Being a tutor, good idea or not?

llg, PhD, RN · Jul 24, 2008

I did it for a student when I was in grad school -- and I hated it. Though I have to admit, I might not have hated it had I had a student who really wanted to learn and was willing to change her attitude.

This was a student who was struggling. The faculty was losing their patience with her and knew that I informally helped some of the other grad students in some of their classes on an infomal basis for free. They also knew I needed the money. So they suggested the student hire me to tutor her a bit. But in the student's mind ... SHE did not have a problem learning the material. In her mind, SHE was perfect and everybody who didn't agree with her approach or criticized her work was either crazy, stupid, or a racist. She just wanted me to do the work for her so that she could get through the program, and when I tried to get her to do the work, she called me a racist. (She told me that she had hired someone to write her MSN thesis for her and that's why she didn't know how to write a paper or an the answers to essay questions on exams.)

After a very brief time, I cancelled our arrangement.

If you are interested in pursuing it, I would investigate what happens if you get a student with significant problems that prevent you from having a productive, satisfying working relationship. Who would be there to support you? Does the school of support services for tutors? Do you even get any training as to how to tutor? etc. How responsible will you be/feel for the student's performance? How will you be evaluated as a tutor? Who will be supervising you? etc.

mommy2three2 · Jul 24, 2008

I have done it and I loved it. I found it kept me refreshed on courses which I may have had some time lag on since I had them last. In fact, I am considering looking into doing it again to help brush up on my GChem and OChem as well as Math befoere NS starts.

I think it depends on the college you are tutoring at. I have experiences at two, one was a scheduled time slot for everything which was nice because you knew going in what your schedule was like that day as well as what you may have to prep for. They also has desk hours where you were at the front desk and could be asked questions on any subject you were qualified to tutor; however, I found that these hours usually were occupied by some of my students dropping in for a quick question or clarification between weekly sessions. The other place I tutored at only had specific time slots for Advanced classes whereas math classes were all done via drop in and you sat at a table and helped anyone who came along that you were qualified to help with. It was a little more chaotic. \

However, I really enjoyed both experiences and would not trade either for anything :)

ThatPoshGirl · Jul 24, 2008

I'm tutoring math in the fall and I'm looking forward to it. It will be my first time tutoring, but people always ask me to help them in class, so I hope I will be good at it. I'm supposed to do 10 hrs but I am hoping to talk them into giving me a few more hours.

Freedom42 · Jul 24, 2008

I took a 10-hours-a-week teaching assistant's job in anatomy and physiology last fall. I immediately regretted.

Think about it: You're being offered the job because you're a great student. Now think of all those less-than-great papers you'd have to correct. I grew immediately weary of dealing with people who didn't read the assignment, didn't remember the assignment, didn't show up for class, etc. -- yet expected that I would help them get that A and -- best of all -- cram at the last minute for the exam.

I'll never do it again.

Scooter321 · Jul 25, 2008

Thanks for all your input so far, folks. I'm still torn. :confused: I guess a lot depends on how it works at my particular college, so perhaps I'll investigate further. At least now I have an idea of the type of questions I should be asking. Thanks again. :)

boogeysmomRN · Jul 25, 2008

I tutored Micro for a year while finishing up my other pre-reqs. I found it very helpful in remembering all I learned from Micro.

Almost all my students were pre-nursing, so we had a lot in common and lots to discuss, even when the micro stuff was done.

It almost made me want to start teaching but I had little patience to teach the same subject over and over, especially when they didn't really try and just wanted me to tell them all the answers. They all thought, oh I don't really need any micro once I'm in school, I'm all, well even if that were true (which I'm told its not true) you still have to get through this with a decent grade to make it to any program, so let's try a little... most of the time it worked, sometimes it didn't sadly.

Just make sure it doesn't eat too much time into your own studies, but I swear it helped me stay sharp on it all. And it REALY helped me in biochem, go figure... haha and now I'm starting nursing school in a month... yahoo!

Good luck!

CuriousMe · Jul 26, 2008

I tutor computers at the school and tutor computers, biology, chemistry, A&P and micro privately. I'm also a TA for a 100 level Human Biology class.

The tutoring I do at school is drop in tutoring, so basically I'm available for a shift (generally 3-4 hours) and folks come in for help with different projects.

For private tutoring and when I work as a TA, I obviously schedule a time block.

