25th February 2010 9:00
By Blue Tutors
New tutors are normally curious about what are the most popular subjects to be tutored, and what are the general ages of students receiving tuition. This is quite a difficult question to answer, because of all the different variables.
For young students, those aged 11 and below, the focus tends to be on core skills. Mathematics and English are generally all that is asked for, or numerical and verbal reasoning. This is because many of the students receiving tuition at such a young age are doing so because they are taking the 11+ or a Common Entrance exam.
When students get a little older the focus is still on the core subjects, but Science is added to Maths and English. These tend to be the main three subjects that are tutored up to GCSE level. Obviously by this age students are taking many more than just these three subjects, but the skills needed to succeed in other subjects tend to be the skills developed simply by studying these three; if a student is struggling with English, then it’s likely that they are also struggling with History, and an English tutor, in improving the student’s English, is also likely to indirectly improve the student’s History ability.
At A-level, what is popular to be chosen by a student, is also popular for a student to request tuition for. Obviously Mathematics, English and the Sciences remain popular, but there are lots of other subjects which are popular too (History, Geography, Religious Studies etc.)
As a tutor, you are guided about what you can teach by what students want, and therefore if you’re keen to teach something quite specific then you have to realise that you are restricting your lessons to a particular age group.