How useful is tuition?
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How useful is tuition?
Please dont post in the names of your tutors/tutoring company as this breaks forum policy. Rather, I'm interested in feedback from parents on how useful their tuition eventually was for the sc. How often did you have tuition. One 2 one/group. Did you do mock tests? How did they compare to the actual CSSE/CEM exam? How did your scores/positions correlate with actual score achieved. Why did you use tutors? Does the system favour those who provide tuition to their kids, and does it vary from tutor to tutor. Has anyone performed iq tests and tried correlating this or sats scores to CSSE/CEM results?
CSSE sell past papers. Are those who have not bought these disadvantaged?
CSSE sell past papers. Are those who have not bought these disadvantaged?
Re: How useful is tuition?
It can vary so much from family to family and child to child.
I would say the CSSE is very specific and quite challenging so some type of tutoring is needed.
This could be tutoring yourself if you have the time and it's something that would work for you.Choosing 1:1 is really a decision based on the personality of your child.
Also another consideration is are you trying to get your child in , at all costs. What I mean by that are you willing to have 3 tutors, work hours a day and do multiple mocks. Another option may be work a few hour a week with your child or a tutor and see what happens. Of course there are all the variations in between.
In the end I think you need to decide what you and your child want from this whole process.
I would say the CSSE is very specific and quite challenging so some type of tutoring is needed.
This could be tutoring yourself if you have the time and it's something that would work for you.Choosing 1:1 is really a decision based on the personality of your child.
Also another consideration is are you trying to get your child in , at all costs. What I mean by that are you willing to have 3 tutors, work hours a day and do multiple mocks. Another option may be work a few hour a week with your child or a tutor and see what happens. Of course there are all the variations in between.
In the end I think you need to decide what you and your child want from this whole process.
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Leighmum2019
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Re: How useful is tuition?
This is a tricky one- my DD attended group tutoring (classes of 4) and achieved entry to WHSG in 2019. It’s impossible to know if she’d have achieved the same without the tutor. I’m fairly confident that she wouldn’t have achieved better without a tutor or with a 1/1 support- she thrives on competition.
My rationale was that you don’t know what you don’t know and if you can afford tutoring why wouldn’t you use that option? Perhaps if she hadn’t passed I’d have felt differently but again, we’ll never know!
My rationale was that you don’t know what you don’t know and if you can afford tutoring why wouldn’t you use that option? Perhaps if she hadn’t passed I’d have felt differently but again, we’ll never know!
Re: How useful is tuition?
It depends on you, your circumstances and your child!
As background info, I was a primary school teacher for over 25 years until I retired and a maths/science graduate The last 15 years of my career were focussed around intervention teaching- finding the sticking points to learning, designing tuition to overcome this etc
I was also an 11+ tutor for a few years when I couldn’t work in school after a neck injury.
A good tutor will tailor lessons to your child, analyse their strengths and weaknesses and help them become an independent learner (as will any good teacher). However, you can do this yourself.
Some children love learning with their parents, you can play games, quizzes and even do practice papers together or as a challenge.
Having said that, I was awful teaching my own children!
My son wouldn’t believe me when I helped him with his science homework and was amazed when his teacher told him mum was right.
As background info, I was a primary school teacher for over 25 years until I retired and a maths/science graduate The last 15 years of my career were focussed around intervention teaching- finding the sticking points to learning, designing tuition to overcome this etc
I was also an 11+ tutor for a few years when I couldn’t work in school after a neck injury.
A good tutor will tailor lessons to your child, analyse their strengths and weaknesses and help them become an independent learner (as will any good teacher). However, you can do this yourself.
Some children love learning with their parents, you can play games, quizzes and even do practice papers together or as a challenge.
Having said that, I was awful teaching my own children!
My son wouldn’t believe me when I helped him with his science homework and was amazed when his teacher told him mum was right.
Re: How useful is tuition?
thanks for all the replys. Someone mentioned using multiple tutors/getting in at all cost. Would using multiple tutors not be counter productive? And is it even possible to get someone in just by tutoring. Surely some minimum potential/ability is required. Tutoring helps for sure. In the end, i self tutored as I didnt think the tutors that I used offered any more than what i could do, plus I was only paying tutor 1 hour/week worth, and theres only so much you can teach in such a short time. I have a another child who will be of age in a few years, and i'm trying to grasp or quantify how much, i.e how many extra marks, my dcs gained as a result, and whether someone else could have done it better.
A lot of tutors take on kids that they think will likely pass. Some do assessments and tell you whether they are likely to pass, and if its not the answer you are looking for, you'll go elsewhere. Others sell long term packages where you cannot tell whether it will be fruitful or not unless you actually see it out.
What i have gathered is that 'school work' alone puts you at a disadvantage because most if not all that get in to the grammers have had some tuition. And the CSSE test does cover more than what my dcs learned at school by start of year 6.
For those that did use tutors, how can you tell that the tuition mad a significant difference. Or can you not know this, and just judge by how well your child did in the exam.
A lot of tutors take on kids that they think will likely pass. Some do assessments and tell you whether they are likely to pass, and if its not the answer you are looking for, you'll go elsewhere. Others sell long term packages where you cannot tell whether it will be fruitful or not unless you actually see it out.
What i have gathered is that 'school work' alone puts you at a disadvantage because most if not all that get in to the grammers have had some tuition. And the CSSE test does cover more than what my dcs learned at school by start of year 6.
For those that did use tutors, how can you tell that the tuition mad a significant difference. Or can you not know this, and just judge by how well your child did in the exam.
