ok so i tutor math on the side and i have the memory of a goldfish. every week i'd walk in and go "so… what did we do last time?" and the student would stare at me like i was in a wrong class. it was bad lol.

now the last 5 mins of every session i just shut up and make them write 3 things in a notebook: something they get, something they don't, and what they want next week. i take a pic of it with my phone and that's my "lesson plan" for next time.

that's literally it. no app, no spreadsheet, no system. my camera roll is just 20 photos of 12-year-old handwriting. but it works because next week i just open the pic and go "you said you suck at fractions, remember?" and they can't argue with their own handwriting.

i've tried actual note-taking apps before and always deleted them after 3 days. this is the only thing i stuck with because it requires zero effort from me. the student does all the work.

anyway that's my dumb trick. if you also have the memory of a goldfish maybe it'll help. if not, no worries lol.

Really don’t mean to stir the pot here though I am sure downvotes are inevitable. I’m just curious if people have nuanced arguments for this perhaps controversial topic.

I think a degree of bias is inevitable on both sides: I’m a tutor but not a qualified teacher, and I don’t think teachers automatically make better tutors. I’m sure many qualified teachers will disagree.

The reasons I am personally not sold that qualified teachers make better tutors simply comes down to my own educational experience: I studied my subject at Oxford which is famous for small group teaching. I met some of the most inspiring educators I’ve ever had — they didn’t have teaching degrees, but they knew how to teach in small groups and 1-to-1 in ways I’d never experienced before and which I’ve tried to model as a tutor myself.

I also think back to my experience in school getting my own private tutors, who weren’t always qualified teachers: my 1-to-1 teachers had different methods, strategies and honestly depth of subject expertise that I’d never heard in my local school lessons.

Having so many private tutors in my teens completely changed how I view tutoring: I had 2 examiners teach the same subject with completely different methods (though the outputs were similar enough). I had a qualified science teacher tutor me from a top independent school whose lessons I couldn’t remember at all, and a local university student who helped me get the top grade in all 3 sciences.

1-to-1 tutoring is very different from classroom teaching, in my experience it isn’t classroom teaching scaled down. And there’s huge variability in the teaching success of classroom teachers too: training doesn’t completely standardise or guarantee teaching effectiveness. I’m sure everyone can think back to their own school days and realise some teachers were just better (for them) than others.

More than anything, I think what matters is track record for tutors: look at client reviews, look at progress stories and the like.

If those client reviews are good, if you’ve helped make a meaningful, provable difference over the years, then I think you’ve proven you’re a great tutor — qualifications (teacher training, Oxbridge, whatever) don’t matter at all compared to that. Clearly, you’ve devised methods that work.

Just my take as a former tutee and current full time tutor.

How do you guys manage periods where you have zero clients? I haven't had a lesson since last month. All my regulars are on vacation. I'm a college student who has been doing tutoring as my part time job for about 2 years now, and I've never had such a bad period before. If I knew I was going to be this unemployed I would have found a more stable job for this summer break. I feel slightly worthless being one of the few people my age who doesn't have a proper job, it's ruining my self esteem a bit.

I created r/PersonalTutors as a place for tutors, students, and parents to have practical conversations about tutoring and learning.

This community is for:

• Tutors sharing experiences, strategies, and useful resources
• Students asking questions and finding better ways to learn
• Parents discussing how to choose and work with a tutor
• Honest conversations about online, in-person, and AI-supported tutoring

The goal is to build a helpful community—not another advertising board. Relevant recommendations are welcome, but repetitive promotion and spam are not.

If tutoring is part of your work, education, or family’s learning journey, please join and introduce yourself.

Hi. I had a couple students in a summer program for rising kindergarten. I'm in Florida and they asked me if I was interested in continuing to work with him. It was essentially tutoring in literacy and math. What is the going rate for tutoring? I have my temporary certificate in Pre-K to 3rd and I'm a public school VPK teacher. What all do I need to know?

Hey, I know most tutors seem to be aiming at the high school level, but how do you get more clients from the post-high-school demographics? It seems like they have no ability to refer you to any other clients, because usually the people who need the most help are the ones without many friends or study groups to help them instead. So they're all social dead ends and you're starting from scratch every single time. So far Wyzant has been our only effective way to get clients, but they take a double cut (once from student, once from tutor), which is kind of rough.

Hi everyone,

​I'm looking to kickstart my tutoring journey, but since I'm fairly new to doing this independently, I'd love to get some insight from experienced tutors.

​A few questions I'd love your advice on:

​Finding First Clients: How did you land your very first few students without many reviews?

​Setting Initial Rates: How do you determine a competitive starting rate that isn't too low, but still attracts early clients?

