The ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW Guide to selecting the best Mathematics Tuition programme
Note: This blogpost is written to help parents make a better decision. For most of the article, it will involve no marketing / promoting so that parents can make an unbiased, informed decision based on the needs and requirements of their child.
February marks an important point of the academic year for many parents. A few weeks after settling their children into a new level or school is a good time to step back and reflect on a child’s progress before exam season comes up. Many parents start looking for a Primary or Secondary Mathematics tutor or a PSLE or ‘O’ Level tuition programme at this juncture. To save your time researching, here are some common searches on Google which this article will attempt to address:
“What is the best Mathematics tuition in Singapore?”
“How to decide on a Mathematics tuition centre / Mathematics tutor?”
“Should I hire a private Mathematics tutor OR take Mathematics group classes?”
The Primary School Leaving Examination is considered to be a critical examination for most Singaporean parents and students as it is the first major, national examination in one’s life. The ‘O’ Level examinations are also another important checkpoint in a student’s life - it determines one’s pre-university pathway, whether junior college, polytechnic or other educational institutes. Despite the government actively placing less emphasis on grades, results do matter at the end of the day.
Excelling at these examinations is possible, but tedious or difficult. Many students take Mathematics tuition given that it is a prerequisite subject for many courses, but given the number of Mathematics tuition centres out there, deciding on an option may be difficult! The following are 10 points to consider before making a decision.
1. Tutor Qualifications
The PSLE and ‘O’ Level Mathematics curriculum is rigorous. A tutor will need to be competent to dissect and help students understand concepts which can be at times quite abstract and also teach skills specific to the different types of questions. Hence, what is the level of qualification that a tutor should have?
MOE requires all Private Schools (tuition centres) to register all teachers under their employ. Approval is required. In general, approval is only granted if the teacher has a higher qualification than the subject-level that they are proposing to teach in, and the qualification must be in a related field. Thus, the minimum qualifications one should accept for a tutor / tuition programme should not be lower than what is expected of school teachers and tuition teachers approved by MOE to teach at a private school / tuition centre.
There are many undergraduate tutors offering private 1-1 Mathematics tuition and the market rate is around $25/hour. These don’t meet the MOE standards for registering as a tutor at a tuition centre nor better than school teachers in terms of qualifications. While qualifications and the ability to teach are not necessarily the same thing (there are undergraduate tutors who can possibly teach well), it is important to remember that they may not be really able to competently understand or deliver the curriculum well. Instead of hiring a private tutor for $25/hour, consider topping up to take group classes from a qualified Mathematics tutor teaching an established Mathematics tuition programme.
2. Tutor Experience
The phrase “practice makes perfect'' is usually true, and it can be applied to tutors as well. Parents would usually want to hire someone with years of experience in tutoring Mathematics because he/she would have taught many students, understand different student profile types and how to best reach out/deliver concepts to them. He/she would have also tried/done/taught enough exam questions over the course of many years to many students that breaking down exam questions and helping students understand the techniques behind dealing with specific questions become effortless.
3. Tutor Charisma
Tutor charisma is important because teaching is a lot also like a ‘performance’. Tutors need to keep students sufficiently engaged throughout a 1.5-2hour lesson. A charismatic tutor is also able to motivate students to do better, be interested in the subject which leads to potentially better outcomes.
However, it is also important to acknowledge that tutor charisma is not necessarily positively correlated with student performance at the final examinations. In a hypothetical example - Students of Tutor A who is extremely popular and passionate about teaching and well loved by his students, consistently did poorly compared to students of Tutor B who taught the subject in a methodical way but her students consistently did well for the subject over the years.
Hence, while tutor charisma is important, it cannot be the only sole plus point of the tutor - otherwise the students may grow to love the subject, but flunk the exams.
4. Programme Structure
Ideally, a tutor should be walking into the classroom conducting the day’s lesson which adheres to a well-planned, carefully designed curriculum, instead of just ‘winging’ it and teaching whatever pleases him/her whims or fancies for the day. Given that tuition is usually just once a week, a well-planned full year curriculum is essential in ensuring that everything - including concepts, exercises and exam strategies - is covered in a balanced manner within each term.
