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Hiring private math tutors had already become a thing years before Covid-19 striked the world and it has become an integral part of schooling in these times when the world is pushed to carry out education online through mobile devices. Students are finding it harder and harder to study and get hold of the concepts of mathematics which are proven to be difficult even in a classroom situation. On the other hand, many teachers and university students have turned to private tutoring as their income has drastically plummeted due to long-term quarantine and nation-wide school closure. This has led to a huge increase in the number of private math tutors in the respective market so much so that the supply of such individuals may far exceed the demand. In such situations parents often find themselves under tremendous pressure for choosing the right private math tutor for their children. We are not going to discuss which directions the parents should take to find the most ideal private math tutor for their children. This topic is broadly discussed in our article “Steps In Choosing The Right Math Tutor For Your Child”. In this article we are going to talk about the advantages, disadvantages and how things could get ugly if parents choose the wrong tutor for their children. Let’s dive in!

The Good

There are countless benefits in hiring a private math tutor for your child. While many people may argue that private tutoring is not a suitable choice for the children, and they have their own reasons which are not always invalid, psychology has shown that hiring a private math tutor is most often very fruitful and cost-effective. Today there are countless companies out there who provide private math tutors for all age ranges that are highly experienced and well-qualified for the job, eliminating any of the issues that we are going to discuss when we get further into this article. However, let’s begin by taking a look at some of the less commonly known benefits of private tutoring.

Number 1: Immediate Feedback!

Alright picture this, we have a classroom of 20 students studying mathematics and the teacher has just walked in. After marking the attendance and checking the homeworks the teacher starts opening up the new topic of integrals, which is super hard by the way, and we are assuming the class is full of legit students who are not to be making jokes and are fully focused and concentrating on the topic at hand. As the teacher starts to elaborate on the topic she has to take a look at every student and watch for their feedback to see whether they are understanding, whether their faces look like a question mark or whether they are even listening. This is known as receiving “feedback”. The feedback the teacher gets from the students while teaching a subject tells her how successful she is in conveying the lesson from her end to the students’. Now since there are 20 students in the classroom, it is apparent that one teacher is physically not able to focus on everybody and so her attention will be divided among the students. What this means is that there is a very good chance the teacher is going to miss the feedback of a few students, especially the ones who often perform poorly. This is because the weaker students usually feel embarrassed in front of their friends and would rather act normal and not provide any feedback to the teacher as to whether they have understood the topic or not and since the teacher cannot dedicate all her attention to one student she will miss them. Now when hiring a private math tutor this feedback jumps to 100% as the tutor is now working with only one student so he can fully focus on the reactions of that individual. Furthermore, the teacher gets to learn about the behavior of their student resulting in a boost in the learning process as well as the performance of the child.

Number 2: Custom Crafted Approach

According to Psychology of Learning, people don’t always learn things the same way. What this means is that every individual has different doors leading to their learning system. This becomes even more apparent in a subject such as math in which there is more actual learning than memorizing facts. When a person is attending a classroom they have to follow the method which the teacher prefers or believes is most suitable for the learning of the class as whole. If students are lucky and their teacher is a responsible individual, he or she may use a maximum of two approaches to teach the lesson at hand in order to make sure all the pupils fully grasp the gist of the topic. Still, there are so many students out there that are not able to follow the lesson through the approach that is suitable for the majority of their class. Such students are not less intelligent than the others; they just require a different methodology in order to lock-in with the subject. When hiring a private tutor your child gets the chance to study, practice and learn through the approach that is most efficient for them. This not only boosts the performance of the individual, but also makes learning and studying so much more enjoyable.

Number 3: Boost In Confidence

As stated before, children whose performances are not on par with the rest of their class often feel embarrassed and lack confidence. Leaving this issue untreated would lead to more severe and serious conditions in the future. For example the persistence of such issues, more than often, results in overthinking. The individual starts to question their low performance and subconsciously arrive at the idea of not being talented or intelligent enough. This is highly likely to drag your child into an abyss of self-doubt and hesitation that is often considered the root cause of depression. Lack of self confidence may also surface in the form of bullying or at its extremes, drive the individual to carry out irrational actions and even step into the realms of criminal activities. Asking for help from a private math tutor will blow the winds in the opposite direction. As previously established, a private math tutor will craft a unique teaching system to assure efficient and complete learning for your child. What this does is that it helps fill the gaps in the abilities of the student. As the pupil starts to improve and his growth becomes tangible, the clouds of doubts covering his consciousness slowly start to clear out. At the same time, his confidence levels start to rise as the student realizes they are as capable as their classmates if put through a teaching system that is optimized for them.

