5 Things Tuition Agencies Don’t Want You to Know!

Worried and contemplating which Tuition Agency to choose between the many that exists?

We all want the best Tutors for our Child.

Bad home tutors will decrease your Child’s ability to perform better in examinations; or worse, teach wrong concepts and methods, confusing your Child instead.

Here are some of the harmful/bad practices that some tuition agencies in Singapore use:

1. Tutors are Not Qualified/Underqualified

Some agencies have no criteria/weak screening process to verify tutor’s credentials, in order to have an inflated tutor base number.

These “qualified” home tutors are unable to deliver quality home tuition – teaching wrong concepts, not up-to date with syllabus.

For CocoTutors, a rigorous selection criteria is set in place for potential tutors, based on:

– Academic Qualifications (Grades)
– Tutoring Experience

Our requirement of tutors having a minimum of an A for subjects they would like to teach is because we believe of setting an example for students.

If the teacher did not get a Distinction themself, how can he/she guarantee a Distinction for your child?

Registered Tutors have verified credentials as we require submissions for academic result certificates, and testimonials from past students – eliminating tutors with faked credentials.

However for some tuition agencies, it is optional to submit their documents; who knows the next home tutor you will get!

2. Tutors are Not Competent

Some registered tutors in other home tuition agencies have great and verified credentials, but they may not be good at teaching.

Tuition agencies do not have any mechanism to filter out these “bad” tutors, hence the chances of your Child getting tuition from these tutors are higher. (See: 4 Types of Tutors to Avoid)

At CocoTutors, tutors are regularly graded by tutees by 5-star points system after 1 month of tuition.

The 5-star points system is based on 3 criteria: Preparation, Content, Delivery, and also an overall rating.

Tutors who consistently fail to obtain a minimum of 4 stars will be filtered out, hence we only provide the Best of the best for you. (See: How to Find the Perfect Tutor)

Quarterly reviews (Mar, June, Sept, Dec) are conducted on our tutors, to ensure they are capable of providing excellent tuition standards – reviewing comments on tutor’s performance, rating on points system.

Unsuitable tutors are removed from our database.

3. Pushing for More Pricey Tutor

Tuition agents may recommend Full-time Tutors or Ex-MOE School teachers, in order to milk more commission fees out of you. (See: market tuition rates, 2019)

We believe that only subject specialists are needed for students that are really struggling.

Otherwise, University undergraduates would be fine to help out with school work and revision. (See: Part-time Tutors/Full-time Tutors or MOE teachers?)

4. Hidden Costs/Agent Fees

For some tuition agencies, their business models include charging hidden fees that are not explicitly stated.

For free services such as Change in Tutors, and Cancellation of Tuition, some agents penalise you after everything is confirmed in black and white in the contract.

Additional fees on top of the expensive tuition fees, certainly brings a bad taste to the tongue – especially when you have no clue.

At CocoTutors, we offer these Value-added Services for free: Change in Tutors, Cancellation of tuition, Trial Lessons available, No Commitment Period, No Contract, No Agent/Hidden Fees, Pay only when Completed. (See: How to Request for Tutors)

5. Results May Not Necessarily Improve

Home tuition may not improve your Child’s grades as much as you would like, as it also depends on your Child’s motivation to study on their own.

With just one lesson a week, some Parents may think that it is enough to improve their grades, but it is largely dependent on how the student puts those extra knowledge and skills to good use. (See: How to Find the Perfect Tutor)

Think of which student would do better:

1. One who only studies during tuition;
2. Other who learns during tuition lessons, and constantly drills past-year papers

At the end of the day, it is about who practices constantly.

If you have done similar types of questions before, you are more likely to be able to answer the question correctly, and with precision (keywords and key concepts).

Hence, it is about whether you are hardworking or not. (See: How taking Combined Science Almost Ruined my Future)

Considering getting Home Tuition? Start with Free Tutor Search now!

Find a Home Tutor near You now!

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Miriam

Miriam is part of the team that operates CocoTutors: #1 Home Tuition Agency in Singapore. We connect Parents and students to Tutors, via our tuition-matching system. You can try out our services at (www.cocotutors.com/) or by calling +65 9177 9055 directly.