Another point to note is that most tuition centres offering multiple subjects and across multiple levels usually do not have a full fledged in-house curriculum planning department. What they will likely do is just simply hire a part-time Mathematics tutor (usually an undergraduate or a tutor doing private home tuition) paid by the hour. These tutors then decide what to teach on a weekly basis without a specific structure set by the centre.
Before sitting for the final examinations, students should have covered all the key concepts and be exposed to as many exam questions types as possible. A rigorous, well-planned programme should have all these ‘checked’.
5. Materials (Quality & Comprehensiveness)
While schools do make use of textbooks during lessons, not all concepts are emphasised or drilled sufficiently given the context of large class sizes. Tuition centres too, should likely offer notes and materials used in conjunction with their lessons. For notes - look out for quality as opposed to quantity. Having differentiated learning materials would help students to quickly recall concepts as well as work on areas that they are weak in easily.
Do request to take a look at the notes/materials used during lessons and see if adequate explanations and practises are provided. If the notes end up being largely ‘theoretical’ or ‘wordy’, they would probably be of little value or interest to students. Also check that the centre actually produces its own notes/materials as opposed to just ‘using existing school notes/ripping off textbooks and school materials because this is also a sign that they don’t actually have a proper programme.
6. Results (actual vs what is claimed)
Tuition centres all around Singapore report pretty incredible statistics such as 90% ‘A’ or Distinction rates or even 100% which is impossible given that even top schools do not produce such results.
It can be said that most statistics are either blatantly false or somewhat manipulated. Some centres only call up students who have done well in internal assessments to ask them for their PSLE or ‘O’ Level results so that their ‘results’ are untainted, which is just being manipulative.
Thus, most statistics could and should be ignored because they probably are untrue and there is no proper way of verifying them.
7. Reviews (are they real?)
There are many articles online explaining how fake Google reviews are affecting proper businesses. There are unethical businesses out there that write fake negative reviews on competitors’ sites or write fake positive reviews for their own sites. Businesses which ‘suddenly’ gain a number of reviews within a couple of years may appear suspicious, and one can verify such reviews by observing the following:
There’s a certain level of consistency when it comes to names of their reviewers. All their reviewers seem to have very nice / standard template names.
They have a consistent writing style - they write in similar formats
Thus, be wary of reviews that seem like a templated response or do not sound authentic!
8. Additional Support
Check that the centre/tutor provides additional support. Additional support can come in the form of recorded video lessons, supplementary lessons, ability to consult tutors for additional questions, grading/homework. Some tutors charge for grading papers. Some tutors charge for additional consultations.
9. Advertising
Some tuition centres may also put up advertisements claiming that classes for certain subjects at tuition centres are already full or that you would have to be put on a waitlist - there are centres out there using such ‘fear-mongering’ tactics. It is possible that they are full-house and you really have to be on a waitlist. But these probabilities are low and unlikely.
Again, most advertising could and should be ignored because they serve a marketing purpose.
10. Private 1-1 Tuition or Group Tuition
A competent tutor would likely be able to conduct private 1-1 tuition OR group tuition effectively. What are the arguments for picking one over the other?
Private 1-1 tuition is useful if the student is motivated, disciplined to do a lot of self-revision on his/her own. Through such self-revision, the student then ideally comes up with a list of questions and queries that he/she cannot answer. The following step will usually be to go and consult his/her school teacher. Some students are shy to approach their school teachers or the school teachers may be too stretched or do not have the time. In such cases, private 1-1 tuition can be quite useful.
Group tuition, when taught by a strong / competent teacher is useful because each lesson is supposed to be structured with clear learning objectives. Thus, a student will walk out from each session a little more ready to tackle the final examinations.
For 1-1 tuition, although a student may get more attention, it may not necessarily be as beneficial as group classes as the students who would usually benefit from such classes are students who have ready questions to ask. Group classes taught by top Mathematics tutors may be more beneficial for a large majority of the population.
Conclusion
Take a comprehensive approach towards selecting a tuition programme - and that applies actually to any subject / level. Examine all of the above factors and do a comparison across different centres.
You can find out more about GPA’s Mathematics tuition programme here.