Most people start looking for a tutor at the wrong moment: the week before an exam, in a bit of a panic, searching for whoever is available. That usually works out badly. A good tutor is not a last minute patch, and the difference between a tutor who helps and one who wastes your money comes down to a handful of decisions you make before the first session.
This guide walks through those decisions in order. It is written for students and parents who have never hired a tutor before, and it applies whether you end up booking through an app, a local centre, or someone your school recommends.
Start with the problem, not the tutor
Before you look at a single profile, work out what is actually going wrong. Saying you are bad at maths is not something a tutor can fix, because it is not specific enough to teach against. These are:
- You do not understand the concept. You can follow the teacher in class but cannot reproduce it alone. You need someone to explain the idea a different way.
- You understand it but work too slowly. You get there in the end and run out of time in exams. You need drilling and technique, not re explanation.
- You have gaps from an earlier year. Algebra feels impossible because fractions never clicked. You need someone willing to go backwards before going forwards.
- You freeze under pressure. Your homework is fine and your exams are not. This is exam technique and confidence, which is a different skill from subject teaching.
- You are fine and want to go further. Olympiad preparation, university level material, a subject your school does not offer.
Write down which one it is. When you contact a tutor, lead with that sentence. A good tutor will respond differently to each of those five, and how they respond tells you a lot about whether they are worth hiring.
Decide what format you need
Three questions settle this quickly.
One to one, or a small group? One to one is better when the problem is specific to you, which it usually is. Groups are cheaper and can work for general revision, but a group moves at the average pace, and if you were comfortable with the average pace you would not be looking for a tutor.
Regular sessions, or help when you are stuck? A weekly slot builds momentum and suits ongoing weakness in a subject. On demand help suits a heavy course load where problems appear unpredictably, and it is usually cheaper because you only pay for what you use. Many students want both: a standing session during term, plus a way to get unstuck at eleven at night before a deadline.
A subject specialist, or a generalist? For anything past about age fifteen, take the specialist. Someone who teaches organic chemistry every week knows which reactions students confuse and has three ways to explain each one. A generalist covering nine subjects does not have that depth in any of them.
Where to look
Each route has a real trade off, and it is worth knowing them before you commit time.
Tutoring apps and marketplaces. The widest choice and usually the fastest to start. You are not limited to who lives nearby, which matters enormously for less common subjects. Quality varies, so the vetting section below does most of the work. Look for platforms that verify credentials rather than letting anyone list themselves.
Local tutoring centres. More structure and often a fixed curriculum. Good for younger students who need routine and supervision. Less flexible, more expensive per hour, and you are limited to whoever that centre employs.
School and teacher recommendations. The most reliable signal you will get, because a teacher who recommends someone is putting their own judgement behind it. Ask your subject teacher directly. Many keep a short list and will not offer it unless asked.
University students. Cheap, often excellent on subject knowledge, frequently inexperienced at teaching. A strong option for a motivated older student who mainly needs someone a few steps ahead. A weaker one for a struggling younger student who needs patience and structure.
Word of mouth from other parents. Useful, but check the recommendation actually matches your situation. A tutor who was brilliant for a confident child chasing top grades may be wrong for a child who has lost confidence entirely.
How to vet a tutor properly
This is where most people go wrong, usually by over weighting credentials and under weighting teaching ability.
Qualifications tell you less than you think
A degree in the subject proves someone once knew the material. It does not prove they can explain it to a fifteen year old who is frustrated and behind. Some of the best tutors have unremarkable qualifications and an unusual talent for finding the sentence that makes something click. Some PhDs cannot teach at all.
What you actually want to know: have they taught your level, on your curriculum, recently? A tutor who has taken six students through the same exam board you are sitting is worth more than one with a more impressive degree and no experience of it.
Reviews: what to trust and what to ignore
Ignore anything that only says the tutor was great or very patient. Look for reviews that describe a situation resembling yours, mention a specific outcome, or say what the tutor actually did. A review explaining that a student went from a C to an A in AS chemistry over two terms, mostly by fixing how they set out calculations, is worth fifty generic ones.
Be suspicious of a profile with only perfect scores and no detail. Be reassured by a tutor with mostly strong reviews and one mediocre one that they have clearly responded to.
Questions worth asking before you book
- Have you taught this exam board and level before, and how recently?
