13th January 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
It’s interesting to look at the how requests we receive at Blue Tutors differ for different types of tuition. Although there are no hard and fast rules, the level of tuition required does appear to affect the profile of the tutor that the student wants.
Unsurprisingly, at degree level, students want an absolute expert. The tutor’s academic qualifications are seen as, by far, the most important consideration. Students are still concerned with teaching experience, and teaching ability, but because of the very specific academic requirements for degree tuition, sensibly, students realise that the tutor’s academic ability in the topic required is the important feature to focus on.
At GCSE level and A level, there will be a number of tutors who are suitable for any given qualification, so students tend to focus on other qualities that they would like in their tutor. An important consideration at these levels is familiarity with the syllabus that a student is studying; many parents think that exam technique and knowing how to get marks is all important at GCSE and A level, and they want a tutor with the ability to communicate this to the student. This means that the tutor requested is often someone who is currently teaching the syllabus in a school, or someone who has recently completed GCSEs or A levels him/herself.
For younger students parents almost always ask for an enthusiastic and fun tutor. However, when tuition is for an 11+ or Common Entrance exam, parents are very concerned with a tutor’s experience. Even if a tutor studied for these exams him/herself, it would obviously have been a number of years ago, and in that time the exams have changed significantly. Parents generally feel that someone who has not recently had experience with an entrance exam will not be able to successfully help their child.
Obviously whatever someone’s specific requirements, at Blue Tutors we always try to provide the best fit of tutor that we can. However, we often receive positive feedback from students even when the tutor we’ve sent them did not perfectly meet the profile the student requested. The conclusion we draw from this is that our goal is to find good tutors (which we do!), if we do that then everything else tends to take care of itself.