WyzAnt Wants to Know: Preparing for your first lesson

“What advice would you give students to prepare for their first session with a new tutor?”

This is a great question! Overall, I think the most important piece of advice I can give is to put some thought into exactly what you want to get out of your tutoring sessions. Many people come to tutoring simply because their grades (or test scores) are low, and they’re hoping that private tutoring can “fix” the problem. Which it probably can, but if that’s all you bring to the table then your tutor has to work that much harder to figure out exactly how to go about helping you.

Before you arrive at your first meeting, spend some time thinking about your classes. Which subjects in school do you feel most comfortable with, and which ones least comfortable? Think over your answers like a detective – what common themes do you see that could be the real root of the problem? Were you easily able to ace an open-ended, discussion-driven English class, but this year your teacher runs class like a lecture and isn’t as open to opinions that aren’t his own? Did you instinctively understand your math class when the teacher used humor to keep you engaged, but this teacher simply drones on and on and you can’t focus on the problems at hand? Do you have trouble with the figures and illustrations in geometry even though you aced the more analytical, linear algebra class? Think about the differences between your classes and see if you can pinpoint what makes it difficult for you to learn. Then bring this information to your new tutor to help them formulate a strategy.

It’s also a good idea to bring a sample problem for the tutor to help you with, just to see how they teach. I always try to work a miniature lesson into my first meeting with a new student, since tutoring is really all about explaining the concepts in a way that the student understands. Everyone teaches differently, and a good tutor should be able to respond to your reactions and explain things in a variety of ways until something clicks. If you like the tutor’s teaching style, you’ll be more likely to look forward to lessons and you’ll get more out of them.

Once regular lessons begin, my top piece of advice is to come prepared, and remember that your tutor is here to help you. If you are unprepared for a lesson, there’s not much your tutor can do. No tutor wants to feel like they’re just there to watch you do your homework. Come in to each lesson with at least one concrete idea of something you’d like to work on – it can be as simple as working through a few homework problems or reviewing for a math test, or talking about a theme in your current English book. If you got a quiz back and don’t understand why you missed a question, bring that in and ask about it. If you just can’t figure out a topic, bring your book and ask for a review. If you want some extra writing practice, ask for some prompts. But whatever it is, ask! Don’t be afraid to be direct about what you want – your tutor is there to help deepen your understanding of the material, so if you’re clear and upfront about what you don’t understand your tutor will know what to do.

And remember, there’s no shame in tutoring – often you find that all you really needed was someone to take the time to explain it differently!

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