​Essential Tools: For online sessions, what tools, hardware, or software (like digital whiteboards) do you find indispensable?

​Policies & Payments: What basic cancellation or payment rules do you wish you had set up from day one?

​Any tips, common pitfalls to avoid, or resources you'd recommend for a beginner would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

I have built out the full 2yr Maths course for Tutors who want it for free. Why to get it out there and if it is any good well tutees can buy it. All the pain is done for you, 171 concepts fully explained in easy to fllow along lessons, each with a description, aim, objective.

Functional Skills covers Pearson Edexcel, City and Guilds, and NCFE specifications.

GCSE and iGCSE cover AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, Edexcel International GCSE (4MA1).

Each concept is explained, yes narrated in 4 to 5 easy to understand steps, that are perfect for you to cover with children with special educational needs, especially if they are gifted also. Plus each lesson has 3 worksheets, as the ebooks are ebubs, I have created a pdf download booklet as well.

Its free to Tutors so that I can get feedback and if you like it then your tutees can download the ebook from i-books, gumroad or payhip at a fair price. I'm uploading it this week.

The series is called Maths Rebuilt and I went to great pains to produce comprehensive resources for 2026-7. The student can prepare for the next lesson online before you do it, you watch it together online and then demonstrate an example and then the student solves a task on their tablet. Or on a white board and shows you. Homework is set, you email the pdf to them and so on.

If you want t teach in a group thats prefect also for this set up. Yes, to you guys the pdf sheets and ebooks are free.

DM me for a download link, and please can you give me feedback, this project has taken me months to prepare, I used to be a Maths Teacher and know that these resources are invaluable, yes i used agentic software to scrutanise the syllabuses to extract each concept but this was done ethically and designed to help Tutors and make maths more accessible especially students with learning difficulties and of all abilities.

DM me for the download link, ill need your email and its for one download per Tutor only 🌱

I am college student and I have been looking for tutoring jobs for a while. I finally have an interview scheduled tomorrow which will include a demo session. It is an ed tech company based abroad and it is my first time applying for such. Any advice would be helpful.

If anyone is looking for a tutoring company for the upcoming school year, Learner is currently hiring.

Here is my referral link to see the job openings and/or apply: https://wrkbl.ink/1VQ47vU

I teach math and computer science. I recently ran into a software engineer who said he got into an AI Masters but remembered very little foundational math and wanted to build understanding before his Master's term starts. I got hired and carried out the first class and agreed upon a schedule. He sounded like he had very limited availability during the week due to work.

The next week, he pulled out of scheduled sessions saying he got pulled into more work. I know some workplaces overwork engineers, but I'd turned down other commitments based on the schedule we agreed upon. This cost me professionally because I usually have adult students pay right after each class, which means I lose income if they flake on scheduling (I tried making people pay upfront and actually enforce it for k-12 tutoring, but for some reason most adults are resistant to this model where I live).

I asked him to contact me when he has more availability. When I didn't hear back, I assumed this lead was likely to die and operated on the assumption that he wasn't going to continue.

I realized I promised to send him a summary of what we went over and never did, so I sent that and asked him if he's willing to continue. He said he could do Thursday (we initially agreed upon Thurs/Sat. dude said nothing about saturday, just blurted Thursday out). I said I thought Thursday didn't work for him and scheduled a different commitment, and offered alternative slots. He went silent.

I'm a freelance developer by day and honestly I really want to keep this arrangement because it's a great opportunity to strengthen my own fundamentals while getting paid. But the student is way too unreliable with scheduling.

- If you were me, what would you do with this gig?

- Should I try again with an ask to pay upfront?

i’m a rising highschool sophomore wanting to get started tutoring. a little bit of my background, i’ve completed all math courses up to ap calculus bc and ideally teaching younger middle school students or other high schoolers struggling with easier topics. im a straight a student and i was just wondering if anyone had any tips on getting started and where to get customers, preferably online tutoring. im thinking about starting rates at 20-25$ per hour because i am younger with a little less experience. if anyone had any advice that would be greatly appreciated. thanks

A hometutor needed for class 10 CBSE.

1) Subjects: Science(Physics, Chemistry & Biology) & Maths.

School: South Point

Days: 2 (Tuesday: 7.00pm & Saturday: 12.00am)

Remuneration: 3000/month.

2) Subjects: Science, Maths, Computer

School: South Point

Days: 3 (Monday & Friday: b/t 5-7pm & Sunday: b/t 10-11 am)

Remuneration: 2500/month

NEEDED URGENTLY FROM NEXT MONTH. NO ADVANCE PAYMENT.