Getting the Most Out of Your Tutoring Session

A tutoring session is often only as valuable as what you bring to it. I find that the majority of the session and its impact are determined by these factors: preparation, being an active participant in the session, and how you react after the session ends.

Having a Plan
Coming to the session without a plan and just saying you do not understand anything is not necessarily bad, but it wastes critical moments early in the session where your tutor could actually be spending time helping you with weaker areas. Just a few minutes before you get to the session can go a long way in maximising output. Bringing specific material, reviewing the work that was covered last time and bringing marked work are all great ways to kick off the session positively.

During the Session
Active listening during a session is absolutely critical. Not only listening, but then asking follow-up/clarifying questions can be extremely beneficial for a student's growth. It is vital that the student acknowledges when they are lost/need direction immediately. By just nodding to something you do not understand, it delays the problem rather than leading to action and the tutor re-explaining to help get on top of the issue. Attempting the problems by yourself and taking your own notes are also very key things in terms of absorbing and understanding content.

After the Session
Real improvement and growth are unlocked by what is done after the session. Within a day of the session, completing the hardest question/problem/task unaided is monumental in mastering a topic. If you can do this without help, then you know you actually understand the content. If you can not, it provides useful information for next session. Doing the practice that is recommended by your tutor is also imperative to ensure you retain everything covered during the session. This ensures that you are not working backwards when you go into the next session.

Overall, tutoring is a partnership, where both parties need to hold up their ends to ensure the student gets the most out of it in the long run.