All About Finding & Evaluating Tutors

[Lynn1967]

recommendations by parents or forums lor.

[vinegar]

hi,

i recently engaged a tutor,who is ex-teacher for abt 3years.She is now teaching tuition as part time n only 25yrs old.I pay for S$45 per hr for teaching english for my P3 son.

can I chk:
1) Is this a normal rate?

2) Agent says no need to chk the tutor certificates,etc…asked her how she knew if the tutor really a ex-teacher,she said if happen to know tutor lies,they’ll blacklist them.
So parents don’t nid to chk.

3) She normally just grabs a assessment book fr. the bookshelf n teach my son.There is no structure in her teaching.Agent said this is normal practice.If wanna to hv structure,shld go to tuition centre.

4) She makes my son copies the composition from the assessment book,gave him lot of times homework such as comprehension & grammar.I’ve to struggle to teach my son how to complete the homework given by her n fr. school.

5) She always wears "homebased" type clothes(cartoon T-shirt n shorts).She also nvr greet me b4. Came in straight away sit down.Try to ask her few questions but she always seems to be impatient.

Shld I continue to engage her?

[Just relax]

vinegar:

hi,

i recently engaged a tutor,who is ex-teacher for abt 3years.She is now teaching tuition as part time n only 25yrs old.I pay for S$45 per hr for teaching english for my P3 son.

can I chk:
1) Is this a normal rate?

2) Agent says no need to chk the tutor certificates,etc....asked her how she knew if the tutor really a ex-teacher,she said if happen to know tutor lies,they'll blacklist them.
So parents don't nid to chk.

3) She normally just grabs a assessment book fr. the bookshelf n teach my son.There is no structure in her teaching.Agent said this is normal practice.If wanna to hv structure,shld go to tuition centre.

4) She makes my son copies the composition from the assessment book,gave him lot of times homework such as comprehension & grammar.I've to struggle to teach my son how to complete the homework given by her n fr. school.

5) She always wears \"homebased\" type clothes(cartoon T-shirt n shorts).She also nvr greet me b4. Came in straight away sit down.Try to ask her few questions but she always seems to be impatient.

Shld I continue to engage her?

I think you have answered your own question! Why would u tolerate such a tutor for your DS. The tutor must show her qualifications and p/copy of certs.

U need to sit down with tutor and set down certain requirements because u are paying her to help your DS,
1. What is her plan for DS for the rest of term 1 (no need to ask for whole year unlike for tuition centre who are organized on a 10 week term and 40 week year program)
2. What is her lesson plan for each lesson?
3. What is DS expected to do as homework and why?
4. What happens if tutor cannot make it or DS cannot make it, how much advance notice to give?
5. What assessment books to recommend (impt. if tutor says any will do then that is a strong signal tutor does not care). Good tutors know the good assessment books -there is so much rubbish out there all written by unknown authors!
6. How is tutor going to prepare DS for exam.

That is it I think.

[janet88]

My tutors were recommended via word of mouth...I will buy that bcos only if they are reliable, friends will recommend.


For chinese, I am the one who buys the assessment books for my younger one. But tutor will advise me what titles to get especially for my son in sec 1.

Punctuality is very important...as well as those who are not watching the clock or watch all the time.

I had a tutor once. She insisted my daughter call me to the room while lesson was ongoing...I was like, 'what's the urgency'? Know what? She told me my daughter successfully learnt some hanyu pinyin. :mad: :slapshead:

[vinegar]

I've a lot of assessment books on the shelf n leave it to the tutor to use.


So far,none of my tutor recommends me any book to buy.I was the one who told her which books r good based on my judgment.

i guess most tutors do not bring their teaching material,right?I mean i am ok they use the books on the shelf. But i've this english tutor,made my son use different books each time...i feel a bit disorganized. She always gives a lot of homework,comprehension,copy compo..& i've to spend times to teach my son complete the homework she gave.

[AdonciaTang]

janet_lee88:

My tutors were recommended via word of mouth...I will buy that bcos only if they are reliable, friends will recommend.


For chinese, I am the one who buys the assessment books for my younger one. But tutor will advise me what titles to get especially for my son in sec 1.

Punctuality is very important...as well as those who are not watching the clock or watch all the time.

I had a tutor once. She insisted my daughter call me to the room while lesson was ongoing...I was like, 'what's the urgency'? Know what? She told me my daughter successfully learnt some hanyu pinyin. :mad: :slapshead:

Yes I agree with you janet.

Recently my elder son did very well for his common test and I am so happy! Thanks to his tutor who constantly been encouraging him. I always feel that a tutor don just teach, they need to teach with passion and fire.

[janet88]

Hi AdonciaTang,


A tutor who is professional, teaches with passion and inspires students makes a great deal of difference. My son passed his test recently with good grades…he felt very happy. I am grateful for the confidence instilled.

[sleepy]

vinegar:

I've a lot of assessment books on the shelf n leave it to the tutor to use.


So far,none of my tutor recommends me any book to buy.I was the one who told her which books r good based on my judgment.

i guess most tutors do not bring their teaching material,right?I mean i am ok they use the books on the shelf. But i've this english tutor,made my son use different books each time...i feel a bit disorganized. She always gives a lot of homework,comprehension,copy compo..& i've to spend times to teach my son complete the homework she gave.

That's the reason why I never hire private tutor.

I prefer to have structured & in-house materials, not teaching from assessment books which I can easily buy from popular. What's the value add? If using assessment books, I might as well assign pages for my kids to do, why pay a tutor to do what I can do :scratchhead:

[sleepy]

As to how to choose the right center, there’s no one best center in my opinion. What’s good for other kids may not be suitable for yours. Have to trial & error. I usually give max 6 months to trial


How I guage is that the difficulty level should ideally be between 20% - 30%. ie, should not get too high marks for worksheets, so that there’s room for improvements for that 20% - 30%. Thus if my kids come home with close to perfect marks for their worksheets, I will withdraw them from that center, don’t waste time

On the other hand, the center’s worksheets should not be so tough till there are mistakes everywhere. Kids will be overwhelmed if couldn’t catch up with the pace. That’s means standard is too high, time to shop around again.

[jedamum]

Sleepy,

It is easy to assign papers but not that easy to explain mistakes made. My tutor recommends two assessment books and I bought another two. It lifts my load to know that she can explain to son what is wrong with his answers as son gives me a blank look when I took over to try to coach him earlier and looking into dictionary eats into our time and we are not familiar with the boundaries of language tested. He used to approach the previous tuition centre that produces excellent inhouse materials for clarifications, but the teacher was tight for time as she needs to prepare for next class. And she is a china national and my boy needs someone who can explain in english if need be. Credit should also be given to this china teacher who offer to help my boy during her off slots, but we couldn’t afford the time to go down every week on a separate day.