The BIGGEST mistake tutors make in the first lesson

👇 MORE of how I can help:

✨ S O C I A L S
I give even more tutoring tips and advice on TikTok and Instagram: @imlisatran

✨ A B O U T M E
👋 Hi! A few of you are new here so I thought I'd introduce myself ☺️

I'm Lisa (hehe). I'm in my early 30s, though I'm often told I look like I'm in my young 20s (and I never get sick of hearing this 😂).

I started tutoring English when I was 19, just after high school. Who knew that I'd still be in the tutoring business TWELVE+ years later? *mind blown*

Tutoring was SO incredibly rewarding and fulfilling that I moved into it full-time when I was 24. I fell in love with tutoring so much that I ended up quitting my career as a pharmacist after only 11 months on the job. Skip ahead to 3 months later, I was fully booked out and was already rejecting new students who had been referred to me.

I felt so bad for saying 'no' that I ended up hiring my first tutor. Within 6 months, my team had grown to 5 tutors, and within a couple of years, I had 50+ tutors on my team!

It's been a rollercoaster of a journey. I've been awarded Anthill 30under30, Victorian Younger Achievers Finalist, spoken at TEDx, and been blessed with so much more.

Not going to lie, business is HARD. That's why I want to share my learnings and experiences with you, because I wish I had a tutor mentor who could accelerate my path to success, rather than struggling through all the mistakes I made during my journey. Lisa's Study Guides, my tuition and study guide business has made 1 million+ over the last 2 years, and I've just started my second business, Tutorboss, helping tutoring business owners build and scale their businesses.

✨ N E X T S T E P S

[tokisuno]

watching this 3 hours before i tutor my first student LMFAO.

[safwankhan]

Summary :
1. You don't have to be the know it all in the room
2. Don't dump too much info right away, wait for student to actually understand
3. Don't bombard them with knowledge, support them

[jeffcui]

This is very good advice. Info dump is not the way to go during the first session. I had to learn this the hard way after seeing students' eyes glaze over.

[chizdawan]

I just started tutoring. In my experience when I came to my first student, I was already thinking of dropping it because I was already intimidated by the idea of tutoring. But when we started out, I focus more on his habits and my habits and just get to know him better and also presented him perspectives on how to get things by. It was not that difficult as I thought it would be. Maybe some tutors trying to dump all their knowledge to their student because they thought that is their purpose but connection and empathy is I think what is more important.

[leannawalrond]

Don't just dump info on them, get to know them etc. Talk about their interests and hobbies.

[thandosilinda]

I’m tutoring my first student tomorrow and it’s online- thank you for all the useful info

[computiepie]

im gonna tutor officially for the first time in my life after 4days so yeah your advice actually hit my brain thank

[mkbestmaan]

agree. tutoring sessions are indeed a form of positive psychology. we are also peer friends.

[bisolaazeezat]

Just about to start tutoring and seeing thus
Thanks

[thatothergeek]

I see lots of people asking for more information and not as many people answering. I'm starting official tutoring soon, but I have been a personal tutor before and I've taught in a classroom.

When you're struggling in a class and the teacher sits down and works with you individually, that's tutoring. When that experience is outside the classroom, you have to build your teacher-student relationship IN the session, the timeframe is way shorter. If you l like teachers who are impersonal and objective, you can be that way. If you like teachers who share a little bit about their lives, you should do that, instead. I personally prefer the latter, because it encourages the student to open up to you.

Your student should feel safe and comfortable with you so they can MAKE MISTAKES. That's the goal. If they're afraid of making mistakes, they're going to be afraid of performing in front of you. Performing math, literary analysis, coding, whatever. The student should understand you are there to HELP and SUPPORT them to success, no matter what. You're not going to judge them. You're not going to make them feel self conscious or left behind, because when YOU teach/tutor them, you CAN'T leave them behind! It's your job to shore up any gaps in their knowledge! To learn is to grow, and growing is scary and painful at times. You should make your students feel safe.

Info dumping - IT DEPENDS!! I've taught a student with autism, and he was labeled 'gifted in math', and he WAS. He is so smart. But because of how his brain works, he likes to know every little detail of how the math works, so I info dump on him because that helps his understanding.

Sometimes I info dump on myself, if the students seem interested. Such as places I've lived or my time in the military. You are an example of an adult to your students. You can show them that a variety of adults exist by being yourself.

[mnotrina]

watching this while contemplating if i should accept my first ever tutoring job

[strawbr_]

I just tutored my first student... I promptly realized I need help lmfao 😭

[UziDoorman]

so, normal conversation then use those as analogies and reasoning of learning in perspective?

[joshualiu]

During my days, I had 4 hours tutoring.

[Hanyunaa]

IM TUTORING IN LESS THAN 12 HOURS AND IM TERRIFIED

[werdacommunityprojectproje]

Hello I will start tutoring two kids from next month. Any advice what to concentrate on for the UK primary level. I have to tutor basic English for six months. Any 6 months plan you can recommend

[Kuttu_badmosh]

Can a class 9 student be a tutor??
I really need some opinion regarding this

[jayyshahh]

Watching this 5 minutes before I start tutoring for the first time😅

[catherinecollins]

Tldr; You need to be an expert. Don't Knowledge dump. Build a relationship.

[kurapika]

Tutoring someone next week most likely