Question to Tutors/Tutoring Schools: Have you ever rejected a student? (1 Viewer)

davidgoes4wce

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2014
Messages
1,878
Location
Sydney, New South Wales
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Question to tutors out there, have you ever rejected a student because you considered them to be 'not good enough'?

From what I have read of some of the tutoring schools in Sydney, is they have rejected students (or put them in lower classes) because they were deemed not good enough and may harm the reputation of the school. (At the end of the day its all about rankings, statistics , prestige of the company etc)

For me I don't have my choice as a tutor, I think I have learnt accept every one of them as I've come along. I've just recently accepted a student (had about 8 lessons with him so far) who scored 23.75% in his half-yearly exams in General Maths and I sometimes see it as a 'challenge' to be able to bring him to a Band 5 or 6 in the short amount of time. (its a bit different with university level tutoring as you learn to reject the tasks that you can't do or accept the ones you can do)
 
Last edited:

Drongoski

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2009
Messages
4,239
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
I understand what you are talking about, having had more years of tutoring experience than you. I have had many cases of students who have very poor foundation in maths and do not have an aptitude for maths. As not a famous tutor, I am in no position to choose whom I tutor, although I always pray I don't have to have a General Maths student. It is a torture to see your students struggling to cope with simple concepts. Sometimes, for financial constraints reasons, some parents ask: can you do 1-hour (instead of 2)? Well these struggling students are so weak in their maths that you need to spend a lot more time to go over a concept or a question. How can we rush over an explanation with such students?

Sometimes, prospective students want to know how good I am? How did your students perform? I was forced to say the results are mixed. I was often forced to add: "If you have what it takes, I can get you a Band 6 or an E4" - because that reflects a simple fact. If you do not have the potential (you are not bright enough) no tutor can get you a top band result. I expressed this reality as: "Ï cannot turn sow's ear into a silk purse". Why do you think the so-called top coaching centres screen their students? Because by so doing, they greatly increase the percentage of top band students. Most of their students who do well already had the potential to do well. But of course a good tutor or coaching centre can increase the likelihood of such an outcome, i.e. they do add value.

The other reason I have accepted all comers is that if I am approached to help a parent's son or daughter, I feel I have an obligation to accept that request to tutor the child; to not do so, in a sense, is to walk away from one's duty to help. Of course not all parents necessarily see it that way.

I have read many a book on maths education. How poor teaching has let many students down, That may well be the case. But many of these so-called authorities claim that every student can be helped in maths. That everyone can be trained to be good in maths, if done correctly. I don't agree with them. Some people may just not be cut out for maths; their talents may lie elsewhere. I'd like to see them help some of the struggling students with no aptitude for maths. It is easy to make such claims, based on so-called empirical evidence. I beg to differ.
 
Last edited:

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top