Getting the most out of online tutoring: Setting expectations for your tutor

As a Skooli student, you have a say in the education you receive. You should be able to set high—but reasonable—expectations for your tutors in order to get the best learning experience possible. Be clear about what you want to gain from tutoring, and understand how making your expectations clear can help you achieve your educational goals.

Don’t be afraid to speak up! If your tutor is moving on to a new topic but you’re still struggling to understand something, tell them. This is your time, your session, and your learning—you should feel like you have gotten what you need from it. On the same note, if your tutor has explained things in a way that really works for you, or if they hit a topic where you realize you’d really like some other help, let them know these things as well. They want to know what works and what doesn’t.

You should also not be afraid to expect your tutor to be prepared for your lesson. At Skooli, we have a large database of professional educators who are fantastic at working one-on-one with students. If you don’t feel that your tutor is adequately prepared, speak to them about it, or feel free to look for another educator. With a global database like ours, there is always someone out there who can help.

However, when setting expectations, understand that your tutor will not do your work for you. They’ll help you with problem sets, explain where you’re going wrong, reinforce difficult concepts, and provide new strategies to help you solve problems. When writing essays, your tutor will help you organize your thoughts into a good structure, suggest areas that need more development, and provide editing and proofreading help. Actually doing the work, though, is up to you!

Ask your tutor to outline the most important points for you at the beginning of each session. That way, if you run out of time before getting to everything, you’ll still have a basic idea of the concepts and how they relate. If you do have the time, ask for more examples for concepts that you’re having trouble understanding. Even if you still need to go over them after the session is over, you’ll be working with material specifically chosen for you in order to assist your learning.

Finally, in order to ensure that you are learning the material and can perform well in classes or on tests, your tutor should be sure that you can solve at least one or two problems yourself by the time your tutoring session is over. The tutor should work through some examples with you, but should also give you the chance to apply what you’ve learned and think independently. If you haven’t gotten this chance yet, ask for it! You should walk away from each tutoring session feeling more confident than when you went in.

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