Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  • What are your rates?
    $60 per hour for an individual student. Inquire about rates for small groups.
     
  • What subjects do you tutor?
    Math from Pre-algebra through Calculus III — see the list on the Subjects page. If you're interested in something not listed, please inquire. 
     
  • What type of students do you tutor?
    Motivated students from middle school on. Students need to be ready to follow through and practice daily on their own. I explain concepts and show you how to learn; you coach yourself through the repetitions needed to master the material. If you're a parent working with a younger child, I'll be happy to help you understand the material and how to teach it. 
     
  • Do I need a graphics tablet for doing online tutoring?
    Yes. The alternatives — mouse writing and typing — are slow, awkward, and not as conducive to learning. Research indicates that students learn better when they write naturally, as you do with a pen-style input device. You want your focus during a tutoring session to be on math content, not on the mechanics of getting the symbols onto the whiteboard!
     
    As of July 2020, Amazon had dozens of models rated 4 stars or better in the $30-$60 range. Huion, Wacom, and XP-Pen are popular brands. If you have a larger budget and other uses for your tablet, you might want to consider getting a pen display or tablet computer.
     
  • How does online tutoring work?
    You and I meet at my online classroom. We talk via voice chat (or phone, if necessary). We both write on the digital whiteboard, using the mouse or a digital pen. We see each other's work in real time, and we can each save the "screens" we create together, just as you'd save the pages we'd create if we were tutoring face-to-face. My online classroom allows us to share files with each other, so I can give you handouts I've created, and you can send me scans of tests or homework you want me to review with you. We can even look at websites together. 
     
  • What are the benefits of your online tutoring service?
    Numerous! 
    • You know who I am and what my credentials and experience are — they're posted on the About Me page. I am very highly qualified in Math and have years of teaching and tutoring experience at various levels.
    • You'll work with me every time, not a different person picked randomly from a tutor pool.
    • We'll get to know each other, and I will get to know your style and strengths and weaknesses. That will help me work with you most efficiently.
    • We'll talk to each other in real time — you won't need to submit questions by email and wait for responses.
    • Working online means there's no travel time and you can "come as you are" to our sessions — this is a huge time saver for busy families.
    • Safety! No danger of spreading COVID-19.
       
  • How does your online tutoring compare to face-to-face tutoring?
    Online tutoring can supply almost every advantage of face-to-face tutoring, except sharing cookies from the same plate! Online tutoring can, but typically doesn't, use a webcam, so we don't see each other's body language and make eye contact. But I find that voice chat is usually enough to convey nonverbal cues, and your visual attention is better directed at the shared whiteboard than at my face. Through file-sharing and ebooks online, we can literally be "on the same page," looking at the same material, whenever we want. The huge benefit to online tutoring is the efficiency and time savings. You don't have to meet the tutor somewhere, so there's no commute in potentially lousy weather, no meeting room to book, no need for a babysitter for little kids you can't bring to the tutoring location. You don't have to pay the tutor a separate travel fee to come to your home, and you don't have to clear the dining table to make a place to work. You don't even have to be showered or dressed decently. Just crank up your computer, plug in the mic or pick up the phone, and start. At the end of the session, save the whiteboard screens to a folder on your desktop, and you have a complete written record of what we did together.
     

 

Watch this page for additions to the list. Feel free to email suggestions through the Contact page.