .to this day I still remember the words they were and the context I wrote them in, so I still hate myself for it.
that being said, I enjoy helping people with their a level speaking. I helped a couple people online and some of my friends taking it to proofread speeches and do run-throughs etc. but some of the websites I'm looking at for tutoring only want students with A* grades. all I want to do is tutor speaking, given that I don't feel too confident/qualified to do either of the other parts. I would argue that French speaking has always been my strength despite not being a native. am I good enough to just say that I can tutor a level speaking, even though I only got an A and I'm not a native speaker? (I'm currently doing French as a joint honours degree at a Russell group uni if that helps contextually. I'll be starting my year abroad next September.) honest advice would be appreciated.

Mum of two here - I know you wrote this a long time ago but I felt sad by your post and the pretty mean reply. First of all, tell me a single tutor that needs to write during a lesson?! The child does all the writing! If you understand the grammar, and you have good vocab, then why does it matter at all? Would I rather have a tutor whose pronunciation was better or whose writing was better? No question!! Secondly, people get tutors for lots of different reasons, and not all purely to pass exams (eg my son does Spanish tuition because his aunt is Colombian). As a parent, I would consider an A grade excellent. Perhaps try tutoring younger kids where there is less pressure to begin with? Finally, if you do suffer with anxiety/ low emotional resilience, try reflective practition (Google the Gibbs reflective cycle). I found this to be the best way to stop me from ruminating on things and focusing on personal growth rather than self criticism. Good luck with your degree, I’m sure you’ll smash it.