8 questions when choosing a tutor that will save you time and money

1. What subjects does the tutor teach?

One teacher in several disciplines at once - this approach is only suitable for elementary school, where deep knowledge is not required from students. This option will work if you just need to instill in the child an interest in classes and teach them how to learn. But if you need to pump knowledge of the subject, it is better to choose a specialist with a narrow profile. Most likely, a good tutor is engaged in either one direction, or at least related ones - for example, biology and chemistry or history and social studies. If you are told that your child will be smart in both physics and literature with English, the quality of teaching may not be very high.

By the way, you don't have to limit yourself to the school curriculum. While everyone is learning remotely, the child will have enough time to master a new hobby, for example, try himself in drawing or programming. And you can study with a tutor remotely.

2. Can I sign up for a trial lesson?

This is a prerequisite. In addition, an experienced tutor will not agree to take a new student blindly. The teacher needs to get to know the child and find out at what level he is, whether he is tuned in to study and at what pace he can study. Perhaps the student has significant knowledge gaps, so the subject will have to be mastered almost from scratch. This means that it will be necessary to meet more and more often than the parents expected.

You also need to understand if the child has contact with the tutor. Some children are quite comfortable studying with strict teachers. Others, from the slightest pressure, fall into a stupor and forget even what they knew perfectly well. The task of the tutor is not to hammer in knowledge by any means, but to interest and motivate to study. After the first lesson, talk to the child and ask him whether he is interested or not, whether the teacher explains the material clearly, whether he liked studying with this tutor, or is it better to look for another.

Avito will help you find a good teacher. The section "" contains proposals from experienced teachers and novice tutors for any budget in subjects from the school curriculum and not only. There are even teachers in computer graphics, photography, singing and dancing.

Explore the tutor page. Here you can find out what education and experience he has, and the teachers willingly tell how the classes are arranged and share the achievements of the students. Finally, feel free to ask questions - a conscientious tutor will answer them quickly.

3. What guarantees can he give?

A simple rule works here: the less the teacher promises, the better. Education is not an area where you can talk about guarantees, and the success of classes depends not only on the tutor. The child also has a lot of work to do, and if he learns from under the stick and scores on homework, then even an experienced teacher is unlikely to help. When a tutor assures that the student will definitely go on the budget or, ideally, will master English in a couple of months, this should be alarming. A professional soberly evaluates his strengths and will not assure that he will easily pull out yesterday's C grade by five.

In order for the expectation and the effect of the lessons to coincide, it is also necessary to take into account the profile of the teacher's work. Perhaps it helps to prepare well for the exam, perfectly puts pronunciation for those who have problems with foreign languages, or is engaged not only with children, but also with adults, for example, it helps to prepare for language exams or improve business vocabulary.

Do not focus only on seniority, position and academic title. A student-tutor who has passed the exam for 100 points can prepare a child for exams no worse than a teacher with a long experience, who only in theory knows what tasks are found there. Tell the tutor about your goals and clarify what achievements his students have: do they enter the selected universities, what places they take in the Olympiads and how many points they gain in exams.

4. What lesson plan does the tutor suggest?

Ask which lesson plan the tutor suggests

It is better to clarify this after a trial lesson so that the teacher is already aware of the student's level of knowledge. The schedule of appointments depends on your goal with your child. Just remember that it must be doable: for example, preparing for the exam in a month is not very realistic. To pass the exam for a high score, you will have to study at least a couple of times a week (or better more often) from the beginning of the school year or even from the 10th grade. Basically, the tutor should re-run the entire school course with the student and fill deep knowledge gaps, and not just solve typical tasks from time to time.

If there are no ambitious goals, and you just want your child to improve grades in the subject, or do not trust distance learning at school, it is enough to meet with the teacher once a week. So the tutor will check whether the child is mastering the material well, help organize knowledge and understand the topics with which there are problems.

5. How will the instructor track progress?

It takes time to make up for the lack of knowledge, so do not expect that after the first lesson the child will begin to drag the A from school. If, in the previous grade, he no longer understands what the English teacher wants from him, it will take at least a couple of months to reach the desired level.

Discuss with the teacher how he will monitor your child's progress. For example, it can be regular tests and verification work - they will clearly show progress. Periodically discuss how the student is doing: maybe you need to study more often or make sure that the child does his homework in good faith.

6. How will the lessons be organized?

The format with lectures, notes and knowledge testing is not suitable here. The teacher needs not only to retell the material from the book, but also to make sure that the student has mastered the knowledge. From boring lectures with periodic questions "Understood?" It even makes you sleepy, and if a tutor works with a child remotely, such lessons are just a waste of time and money.

As a rule, tutors divide classes into two parts. First, they check their homework and explain new material, then take a break for the student to take a breath, and then practice begins to consolidate the knowledge. Ideally, the student is not left to himself, but works in tandem with the teacher. For example, a child can solve problems or engage in an online simulator with analysis of errors.

Don't be limited to your city - it's easy to find an experienced tutor on Avito anywhere in the country. Many offer remote classes via Zoom or Skype, so you can practice from the comfort of your home. If you still want to communicate with the tutor live, Avito will help. Select your city and indicate the approximate cost of one lesson, and the map will show all suitable options.

7. What materials does the tutor use?

A good teacher is not limited to a couple of textbooks, which he himself studied 30 years ago. He will have in his arsenal modern manuals and interactive materials - tests, presentations, even training videos on YouTube. If a tutor is chasing all students on the same universal plan, this is a bad sign. Children assimilate information at a different pace, so the teacher must adjust the content of the lessons to the student's abilities and knowledge.

It is important that the format of the classes coincides with the goal. For example, you want your child to win a regional Olympiad. It makes no sense to solve standard problems from the textbook, at the Olympiads you will not surprise anyone with such. Instead, the tutor will help the child form a base of necessary knowledge and deal with the tasks of the past years in order to understand the logic of their solution.

8. Can I study online?

It happens that there is no tutor for the required discipline in the city. For example, when it comes to rare subjects like Japanese or those that are not taught everywhere, such as astronomy. It doesn't matter, you can study remotely. For parents, it will be even easier: you do not need to go to the teacher, you can study at any convenient time, you just need to make sure that the child does not take time off from classes and does his homework.

In addition, it will turn out to be a good thing to save money: distance lessons are usually cheaper. If you have to study a lot and often, look for a tutor in the regions - there are many classy specialists who ask for their services less than teachers in the capital.

On Avito there are teachers who seem to teach everything in general. For example, here you can in Japanese, register your child (and yourself!) For a master class on making candles and weaving dream catchers, master sewing, embroidery and get acquainted with the art of calligraphy.