The Bad7

It is undeniable that all the things we encounter every day, have both pros and cons. While the number of benefits provided by hiring a private math tutor are literally countless, there are a few downsides as well. While these don’t overshadow the advantages, it is not harmful to have some idea about them so you can take them into consideration later on when hiring a private math tutor. If you are not sure on how to find the tutor you need, read our article on the matter called “Steps In Choosing The Right Math Tutor For Your Child”. Now let’s dive into a couple of disadvantages of private tutoring.

Number 1: The Cost

One major disadvantage of hiring a private math tutor is the excessive cost! Private tutors often tend to charge per hour or sessions which makes hiring them excessively costly. This becomes even more extreme if the person you are hiring is unable to quickly determine the proper methodology required or identify the main areas with which she has to put more emphasis on. Some tutors also tend to recommend a number of sessions that are unnecessary. Also, while many private tutors tend to use their own notes and set of exercises, many of them push families to purchase certain supplementary text books and material that not only break the buck, but are also unnecessary. Such cases occur when the tutor is lost on the direction they are taking or lacks sufficient knowledge on the matter. While this sounds like an inevitable situation, it actually isn’t. One easy way to go around this is using our services. In Geniusamath, we offer handpicked private math tutors that have passed through several filters to make sure such problems do not occur. Our pricing system is also directed towards affordability and fairness.

Number 2: Extra Homework

Well the thing is that if you are hiring a private tutor to make any changes in the performance of your child, you must be expecting some homework to walk in with them. Since technically the student is receiving more math sessions, he must know that there is a very good chance that they will be doing more homework too, especially if the tutor is there to help with revision or exam preparation. The same is true for cases in which a private math tutor is hired to help the student with a mathematical competition or work on the more challenging areas of the subject as the student may be more gifted. There are times when parents decide to hire a private math tutor to only help their child with their homework. In such cases, the student will not be given extra homework as the purpose for which the tutor is hired is different. Again, the under-experienced candidates are actually the majority of those who give excessive homework. This can be more problematic than you think. Having to do extra homework takes more time from the student which substantially means less time for fun. This can have huge negative effects on the attitude and mentality of the student. It may also push the students away from their studies as they feel that the pressure is too much for them to bear, leading them to give up on schooling.

Number 3: No Peer Learning

Peer interaction basically means the students learn together in the classroom rather than individually. This is one of the most highlighted advantages in-class education. It is now a fact that humans are meant to live and bloom in a society rather than alone on their own. Being in a classroom, the students get to experience a social life that is integrated with learning. Many questions arise in a classroom which one student might have never thought of if attended a private session with a tutor. Students also tend to find it more pleasant to ask their questions from their classmates rather than their class teacher or tutor.

The Ugly

Now that we have discussed the benefits and drawbacks of hiring private math tutors, it is also crucial to point out where things can get messy and in fact quite ugly. The truth is that choosing a proper and suitable tutor is like pulling a tooth out – unless you allow us to do it for you. Hiring the wrong tutor can actually prove more disastrous than you might think. You may think that “well if he’s not good, then, out he goes!” but this is often not the case. The truth is that you need to give time to the tutor before any results may surface. Many times this “Time” we are taking for granted, is not something you can, or should, afford! Most of the time things get ugly when it’s too late. Let’s take a look.

Number 1 Poor Final Performance

The first place where things can get pretty messi is during and after the exams. It is apparent that mathematics is a hard subject for many students. That is the reason why math exams are among the most stressful ones. The first consequence of hiring the wrong tutor surfaces during the exam when the student realizes that even through all the extra efforts and cost, he is still unable to efficiently answer the exam questions. This will obviously result in scoring below what was expected or promised by the tutor. Once the results are out, the conflict arises in the family blaming the child for their poor performance amid having a private tutor. The tension leads to other issues at home while the person at fault is actually the tutor!

Number 2 Loss of Self Esteem

Another disaster that will occur as a result of employing the wrong tutor is deterioration of the child’s self esteem. If your child happens to be an under performer, and fails to witness improvements after having a private tutor, he may drift towards the conclusions revolving self doubt. Things like not being intelligent enough, for example. The child tends to entirely ignore the fact that he may not be at fault at all! This is one of those things that will tail the individual even after their school days are over and have huge impacts on their daily social interactions especially in the workplace.

In the end, hiring a private math tutor is like a fiery double edged sword (with the fire being the ugly section). One way to make sure you are shielded from such scams and only fall into the benefits of hiring a private math tutor is to set aside the process and leave it to us.

In Geniusmath our highly skilled math tutors help your child achieve their goals with the best approach and peace of mind while keeping the cost very affordable. Contact us today and enjoy our free assessment and consultation services.