Being a Good Tutor

Being a Good Tutor

Tutoring, you think it is the easiest job that you could have. You think so because of the flexibility of time, and the only thing you need to do is be there on time to help students (Tutees) with the subject that they have difficulty understanding, which you obviously have the full knowledge about because you earned an ‘A’ or ‘B’ in earlier semesters. However, all that you were thinking is definitely wrong. The tutees don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

There are many qualities you need to have in order to be a good tutor besides being intelligent. As Clayton College and State University Peer Tutoring Program (CCSU) mentioned in their web site, “Intelligence alone does not result in successful tutoring; more important is what kind of person you are” (Characteristics of a Good Tutor). Also, as CCSU mentioned, the tutor should have a “ Positive outlook, having a desire to help others, liking for the subject matter, open minded by accepting others points of view, having the ability to see what needs to be done and do it, understanding, and having the ability to feel what another person is feeling.”

So what do you need to do when you have an appointment with a tutee for the first time? Besides having all the personal characteristics that I mentioned earlier, you also need to know about the subject that you are going to help the tutee with before going to the appointment. Then you need to review this subject even though you are good at it because you can gather the different ideas on this subject and also analyze the information that you might have forgotten. You need to think after that about how the session with the tutee is going to be, write some notes, and be ready to answer any question your tutee might ask you. Now you are ready to meet the tutee.

When you meet the tutee, the first thing you need to do is to introduce yourself and tell him or her that you are a student, especially if that is his or her first time having a tutor. Try to be friendly in order to help the tutee lose his or her nervousness by asking the tutee how the class is going on. Use the first ten to fifteen minutes to organize, plan, and show the tutee what you are going to talk about in the session.