18th May 2018 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Obviously the demand for a tutor only exists because a student needs the tutor’s help, but that demand has created the tuition industry, and it’s something which many tutors rely on for a source of income. This creates a problem when a student doesn’t want consistent lessons and instead wants to contact the tutor if and when they need help.
The most common requests we receive are for 1 lesson of 1 hour each week, and for lessons to last until the student’s exams. This is great for a tutor because, more often than not, the lesson will be at the same time each week and it’s a guaranteed lesson fee which just makes it so much easier for the tutor to plan their work.
Of course, there’s nothing strange about a student who doesn’t want a consistent course of lessons, and we respect students’ opinions about what will work best for them. Some students are much happier to work by themselves and only request a lesson when they come across something they find really difficult. This might mean no lessons for a month but then 2-3 in the same week.
For a tutor, no guarantee of any lessons, and the possibility of finding it difficult to fit so many lessons into a busy diary isn’t that attractive an offer. When there are lots of students keen to take a slot in that diary every week, the tutor just can’t leave space on the off chance that another student may ask for a lesson.
To be honest, this is a really difficult situation for us to deal with. The last thing we want to do is pressure a student into committing to a series of lessons which don’t work for them. All we can do is explain the situation and hope that the student understands tutors’ situations. Having said that, we do find that a consistent course of lessons is much more effective than anything else because the tutor’s role is to develop understanding and help the student to learn by themselves; to be a better student, not just better at the specific thing being studied. It’s rare for a student to claim a new enthusiasm and understanding for a subject after 3 two hour lessons in a week, but we hear it all the time from someone who is tutored for an hour a week over 6 weeks.