Question: Hi, Micki. I have a question about how long is too long for weekly tutoring sessions. I tutor a college student in Chemistry, and he was letting me know about his class schedule this semester. My tutee is carrying a lot of units, and was wondering if we could do a three hour tutoring session once a week instead of our usual three-one hour tutoring sessions. Any thoughts on this tutoring idea?
- Chem Tutor in SC
Answer: Hi Chem Tutor - good question! The short answer to your tutee's question is "no." For weekly tutoring, the three hour session is typically not the best way to go for a variety of reasons: concentration, tutoring burn out, knowledge retention, and test schedule incompatabilities are some of those reasons.
A three hour chemistry class would be bad enough, but having to stay focused and eager to learn during three hours of tutoring is nearly impossible. Plus, having to remember important details and concepts for six days straight could be a problem, particularly during exam time.
My advice would be to sit down with your tutee and try to find three mutually workable days/times for your tutoring meetings. If there is any way that you can fit in three one hour tutoring sessions, or even two 90 minute tutoring sessions, I would definitely do that.
Maybe, to make things easier, you two could meet at the school's library, at a halfway point, on weekends, early mornings, or later at night? Stop back and let us know how things work out for you!
And, as always, happy tutoring!
2 comments:
I think that 3 hours of tutoring is excessive. At Plus Plus Tutoring, we recommend tutoring sessions between 1 and 2 hours long.
Hi Anton,
I couldn't agree more. I also cannot imagine sitting through 3 straight hours of chemistry in one tutoring session-yikes! Glad to hear that your tutoring organization has the right idea for tutoring session time - I bet you have a lot of happy tutees!
~ Micki
Post a Comment