Tips for Finding the Ideal Private Math Tutor

The global school comparison test TIMSS (“Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study”) from 2021 revealed that the math performance of American students is stagnating in an international comparison.

According to this study, every fourth American schoolboy did not manage the third of five skill levels. This is not the only reason why the competition is currently very high, especially in the field of mathematics tutoring. And he’s constantly growing.

As a result, students and parents can find all kinds of tutors. But what is the best way to choose your GCSE maths tutor and which one really helps your child? Can I trust a self-taught math helper?

Many engineers, college students, and other science enthusiasts offer their services as math tutors. What are the advantages of math tutoring and what are the disadvantages of teaching? Would you rather enlist the services of a trained teacher who might have a very academic approach to math tutoring? Or should you be more open to a freer way of imparting knowledge?

Choose your math teacher based on your experience as a tutor

The school year is not exactly proving to be the best for your child. Unfortunately, his grades in mathematics deteriorated significantly in elementary school, junior high school, high school or at university. The problem is that ignoring learning disabilities in a subject as important as math can be dangerous.

In primary and secondary school, mathematics has the task of making the youngest understand the world around them and its rules, especially with numbers. It is a way to understand the environment and thereby the importance of mathematics in our everyday life.

Mathematics gains more and more importance in the higher grades because it can influence the future career of any student. The scientific branch is still the premier class at high school. After graduation, this branch opens doors to almost all universities and does not exclude any direction in your professional career from the outset.

It is extremely important not to let math fall under the table!

The support of a private math teacher who comes home can be useful. However, qualified math tutors or private tutors often mean a financial burden for the family. But even if tutoring is quite effective, you first have to find and select the right tutor!

To be on the safe side, we recommend that you get an idea of ​​the teacher’s experience at the beginning. Before hiring someone, we recommend asking the math teacher if they have already given math private lessons. Because private lessons differ from the classic homework support or group tutoring.

Lessons take place face-to-face at the student’s home.

The math teacher must therefore adapt his teaching 100% to a single student. That is, he addresses his learning difficulties and knowledge gaps in a specific school subject. But also on inhibitions and the personality of the tutor. It is also good to know that on some websites, such as StudyMind, for example, mathematics teachers, statistics tutoring teachers and everyone else have to fill out a text in which they can list their pedagogical experiences. This is an additional criterion for each student (secondary school student, high school student, and student) to make the right choice.

StudyMind also allows students to write a comment about the tutor they have worked with. A perfect tool to assess the effectiveness of your teaching method and to recommend a good teacher to other interested students. Can you trust a math teacher who has taught himself his pedagogical knowledge, i.e. acquired it himself? The question will surely arise for you.

If you are looking for private math tutoring online or on site, you will come across many ads. Teachers who offer math for different grade levels, from first through twelfth grade, as well as for junior high school classes.

Or according to different math topics:

  • Algebra,
  • Trigonometry,
  • Geometry,
  • Fractions,
  • Theorems,
  • Equations/inequalities,
  • Stochastics,

Depending on the level of learning, it will be necessary to make a choice. But that is not the only criterion. It is quite possible that as a student you will meet self-taught tutors. Because that is also what is “special” about the private tutoring lessons: the opportunity to break out of the rather strictly regulated framework of the school system in order to get to know a new way of learning.

More personal, but effective nonetheless.

However, you must not assume that you will always meet university lecturers, researchers, trained pedagogues or high school teachers. The world of private tutoring is also made up of self-taught people with great knowledge that students can benefit from: knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, technology, engineering…

These tutors can be engineers or university students who want to pay for their studies (engineering, economics, mathematics…). Teachers without pedagogical training, but with sound scientific knowledge

Can you trust them when working towards a specific learning goal?

Improvement of grades for the scientific or economic branch at grammar schools, exams, Abitur exams, preparation for entrance exams at universities, preparation for competitions such as the Math Olympiad, … .

Of course you have to decide for yourself if you want to have such an experience, but we at StudyMind can only recommend it. There is nothing better than looking at a topic from two different angles and approaches.

Private tutor vs. qualified tutor: advantages and disadvantages

If you have decided to pay your child for private lessons or a special school tutoring offer in mathematics, the moment has come to choose the right tutor.

This could very well come from your child’s school. Some teachers also provide their services outside of school. A high school teacher, a high school teacher or an elementary school teacher, for example. But there is also the possibility of contacting a competent private tutor. What are the advantages of teaching math and the disadvantages of each teaching method?

The free spirit of the private mathematics tutor

The math class your child learned at school may no longer be fun for them. Lessons are designed for a class of around 30 students. And teachers at the school do not always have the patience to address the problems and gaps of individual students. There is a rigid teaching method that means that your child may no longer enjoy the subject being taught. So why not hire a competent private tutor to breathe new life into the math cramming?

Especially if your child is in high school and will soon graduate.

Not all students can cope with the teaching methods of the American school system. And it is precisely this somewhat different design of the school material that is often given through tutoring or private lessons. For the first time in their school life, your child will meet teachers who do not have to impart knowledge under the constraints of the school and education system.

And with a subject as complex as mathematics, which probably gets on everyone’s nerves at one point or another, sometimes that’s exactly what was missing. The advantage of a trained or self-taught tutor is his pedagogical freedom

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