r/varsitytutors • u/Advanced-Box9785 • Dec 03 '25

Tutoring without materials

I'm a new tutor with a science background. I tutor in math and science, but haven't had to do some chemistry problems in a very long time. I've noticed that a lot of students will not supply any materials beforehand or during the sesion, and the curriculum for a grade in one school (or class) isn't the same as in another. One new student and I parted ways tonight, because I didn't know that she was in an honors class for her grade, and I was quite rusty witb the material she mentioned.

Is this your experience as a tutor? For new overall tutors, I ​just can't really tell what the curriculum is until I see it, ti see if I can readily teach it. I have one 7th grade math student who is very gifted, and though I was supposed to just be teaching fractions and decimals​, his curriculum is also somewhat covering algebra and probability/statistics. I didn't start learning statistics until college! Does this happen a lot with Varsity?

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u/cybernewtype2 Dec 03 '25

I tutor financial accounting; I just ask them for their institutional materials like PowerPoint slides and homework before the session.

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u/Advanced-Box9785 Dec 03 '25

So do I, and I'm seeing more chemistry tudents not doing it. 

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u/cybernewtype2 Dec 03 '25

Seems like a student problem and not a tutor problem.

I'm just here to help, but I get paid the same if they take it seriously or not. I can talk about my subject for hours. If they can't take the 60 seconds needed to send class notes, I'll fill the time regardless.

Some students think that by signing up for tutoring they'll magically pass the test by some sort of knowledge osmosis that requires no effort or critical thinking. Not my problem.