What is the context? Is the tutoring for an academic class or for test prep?
My experience is that tutors provide a lot more bang for the buck than prep school. Prep school is now over $250/day which will buy a lot of 1:1 time with a qualified tutor.
Tutors only are worth it if they can anticipate the type and level of questions the teacher will be giving on a test!!! I am tired of hearing, from multiple tutors mind you, how well a student knows the material only to get a 70 or so on a test! Sorry, it's nice to know they understand the material but its the grade that matters too!
To continue.... I'd rather be told that my child doesn't understand the topic ( honesty first) and not be so repeatedly ( over the years ) disappointed with lower grades than expected based on a tutors assessment ( again these are high priced and multiple tutors ) ! Finally, most extra help offered by teachers is also a scam.... My S was encouraged to go to Honors Trig extra help ! He would go daily in the morning. He even went the morning of the exam. This idiot of a teacher would purposely not give anything that was on the exam for fear of giving an advantage! Are you kidding me!!!! Extra help is to get help! Clouding up a mind with math problems ( and I'm not asking for the exact problems just concepts and techniques) that are not on the exam forty minutes later is not extra help but extra HURT! What a moron!
I don't expect tutors to know what problems a teacher will give on a test. And a student who got a 70 with a tutors help may have gotten a 50 otherwise.
It's up to the student and their parents to understand what might be on the test and then engage the tutor to help find problems that will be relevant. One could pay a tutor to perform this work but most people would not be willing to pay a tutor to spend the time reviewing class materials and exams to try to figure out a specific teacher's testing style.
What's with the hostility to tutors on this thread?
Well, on the topic of Test Prep, I've found tutors to be quite rude at some points. As a student who has gone to tutoring, tutors have not helped me, they've made me realize how stupid I am.
This is just from my past on tutoring keep in mind.
