What do you look for in a tutor?

[Collin Li]

What makes students (or parents) look for in a tutor?

Is it their past achievements, their friendliness, their looks, or anything else you can think of!?

What makes a student (or parent) hire a tutor?

Is it the number of posts they have on an online VCE forum, word of mouth, or something else?

(I am asking these questions with the intention of getting a feeling for what the initial hypothesis of a study (for university) might be.)

[Flaming_Arrow]

Experience mainly

[dekoyl]

- Past achievements
- Not the number of forum posts, but their content posted. This will likely reflect (after a substantial number of posts) their understanding in a subject.
- Which leads to their ability to communicate their knowledge effectively. So, good communication skills.
- All this could be supported by their past student's results.
- Price. Not going to pay ridiculous amounts of money like some ask for.

[doboman]

You could also add to that:
- Past students' results
- Credible endorsements

[TrueTears]

1. Past achievements.
2. Good notes.
3. Friendly.
4. Direct to the point, never wastes time.
5. Willing to help whenever you need him/her.

[TonyHem]

personally: Advertisements, post-counts, "sounding" experienced doesn't much that much. Might contact those with good advertisements, appear to be "good" tutors but a lot of them (tutors) don't really care about anything than making money. I think people will make a long-term choice based on the first few lessons. ( see if it suitable, can understand them, see if they know their stuff, their attitude towards teaching u and I think most people will look for help outside the tuition hours - proofreading, questions)
probably general: A lot of people look for those with high grades, good study scores, good results ( for those that have recently finished VCE) or for professional tutoring - probably cost and experience.
I mean once again, all that is just what you initially think. You wont stay with that person with the high score if they cant be bothered teaching you properly or if they are incapable of explaining things to you in a way that you can understand.
Parents - they probably are willing to spend a lot more money to get you some better education/tuition because they want you to do well. So they'll probably choose someone who they think is good ( based on experience, qualifications probably) or let their children choose.

[Collin Li]

Does anyone think word of mouth is a good indicator of ability?

In my personal experience, most of my students come by phone call, which means they didn't get me from VCENotes.

[squance]

What makes students (or parents) look for in a tutor?

Is it their past achievements, their friendliness, their looks, or anything else you can think of!?

What makes a student (or parent) hire a tutor?

Is it the number of posts they have on an online VCE forum, word of mouth, or something else?

(I am asking these questions with the intention of getting a feeling for what the initial hypothesis of a study (for university) might be.)

1. Their past achievements
2. Their experience with the subjects for tutoring
3. Word of mouth
4. Popularity
5. Cheapness

[Collin Li]

3. Word of mouth
4. Popularity

Mmm... they certainly are good signals of a tutor's strength aren't they? Did you rank cheapness lower because you don't care how much you'd spend, or is it because cheapness is a negative indicator of a tutor's strength (on average, probably)?

[squance]

3. Word of mouth
4. Popularity

Mmm... they certainly are good signals of a tutor's strength aren't they? Did you rank cheapness lower because you don't care how much you'd spend, or is it because cheapness is a negative indicator of a tutor's strength (on average, probably)?

I don't really care how much I spend...I don't think cheapness has any correlation to how well a tutor is able to teach other students.
BUT
My parents, yes, they do care about how much they spend on a tutor (for my sister). So the cheaper, the better I guess.
OH, and for some reason or another, since my parents are asian, they only allow my sister to get tutored by an asian tutor - They don't trust aussie tutors for some reason.

[Toothpaste]

I'd just like to add -
Accessibility:
Location (easy to get to/they come to you - minimise time loss)
Flexibility (the ability to teach more than one subject, no time restraints, phone/email them for help when needed)

Also learning/understanding a concept or something from the tutor during the first lesson would make the student want to come back for more.

Reputation (reassures they're not going to screw you over)

[zzdfa]

kinda hard for a person with  mediocre study scores (38~44) and no experience to get the ball rolling hey

[doboman]

kinda hard for a person with  mediocre study scores (38~44) and no experience to get the ball rolling hey

I don't beleive a SS of 44 is mediocre. A person who got 44 and a person who got 48, on most occasions, will only be differentiated by 2 or 3 exam marks. But meh, everyone has their one expectations/opinions.

[zzdfa]

yeah, 44 is pretty good but all of my other scores are 38 and that doesn't look very good when there are always 2-3 other applicants with 40+ for everything. maybe i'm wrong, but imo, to a potential student /parent of student, 38 looks a lot worse than 40.

Maybe i'm looking in the wrong place (been looking through the unimelb&monash careers sites for wanted ads). Perhaps I should put up some flyers around my area.

[Collin Li]

45 is where I'd draw the line for balancing diminishing marginal returns versus cost (assuming higher study score tutors demand higher costs - holding all else constant).