- How do you handle it when a student does not understand your first explanation?
- What do you expect me to do between sessions?
- How will we know in six weeks whether this is working?
- What happens if we are not a good fit?
The second and fourth questions are the revealing ones. A tutor who cannot describe a second way to explain something is going to repeat themselves louder. A tutor who has no answer for how progress gets measured is not thinking about outcomes.
Warning signs
- Guaranteed grades. Nobody can promise this honestly, because the work is yours.
- Pressure to buy a large block of sessions before any teaching has happened.
- Vagueness about who will actually teach you, particularly at larger agencies.
- No willingness to do a short trial.
- Doing your homework for you rather than teaching you to do it. This feels helpful and fails you in the exam hall.
The trial session
Almost every reputable tutor will do a first session on the understanding that you may not continue. Treat it as an assessment of them.
Good signs: they ask questions before they start explaining. They find out what you already know rather than assuming. They let you attempt something and watch how you approach it. They give you one specific thing to work on afterwards. You leave understanding something you did not understand that morning.
Bad signs: they talk for fifty minutes. They work through a worked example while you watch. They do not ask what you find difficult. You leave with a page of their notes and no clearer idea of what to do next.
One useful test: near the end, ask them to explain the hardest thing you covered a second time, differently. A strong teacher has another route ready.
What tutoring should cost
Rates vary enormously by country, subject and level, so treat any single figure with suspicion. What actually drives price:
- Level. University and professional exam tutoring costs considerably more than primary support.
- Scarcity. Common subjects have many tutors and competitive pricing. Further maths, organic chemistry, nursing clinicals and less common languages cost more because fewer people can teach them.
- Format. One to one costs more per hour than a group. On demand help often works out cheaper overall because you buy less of it.
- Experience. Worth paying for when the problem is diagnostic, such as unexplained underperformance. Less worth paying for when you simply need practice supervised.
Two things to watch. First, the cheapest option is frequently expensive in the end, because sessions that do not help still cost money and time. Second, large prepaid packages are only a saving if the tutor turns out to be right for you, which you cannot know in advance. Pay as you go until you are confident.
Judging the first few sessions
Give it three sessions, then assess deliberately rather than by feel.
After three sessions you should be able to name something specific you can now do that you could not before. Your tutor should be able to tell you what they think the underlying problem is, in a sentence. You should have work to do between sessions and a sense of whether it is helping.
If none of that is true, the problem is usually fit rather than effort, and changing tutor is not a failure. Say so directly and without apology. Good tutors would rather you moved on than kept paying for something that is not working, and most will help you find someone better suited.
Also check the boring things. Are sessions starting on time? Is the tutor prepared, or improvising? Do they remember what you did last week? Reliability compounds over a term.
How this works on OEG
For context on where we fit: OEG is an on demand tutoring app. You describe what you are stuck on, you are matched with a tutor who covers that subject, you see the price before you agree to anything, and you can work with them straight away rather than waiting for a scheduled slot. Tutors are vetted before they can take work, and you are not committed to a package.
It suits the situations described above where help is needed unpredictably, across more than one subject, or outside normal hours. It is less suited to a student who specifically wants the same person at the same time every week for a year, which a local tutor may do better.
Our Google rating is 4.9 from 86 reviews. The app covers over one hundred subjects, and the iOS and Android apps are both free to download.
Common questions
How long before I see results?
For a specific fixable gap, often two or three sessions. For rebuilding a subject after a bad year, a term. Anyone promising faster than that is selling rather than teaching.
Is online tutoring as good as in person?
For most subjects above primary level, yes, and often better, because you are choosing from every available tutor rather than the ones within driving distance. Shared screens and digital whiteboards handle written work well. Younger children who need physical supervision are the main exception.
How often should sessions be?
Once a week is enough for ongoing support. Twice a week helps when catching up against a deadline. More than that and you generally run out of time to practise between sessions, which is where the learning actually happens.
Should a parent sit in on the session?
For younger children, being nearby is sensible. For teenagers, usually not. Most work better without an audience, and you can ask the tutor for a short summary afterwards instead.
What if my child does not want a tutor?
Say this to the tutor before the first session. A resistant student is a normal situation and an experienced tutor will handle the first session differently because of it. Hiding it wastes everybody time.
