Hi guys

Have any of your ever privately tutored students?

I work full time, but I've got plenty of spare time so thinking it could be a nice little extra earner.

I'm looking to tutor GCSE maths. I'm currently a 1st year Mech Eng student but achieved good grades for GCSE and A Level mathematics. I'm also CRB checked.

Any advice about getting into it would be appreciated =]

Cheers

Dom

I looked into doing it through an agency, but the investment required vs only needing to do it for a few months wasn't worth it.

Well i've looked at agencies but they require a minimum of degree holding tutors, plus all the associated fees etc.

I was only thinking of advertising locally or through free directories, hoping to teach around 5 students per week.

Hmmm… solve for x:
2x³ – 5.147x = x²

I did it when I was a postgrad student. It was a case of getting a middle grade student through their A-Level biology exam. It was easy money back then ~ £20 per hour in 1995 😯

Haha very good! Can't say I can do it without a pen and paper in front of me, especially with a non integer coefficient.

That why I would be aiming to tutor GCSE =]

I've never tutored but I took tuition for physics at A level from a PHD student at Durham. It was on a totally informal basis and my dad (lecturer at Durham) found him through one of the college notice boards.

Maybe jsut get in touch with some local schools and see if they're let you post a notice up.

All sounds good so far. Going rate nowadays is £20-25ph for GCSE, but I would be looking at a lower rate reflecting my experience.

Informal sounds like the way to go, it's only a bit on the side for me and don't want to be forking out for advertising.

I did it as well for local people I knew, as a favour. Did Chemistry, Maths and Physics (was studying those at Uni). It was easy, really easy, just a question of following the syllabus. I was embarrassed to be paid for it to be honest, they had insisted on giving me the market rate (about £20ph) and it was more for a few hours a week than I was making working full time on a local farm! I used to meet the students in the pub on Fridays and give them half the money back so they could get drunk if they promised they had done their homework!

I've never been so nervous as I was the night before the exam results came out. I didn't sleep a wink. They all got A's though, power of persuasion through alcohol.

Only thing I would check is what level of CRB clearance you would need for workign with children ont his basis (even in their own homes) and whether you can get that as a private indvidual.

x=0, obviously. I assume you'd have to go the whole hog of depressing it to quadratic form to get the other two but is there a quicker way that I'm missing?

Always hated finding cubic roots, have a vague memory that when it came up in my GCSE I plotted the graph and used brute force and ignorance.

* I think Wolfram Alpha can solve these but that's cheating.

Now that sounds like teaching!!

I thumbed through this years exam paper and it all looked very straightforward, as did the syllabus. Not sure I would have a problem teaching, just getting someone to employ me with minimal experience

I tutored private A level students when I was a post-grad. Because it was a private college they didn't really worry about whether I was qualified or not – they were raking in a boatload from the rich parents.

Bit of biology on a saturday morning @ £20 an hour gave me enough dosh for a decent weekend. The most custy and rewarding job I think I have ever done – most of them were incredibly intelligent Asian kids and on for straight A's and a trip to Medschool. I'm not sure my teaching style was really that important, they would've picked it up anyway.

But the rewards came with the couple that were struggling, it was so great to get that 'lightbulb' moment when they could finally visualise what was going on. 🙂

I think Wolfram Alpha can solve these but that's cheating.

I like cheating 🙂

(Press the "Show Steps" button for proper cheating!)

so if I've done it right that should be

x= 0, -1.3735, 1.8735

Slight edit due to a typo

That Wolfram solution is way more complicated than it need be.

Well thanks for sharing your experiences guys. I'll look into it some more before advertising in the new year hopefully

I have a couple of friends who set up their own agency to do it, but they tutor A level and above students and only employ staff with a PhD in maths! They seem to make a fairly limited amount of cash and have other jobs to supplement also.

I did it when I was young. The only problem is that they need more tuition around their exam times, and guess when your exam times are?