Is Tutoring Worth it? (By a 10+ Years Tutor)

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I feel like this is a video every student and high school parent should see... And it's a topic I'll definitely come back to. For someone who owns a "tutoring" company, I feel I have a pretty good understanding of the market. As someone who lives with my head in the research and my eyes and hands on real experience, I feel like my opinion is well-supported and nuanced.

Your comments fuel me! Please leave comments, suggestions and questions freely below. I'd love to discuss anything I talked about in more depth with you!

If you enjoyed what I had to give or found it valuable, a subscribe would be sincerely appreciated.
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Justin Sung is an ex-junior doctor who is passionate about creating efficient and meaningful change. He believes that a culture of spoon-feeding and tutoring is a societal issue and that most people are not making good career decisions - especially around medicine. He runs two social enterprises in New Zealand: JTT, which advises and supports students around medical entry, and Finding Gravity, which empowers students to take control of their learning, gain confidence around academia and study more efficiently.
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You can send me work, ask me questions and join my Discord with hundreds of other students. 30-day money-back guarantee.

[lawrenceexplains-onlineaca]

The reason that a huge private tutoring exists is because the public and even private education systems vary so wildly in quality that often parents will pay for tuition just so their children can be an on even playing-field with students in a better school. The number of students I see that have had their academic progress curtailed by atrocious teaching, bullying, health-problems, learning difficulties is very significant. In the UK, one-third of students fail their GCSE exams completely. This is creating an underclass of young people who are unable to get access to any further training. The difference between a pass and fail grade in core subjects has very significant life impacts. Even some students who are passing may be required to attain a grade in a subject that is ultimately peripheral to their future studies. For example, engineering and programming courses at University level will require a student to attain a 6 (B) grade at GCSE English even though this will have no bearing on their ability to complete a technical course. I have helped students get through those exams in order for them to go on to do what they are actually good at. Similarly nursing courses require a certain grade in Maths at GCSE. The reality is that nurses will literally never be doing trigonometry in their job - it's just a hoop that they have to jump through - again to get on to the thing they really want to study.

Other students at a more elite level are simply not being stretched enough and benefit from working closely with someone who will scrutinize their work closely and challenge them to achieve a higher standard. This is actually basis of the world-renowned Oxford and Cambridge tutorial system - both offer undergraduate students to meet with a world renowned academic once per week to review a submitted piece of work. It is this level of scrutiny and accountability that pushes already competent students to an even higher level of critical thought and a deeper level of knowledge.

I believe your video focuses on one very niche area of academics - namely undergraduate medicine. While this is not my area, I know that most tutors will expect that at a certain point their tutee has gained enough from the tuition process to no longer require further assistance. This should be the ultimate goal of any teacher or tutor - at a certain point the student has the skills and discipline and no-longer requires assistance.

[letsdomath]

While I do agree that being able to fend for yourself without tutors is a good skill to have, sometimes parents are paying for them out of convenience or desperation.

Where I live, academics are not as high a priority as extracurriculars (at least not compared to other parts of the world), especially sports, so many parents hire me because their children are either expected to do it all for college admissions or because their kids' hobbies and passions are more important to them and have nothing to do with what they are learning in school. Personally, I find it a bit shortsighted as most do not continue to play sports once they go to university, but swimming, soccer, football, hockey, and even marching band are very popular in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the US. Students often miss a few days if they have competitions out of town, so they want to quickly pick up what they missed. Likewise, many parents didn't really have fond memories of school learning themselves, so they just want their son or daughter to get their work done and pass the class. If their grades improve significantly over a short period of time, that's a cherry on top.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have worked with several students with varying degrees of ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and autism. For them, homework and test prep are often dreaded chores. They may need to cycle between different medications just to focus during their regular class periods (I would prefer the meditation route myself if I had had to face those challenges, but I am very biased), so when we meet, they are coming off the effects of those drugs or switching to the milder version of their prescription for the evening. Similarly, I have worked with students who developed epilepsy, migraines, idiopathic hypersomnia, anxiety disorders, major depression, narcolepsy, and Crohn's disease who have had to miss several live classes or had to take extensions on assignments and exams because they had flareups. I also have had students who suffered concussions during play rehearsals or basketball/soccer/hockey practice and need help catching up as soon as they have recovered. With the weird hybrid protocols in between pandemic lockdowns, several students have had trouble adjusting to the toggle between online classes one week and in-person classes the next and back again. In all of these cases, parents are grateful that their children are able to stay on track to graduate on time and not bomb/flunk the semester.

[paulmulenga]

Justin, you have talked about something I have always intuitively believed as true. Especially at university, tutoring is an indirect admission that one has not developed the learning skills necessary. Great content!

[craigfowler]

Quite simply tutoring helps those students who want to learn.

An effective tutor will realise what ability a student is capable of, the idea is to maximise their ability.

definitely man, lots of students and parents are misled in believing that tutoring solves everything

[tambu]

I pay $375 dollars per month only Saturday and Sunday classes are 6 hours long is it worth it

[GarrettH]

I've been doing math for 12+hours a day because I'm terrible at algebra.

[Satyaprakash__]

We can't get tutoring at every stage ..and we have to decrease the external dependency and work ways to get things ourselves

[allthingseducation]

Tutoring should be short term to achieve a specific result and get the student to the point he or she can learn on their own. I tutor and it should be for no more than a year per student.

[jfox]

It boils into money from Schools, not paying enough for their teachers, to really handle the proper education materials and the time [ arent teachers humans too ? ]

In Singapore, its almost near nay impossible to have a life outside a teaching career, due to the anxious and obnoxious KPI [ Key Profit/Point/ Positive / whatever nonsense Indicator ] placed by NON-teaching staffs e.g the principle and the boards.

i doubt many of the 1st world and to the 2nd world countries would be any diffferent, but in Asian, its really break-neck competitive,

back to the topic, about paying, the Tutoring is worth, only if the parents are aware what the kids are lacking,

and like most bluecollar folks, honest down to earth, they are clueless on [ Learning how to learn ] and that complicates things, with some, some tutors with LOTS of " testimonials" putting up insane profits, when ironically, its just few simple tweaks to get the kid to [ pass and ace ]


it is still relevant more so, now, for this video, as im sure alot of my gen, are parents and are equally worried about the upraising difficulty of the education,

just my 2cents worth from re-watching this video to accumulate more from justin's channel, for free, which is more than 80% worth from any other platforms or reading materials [ apart from Jim Kwik, Benjamin Keep, etc ]


random i know, but thought it might help anyone who just googled and are in desperate need to understand how their kids are behaving,


ps. from Dr Huberman, your kids arent ADHD, mostly, just motorfine tuning, which needs to b taught gradually it seems, as their nerves are just exponentially
growing, causing spikes in neurons [ my own interpretation from his video ]

[amardeep]

You’re just trying to promote your own business lmao cut the crap bro u ain’t no actual tutor