I think the key in both cases is realizing that you're a tutor and not a walking encyclopedia. It's not your job to have the right answer, it's your job to help the student find the right answer. This does a couple of things, firstly, it helps the student to figure out how to find the answers once you're no longer sitting next to them, but it also makes them responsible for their learning, not you!

So, when a question arises (even if you know the answer) start asking them questions about where you both could find that in the book, their notes, what other resources you could find, etc... It's that whole "give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish" kind of concept.

Oh, I love tutoring. It's good money and it is a great way to keep your hands in some of your A&P and Micro while you're waiting to apply to school. It's also just fun helping folks figure out how to do well in their tough subjects.

Peace,

CuriousMe

Little Doe · Jul 26, 2008

I agree with other posters. My A&P I & II professor requested that I be her TA, and I'm planning on doing it to keep everything current in my mind while I wait a whole year for my nursing program to start. I have 15 hours a week however, and I get paid. Which definitely make its worth my time.

HTH

MedicalNerd · Jul 26, 2008

I spent 4 semesters tutoring A&P 1 & 2 while I was waiting for acceptance into Nursing School. I tutored for 2 teachers that I took the class with. I had some semesters that were great and I had a great group of students, some semesters I was down to one student. My college had a program that was developed for group tutoring which I found worked well for me and the students.

I did it because I was afraid that I was not going to retain the information that I had learned. Since my Nursing School accepts on a lotto basis (with over 800 applicants) I knew it could be a while before I was accepted. I am really glad that I did tutor because I feel that I am well vested in the core material that we will need to be successful in NS. One of my good friends that has been applying with me did not keep up on her A&P and feels like she needs a refresher course before she starts NS. She is was not accepted this semester so she is taking my advice and taking Medical Dosage and Medical Terminology this Fall.

Overall I would have to say that the experience will vary for each person. I had a great time, I met some wonderful people and got paid to help others with hard material. I would ask the department how they manage the tutoring program and see if it would be accommodating to your schedule.

Good Luck and I hope that if you choose to help other students, that they give you the same respect back.

pharmgirl · Jul 26, 2008

I tutored A&P I and II last semester. I was also taking AP II at the same time. Tutoring was very beneficial for me as it kept me refreshed, concreted the knowledge and offered me basically study groups AND getting paid for it. When no one was in to see me, I basically spent the time studying what I needed to.

The downside.......was time consuming. I had 16 credit hours plus 17 tutor hours a week. The day of a big test is when everyone decided to come in, it really made me angry that all of these people who hadn't even opened a book the whole time expected me to implant a magical knowledge chip in their brain 30 minutes before the test. We had a saying in the tutor lab "you haven't met stupid until you've tutored". Mean, but true.

My AP professor would give people extra points if they came to see me. The amount of points they got depended on the amount of time they spent with me. Needless to say, I had influxes of people asking to just write their name down and would disappear only to come back 5 minutes before I was due to leave and say ok, we're done now right? Well, their name got taken off the list.

I did have a great bunch of "regulars" and we really helped each other a lot. So it can be very beneficial if you are willing to overlook a lot of annoyances.

Oh and BTW.....just get used to it always being the tutors fault. "the tutor wasn't there when they were supposed to be" "the tutor said this was right" etc.,etc., You are there to help them, not to be the end all and be all to get them passed in the class. They HAVE to do work. Those that don't want to work have to have someone to blame and its usually the tutor or the professor.

AtomicWoman · Jul 26, 2008

I have a suggestion for those of you who tutor to stay current/fresh with the material you've already learned. Answer questions on Yahoo Answers! I do this for Chemistry, Biology and A&P (mostly Chem, though) and it is a *great* way to remember material and to find ways to explain things to other people. You don't get any pay, but if you don't have time to do any question answering for 2 weeks, there's no pressure!

Also, just reading through the answers provided by Top Contributors is a big help remembering material. Yeah, there are a fair amount of idiots who post "answers" like "You should do your own homework", but by and large, I find it a very cool experience.

Here's the Yahoo Answers link:

http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index;_ylt=ArHKeTfrPcYjwRNSPe.PSxsExgt.;_ylv=3?link=list&sid=396545122

That will take you to the Science and Math area. You can click on any subtopic on the left-hand side to go to Q&A dealing with chem, bio, medicine, etc.

P.S. Remember you can also POST questions, too, if you get stuck on a homework problem. The evenings are the most active times, FYI.