What do you/did you look for in a SAT tutor?

[Tutor1]

For those who have hired tutors, in the past, please see if you can help me with some questions I have!

I am a senior in college - have been tutoring (for private tutoring companies) for over 6 years. I am an independent contractor at the company that I currently work for – it just finds me a client who needs tutoring and, in return, it gets 50% of the hourly rate - it does not provide resources or training. So, basically, I am paying for advertising. I do not normally have a problem with this, but lately I have not been getting many clients from them so now I am considering advertising on my own, though I am not completely sure how to go about this.

My questions are: I’m sure that you had many options when hiring your tutor. What made you go with the one you did?

If you found out about the tutor through an advertisement rather than a referral what did the advertisement say that compelled you to make a call to the tutor?

I was considering advertising in the classifieds in local magazines – is this something that you looked at when you were looking for a tutor?

What about yard signs at busy intersections and craigslist postings?

Any other advice on how to advertise to get a parent's attention and what media/where to advertise?

[moonchild]

Have you considered tutoring for a company that hires tutors as employees? You may find that you actually make more money, depending on the company, and they may be able to provide a steadier supply of clients. Also, they may have a specific program that has been proven to provide results.
If I were looking for a tutor, I'd want to know what kind of track record the tutor had. How happy are the clients regarding score improvement? Have you kept good records with your past students that show the gains they have made? I think this is what people are looking for. Sometimes an individual working alone doesn't have the credibility that a successful company has, with a proven program, records of satisfied clients, etc.
I think it's great if you can make it work. But I think there are definitely challenges to going solo.

[coolweather]

I have not hired any SAT tutor. But if I have to hire one, I need to know the SAT scores and the teaching/explaining skills of the tutor. Some people may have high scores but don't know know to effectively explain their thinking to other people.

[colorado_mom]

Good references would be helpful.

[Lakemom]

I did hire a tutor for my S. I found her on the craigslist. My S is very strong in Math so I was looking more for someone who was stronger in English but one of the things I think is important is to be skilled at both. I see some tutors only advertise one or the other.

She used to be a tutor for Kaplan so used their books, which I think are okay because the drills are in smaller time sections. However, I pushed her to use the college blue book in the final weeks since the test is based on the blue book, not Kaplan.

I would also say that for teaching the essay. There is a really good link here on CC about how to prep for the essay by coming up with a number of universal book/movie/ history choices that can apply to many topics. I printed that and gave it to my son use along with her teaching.

In terms of advertising, she had a solid description of herself and her methodology in the craigslist ad. She also has a link to her own website with her photo. She had a blog about her thinkings of SAT prep that reflected her philosophy.

I asked her to meet with us first. What was impressive about her was she asked my son his scores on the PSAT and said based on those scores you are able to do X and Y but have trouble with Z. And she was pretty right on.

So I felt she had a good handle on the SAT in general and conveyed it.

I think it would be hard to go solo without a having solid experience with a company first.