Personal experience: how to make money from tutoring

find an approach to the student

A student or his parents usually turn to a tutor because there is some problem: the subject is not given enough attention at school, lessons are boring. The main task of a tutor is to build an individual educational route and find an approach to the student.

A good teacher like from Computer Programming Tutors always wants to make contact with the student and will not distance himself from him. One common mistake is trying to imitate the university style and lecture. But this format is not aimed at interaction with the student - the university has a different system, different ideas and goals. The tutor must master the pedagogical methodology and create his own system: be able to explain the material, find an approach, conduct classes in such a way that the student finds it interesting and the work is productive. If a student perceives a lesson with a tutor as a burden and constantly monitors the time, this is a bad job as a teacher. It is important to be captivated by your subject.

I had a student from a very good gymnasium, but something didn’t work out with history at school. Maybe the teacher didn’t find an approach or the lessons were boring. So this girl came to me at the end of 9th grade and assessed her level as a C. After several months of preparation, we were able to achieve an A in the OGE. We continued our studies, and she became a prize-winner at the All-Russian Olympiad for Schoolchildren in History. The girl turned out to be very smart, interested, talented, well-read and result-oriented. It turned out that she was very interested in history, and also literature, we talked about that too. 

For successful learning, it is important to pay attention to what piques the student's curiosity. For example, sometimes I model a situation from a history or social studies course - I draw parallels with our modern life. If you explain something using examples that are close to the student, the material will become closer and clearer.

Tip 4: don’t be afraid of pressure and work with everyone

When I started working as a tutor in Foxford, I immediately had a fairly heavy workload. After working at a secondary school, I came home and taught six more lessons, 50 minutes each. I managed to get involved so quickly and immediately get a load, because I took all the students who were offered to me - from 5th to 11th grade. This is one of the reasons why Foxford took notice of me. Now I myself work as a methodologist for hiring tutors. Many teachers, even very successful candidates, do not want to work with high school students; they ask high school students specifically. But I think it’s interesting to work with guys of all ages and skill levels. Younger students need to be captivated by their subject, and with the right approach this is quite easy to do. In the summer my workload is light, but during the school year there are ten tutoring lessons a day, sometimes more. Next year I will probably leave secondary school and switch completely to working as a tutor.

Tip 5: structure the lesson correctly

At Foxford I conduct several types of classes (special courses): I prepare for the Unified State Exam and Unified State Exam, and Olympiads. There is also such a format as “lesson with a top-category tutor”, it costs more. All lessons are individual as you can find a tutor in the UK. When preparing for the Unified State Exam, I usually start from the codifier, the historical and cultural standard, and the individual needs of the student. Most often, schoolchildren come to pass the Unified State Exam well and enter a prestigious university, but the level of preparation is poor.

The first thing I do is identify the level of preparation, but it is important to do this carefully, not to scare me with the state exam tests. We need to encourage the student, set him up for success, so that he is not afraid. Let the student be confident that together you can cope. Next, you need to select literature and video lectures for independent study. 

When preparing for the Unified State Exam, my classes are usually divided into three levels. The first is basic theory and solving the first part of the state exam, the second is in-depth preparation and solving the second part. And the third level is simply solving all the standard tasks that may appear on the Unified State Exam. When I prepare children to participate in the Olympics, the situation is different. Here, schoolchildren usually come with a good base, but there are some gaps. With them, I solve Olympiad tasks so that the student can imagine the structure of the Olympiad, how it will take place in reality. In general, children come with a variety of requests: some need to repeat school material, others need to go through it again. I usually recommend training at least twice a week. But both the number of classes and their content depend on the goals you are pursuing.