How to Maximize Your Tutoring Sessions

由 Raelene Tang 2020年10月22日

Dating back centuries ago to Ancient Greece, tutoring is a tried and true practice where the main goal is to impart knowledge and help the student improve their proficiency in a certain subject matter.

Thousands of years later and with increasingly modern technology, tutoring today has taken on a new form -- virtual tutoring. Though this has existed for a decade now, it’s a fairly new concept that many Filipinos are confronting today.

With the pandemic taking the world by surprise in 2020, many Filipino families are not prepared for this sudden change. But over 6 months into the pandemic, people have adjusted and online classes, as well as online tutoring, have become the new way of learning.

If you’re a student or a parent whose child is studying, you should try the following tips to make sure you get the most out of your additional education. You’re paying for tutoring services online, make sure you’re getting your money’s worth!

How to Maximize Your Tutoring Sessions:

1. Find a balance between quality and price.

Balance between quality and price

One of the biggest considerations you need to make in order to maximize your tutoring sessions is make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. This begins before you even meet your tutor and begin a tutoring session. Do your research and find out how capable your tutor is. If he or she is working in a tutorial center, learn more about the center. Are they reputable? What do other people say about their services?

You can choose well-established tutorial centers which might cost more, or you can choose startups and smaller tutorial centers like Level Up Tutorial which may cost cheaper. Whichever you decide to go with, what matters is you evaluate them for the quality of their teachers, how much they charge, people’s reviews, their customer service, their booking system, and user policy (Can you cancel sessions and will you get fined? What’s the penalty for lates and absences for student or teacher?)

Check out how Level Up Tutorial caters to your needs!

2. Find a tutor/ tutorial center that suits your schedule.

Tutor/ tutorial center

A lot of tutorial centers have fixed working hours. Though with the rise of online, this setup has become more flexible and arrangements may sometimes be made to suit your schedule if you wish to have tutoring at odd hours.

If you’re a working student or have activities outside of class, this is an important consideration to make. Also, working with tutorial centers rather than individual tutors provides you the advantage of switching tutors if your schedule and your tutor’s don’t match. But how well they implement this depends on the center’s policies so consider that when choosing who you work with. If you’re working with an individual, scheduling might be more constrictive. If he or she has other students to accommodate as well, catering to your schedule changes might be difficult, if not downright impossible. If this happens on occasion, it’s not too much of a worry; but if it happens frequently, then you might not be getting the tutoring you need. And if you don’t get help with school, your grades and performance might suffer.

Knowing if your tutors are capable is a must. Get to know our Level Up Tutors!

3. Do your homework before showing up to your tutoring sessions.

Do Your Homework

One of the worst ways to spend your tutoring time is to work on stuff you can do on your own with your tutor. If you have homework assigned from school, it’s best for you to try and do it on your own prior to your tutoring session.

This makes sure that when you get to your tutoring session, you can use the time wisely by only asking your tutor to help you out with the items and topics that you don’t understand or need help with. This saves time you’re paying for your tutor to teach you. Those few minutes saved can go a long way if you’re tutoring for 10 or more sessions.

4. Mark your textbook or list down all the things you need help with before your session begins.

Photo by Lum3n from Pexels

Another way to save precious tutoring time is by marking all the items or topics discussed in class that you need help with before you even get to your tutoring session. In general, this is a great practice even if you don’t have a tutor. When attending a lecture, have a pen out and mark the pages in your textbook which you need to go back to later for more thorough reading.

On your own, this makes revisiting lessons much easier since you can prioritize the areas you don’t know much about. For tutoring, this saves time recalling which topics you need your tutor’s help in.

In addition to this, you can also list down all your questions regarding the topic you’re studying before you even meet up with your tutor. This way, you can ask him or her directly when you meet and have them explain them to you immediately. This prevents you from forgetting items or questions which you want to ask them or have them clarify for you.

5. Be on time.

Be On Time

One of the worst ways to spend your tutoring session is by showing up late. Though some tutors are gracious enough to let you off and extend your session, a lot of them would not and your pay would still be the same. This is a waste and could easily be avoided especially with online tutoring where you no longer have to travel. Just be ready for your session 5 to 10 minutes before your designated time and you’ll avoid being late.

6. Show up ready to learn

Ready To Study

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You can show up early to your tutoring session but if you’re sleepy or distracted, then you can’t achieve much during your session either. Avoid this by making sure you’re ready to learn when you show up to your session. Take a quick nap, have some light snack, and keep drinking water nearby before you start your session. These will help you stay focused while your session is ongoing and help you avoid wasting time by being distracted and missing out on golden learnings.

7. Eliminate any possible distractions

Eliminate Any Distractions

Photo by Julia M Cameron from Pexels

Last but not least, do not forget to remove all possible distractions from the vicinity where you will be having your tutoring session. If you’ll be having your session in your bedroom, avoid lying in bed. If you’re in a common room at home, wear headphones to avoid being distracted by other members of the household. And most importantly, keep your phone out of your reach. When having your tutoring session, it’s so easy to get distracted by your phone especially when it buzzes with notifications. Keep it out of sight, out of mind so you’ll be focused on the task at hand, which is learn as much as you can from your tutor.

Have you tried any of these tips? Let us know how they work for you by leaving us a comment down below!