Let’s be honest, no one signs up to work with chemistry tutors just for the fun of it. Bored on a Friday evening? Time to log on and do some work on the periodic table. No, the reason you’re working with subject specific A level tutors or GCSE Tutors in your spare time is because you want to achieve something.
What that looks like will vary from student to student; however, it’s important you have ways of tracking your progress to ensure your private lessons with your online physics tutors or online maths tutors are having the desired effect. Here at Tutorspot our tutors work with a huge number of students, and they understand the value of accountability when it comes to planning and delivering lessons. Here are our top tips for helping you know how to track your progress when it comes to online tutoring.
As we’ve already said, you signed up to work with a personal tutor for a reason – there’s something you want to get out of that interaction.
Are you simply looking to improve your general knowledge of a subject? If so, what is your ultimate aim with that? How will you know your knowledge has improved? What will success in this area look like for you or your parents?
Perhaps you’re keen to improve your grade and you’re looking to our online Biology tutors , our online chemistry tutors or physics and maths tutors to help you with that. Checking to see how close you are to achieving that goal is fairly simple as it is a tangible mark you’re aiming for, whether you want to improve by one grade or a couple.
You may simply want to feel more confident when answering specific types of questions within a certain subject. Again, this can be checked periodically by repeatedly working on these styles of questions and seeing how your answers, and confidence in supplying responses, change over time.
There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to what your goal might be – this is purely personal and dependent on why you chose to do tutoring online in the first place. The key though is to ensure that everyone involved knows what that goal is, how to work towards it and how to consistently check against it.
Whilst how you feel about a particular subject or topic may not be as tangible as improvements in marks or grades, it’s still a good indication of progress.
As you work through sessions with your tutor, check back and ask yourself how you’re now feeling about this particular subject. Do you have more confidence? Are you finding that you now know the answer to more questions than you used to? Are you engaging more in class lessons at school? Do you have less trepidation about being set homework on this subject?
Changes to how you answer these questions, compared to how you might have responded before you started working with a tutor, all indicate that progress is being made.
Like every student, every tutor is different, too. How they decide to track your progress as you work together will depend on the subject and their own teaching and recording styles. However, all tutors are likely to spot when your confidence is increasing in a subject and you make progress with your learning.
Teachers live for that “light bulb” moment – that specific time when someone genuinely gets a particular concept or theory they’ve previously struggled with. When it happens, your tutor will always recognise it, and will certainly remember it. They’ll know you’re making progress when those little bulbs go off and they can see you moving on to the next step in the process.
For something more tangible and instantly recognisable when it comes to tracking your progress, many tutors will also set past papers. They may set a particular assessment for you at the start of your working relationship together to get a baseline of where you’re at in terms of your understanding and ability. Such papers and tests can also be a great way of highlighting the key areas that may need work and further attention throughout your sessions.
A few weeks in, they may ask you to retake the paper. This is a great and simple way to compare your progress over a brief period of time, and to demonstrate how far you’ve potentially come already.
Whilst a personal online tutor may be giving you help with a specific subject, it’s important to remember they are not the sole point of contact when it comes to your education. You still attend school or college, and as a result have a dedicated face to face teacher to liaise with in real time.
Talking to your day to day teacher can be a great way to discover what progress has been made since you started working with your tutor. In an ideal world, your teacher should be aware that you’re working with a tutor, and may aready have provided you with some pointers in terms of areas you might want to focus on in order to get the most benefit out of your sessions. However, if your teacher doesn’t know, now would be a good time to tell them.
The chances are, they will have noticed that the quality or depth of your work has improved as you gain a deeper and better understanding of the subject. You may also have grown in confidence, putting your hand up to answer more questions and generally being better able to contribute to class discussions.
If you’re looking to improve in any subjects, whether that be your sciences or maths for GCSE or A Levels, get in touch with us at Tutorspot today. You can use our handy search tool to find tutors who operate online, meaning you don’t have to worry about travel or where the ideal tutor is based.
