Surely you have heard before of nasty stories of home tutors, or even tuition agents.
Articles such as “Super tutors who earn at least 1m a year“, or even stories such as “Be Careful of Dishonest Tutors“, gives us the impression that Tutors are greedy and money-faced.
And more often than not, they will place their personal interests above the student’s.
Many things can go wrong from here:
1. Tutor cancels lesson frequently
2. During Exam Period, tutor cancels important lessons
3. Frequent rescheduling
4. No effort during lessons; no/minimal improvement
How Can We Avoid These Tutors?
One way is to check the reviews of the tuition agency.
If the tuition agency has Bad Tutors or Poor Service, you will definitely see some reviews/testimonials online.
With just a simple Google search, we can find a forum 6 pages long, full of complaints.
Where can you check authentic reviews?
Simply go to Parent forums (MummySG, KiasuParents etc.) to check out testimonials and word-of-mouth from other Parents.
They always give out the most unbiased opinion out there – any negative review about an agency, never engage their Services.
4 Types of Tutors You Should Avoid
With so many tutors in Singapore to choose from, here are some categories of Tutors to avoid, based on our vast experience in this industry so far.
1. Facebook Tutors
2. Tutors that cannot commit Long-term
3. Tutors with Average Qualifications
4. Frequent Rescheduling of Lessons
These tutors are more detrimental than helpful for your child (See: No.1 Thing to Avoid when Hiring Tutors)
1. Facebook Tutors
Being in the tuition industry for over 4 years and experimenting with all platforms, we have identified tutors from Facebook Groups to be the worst.
Tutors that we directly contacted from Facebook turned out to give our Parents the most trouble.
For example, one feedback provided was:
“The tutor made him write a ridiculous topic and while he was writing, kept sharing stories about his life and his talent in language and my son had no time to ask questions.
When he finally had the opportunity to ask a question, the tutor couldn’t explain and told him it’s not important to know what he did wrong, just keep doing new practice.”
His credentials and experience were thoroughly verified by us – but nevertheless the worst still happened.
We have had many similar cases as well from Facebook tutors; definitely not an over-generalisation based on our experience.
2. Tutors that cannot commit Long-term
Always ensure your tutor is able to commit at least 1 year.
Some Parents are informed only 1 week before that the tutor will not be continuing.
Imagine your child facing the hardship of adapting to new tutors constantly. Or even worse, changing tutors just before their exams!
(i) Lack of Responsibility
As they have already decided that they would not be committing Long-term, they have already lost the sense of responsibility for their results – since they would not be seeing your child until the exams.
Also, since they are only doing for the money, they would only come for lessons when they need the money, and cancel when they don’t.
3. Tutors with Average Qualifications
If the Tutor did not get an A for the exam, how can they teach your child how to get an A?
Unless they have a good track record of producing students with A’s, or taught many years of graduating classes – they are not fit to be a tutor. (More details)
Solution: Make sure to verify the Tutor’s credentials before engaging them!
CocoTutors provides a List of Tutor Profiles (Grades, Qualifications, and Experience) for Parents to choose from. Start with a Free Tutor Search!
4. Frequent Rescheduling of Lessons
If your tutor reschedules or cancels lessons frequently, you should be worried.
Imagine during Exam Periods when you want more lessons to prepare for examinations – but the Tutor just cancels all.
Worrying about whether the Tutor will be coming or not, should not be a thing you should worry about. You are better off looking for a more committed Tutor (Get your Free Tutor Search)
Of course, this is referring to tutors that frequently reschedule lessons. Once in a while it would be understandable!
Fortunately, CocoTutors does not accept these Tutors
CocoTutors has a very stringent and strict process before potential Tutors are approved. We require the following criteria to be met:
1. Minimum A for subjects they would like to teach
2. Tutoring Experience
3, Proven track record
All tutors are required to submit a copy of the academic certificates, and also provide screenshots of feedback from their past students.
Verified credentials and proven track record – effective tutors, guaranteed improvement in results.
Choose a Tutor You Like
Upon filling up the Request Form, we will provide you with a List of Tutor Profiles: containing age, gender, Qualifications, Experience and current job.
From there, you can pick and choose which Tutor you would like to engage!
Considering getting Home Tuition? Start with a Free Tutor Search now!
