You paid attention in class, read the assigned text and tried to do the homework, but you just don’t get it. Your friend tried to help you, but her explanation didn’t make sense to you. If you don’t figure this out soon, you’ll be falling behind in class. Now what do you do?
It sounds like it’s time for some tutoring. A tutor is a specialist in helping students one-on-one. When your schoolwork looks more like an impassable swamp, a tutor can help guide you past those academic alligators. Here are some of the advantages of working with a tutor.
Tutors Can Work At Your Pace
Your tutor can start with whatever it was in the class that you last understood. If you know what electrons are, but don’t know electron shells from shells and cheese, your tutor can explain the concept. Your tutor can spend all the time you need to grasp an idea or learn a skill. Good tutors know that not everyone has the same background, and some concepts take more getting used to than others.
Tutoring Provides One-on-One Attention
There are no classroom pressures, time pressures or distractions in tutoring. There’s just you and your patient tutor working through Biology II. You can ask all the questions you want and when you think you understand something, a good tutor will have you explain it in your own words to make sure you’ve got it. Experienced tutors know a lot of ways to present material and will persevere until something clicks for you.
A Tutor Can Help You Improve Your Study Skills
Tutoring can make you a better student with tips and tricks for studying. These include studying the summaries at the end of the chapters and predicting test questions by what the teacher emphasizes in class. Time management is also a vital study skill that tutors can help with; for example, be sure to use odd minutes like waiting for the bus to do a little studying. It’s also important to set goals for yourself to accomplish everything you need to get done.
Tutoring Is Flexible and Convenient
Tutors will generally come to your house, so you’ll save travel time. You can also schedule sessions for whenever you’re free. Online tutoring is even more flexible and convenient. You can get tutoring done at times when you can work it around classes and jobs and even sports, school activities and hobbies.
Can A Tutor Even Help Me With Writing?
Yes, tutors can help you become a better writer. The secret is to go ahead and write a first draft of your paper, and don’t worry if it’s not perfect. The best writers write first drafts that are not so good and then fix them. Your writing tutor will go through your paper with you and help you outline and organize it. A writing tutor can also advise you on picking a topic, conveying your main points and doing research. Writing tutors are not daunted by 15-page papers on John Keats, and you won’t be, either.
You may very well find that tutoring helps before you even meet the tutor. You’ve taken steps to help yourself, and that’s a great stress reliever. You now have someone to rely on and share the load with. You’ll have a fresh start. So it’s not really going to take you 30 years to get through that course on the Thirty Years’ War. Your tutor is on the way!
