4 Reasons to Start Tutoring--Before You Need It

Whether you're at the market or checking your email, back-to-school reminders are all around us at this point in the summer. You've probably started on your checklist to get your child ready for the new semester--notebooks, highlighters, flashcards, and a host of other odds and ends.

With a fresh start on the horizon, tutoring might be the furthest thing from your mind. But at the AAC, we believe in a proactive approach to learning. To help your child succeed, tutoring can be a powerful tool to leverage--before there's an obvious need for it.

Here's why you might want to move tutoring to the top of your back-to-school checklist:

Reason #1: Tutoring Helps Your Student Learn New Material From Square One--Without Having to Unlearn It

A new semester means a fresh start for your student. In some cases, material from the previous semester will be up for review; in other cases, you'll start with new material immediately. Either way, your child has a clean slate on which to write their success story.

But with this new opportunity, there is also the potential for misunderstanding. Each piece of knowledge is like a building block--so if your student doesn't grasp a certain block, their entire academic structure suffers. If a child struggles to understand fractions, for example, they have a serious weak spot in their mathematical foundation. This weak spot will cause trouble as they continue on their academic journey.

Although remedial tutoring is a powerful tool, we often have to help students unlearn any misconceptions before they can properly master a concept. Even after they have re-learned a concept, we see students at times fall back into their incorrect patterns out of habit. This can be a great source of frustration for a child.

But with proactive tutoring, we can help a student understand a concept right from the start. A student can bring in their homework, or we can have one of our experts go through a subject with them from a fresh perspective. By mastering concepts from square one, your child avoids confusion--which means a greater chance for lasting success and a stronger academic foundation.

Reason #2: Help Your Child See Tutoring as a Tool--Not a Punishment

We know you have the best intentions when you bring your child to the AAC--but your child might not think so! Often students feel as if they are being "punished" when they have to go to after-school tutoring: Because they're not doing well in a class, they "lose" their free time and have to do even more schooling.

Obviously, tutoring isn't a punishment! It's an invaluable tool, one that people of any age can use to get ahead in many different areas. By building tutoring into your child's routine before they start to fall behind, you can help them to see tutoring in a different light: Tutoring becomes a chance to get a jump on homework, review for upcoming tests, work on big projects, and otherwise flex educational muscles.

When tutoring is no longer linked solely to poor grades, you'll be amazed at how much your student will look forward to their time at AAC!

Reason #3: Build Confidence and Consistency

When a student is confident in their abilities and knowledge, they do better in a classroom environment. Higher test scores, on-time assignments, a brighter attitude--these are just a few side effects you might notice as your student's confidence grows.

Regular tutoring can make a world of difference in this particular area. Our SAT/ACT specialist Michael Floretta sees this with the high school students he tutors in math: "I see a major gap between students who come in once or twice a week throughout the year and the students who come only once before each test (about once every three weeks or so). The students who come consistently to tutoring have a lot more confidence in the material and need only a little review before each test. The students who don't come consistently generally need a lot more review, and we're only able to cover a fraction of the material that they're going to be tested on."

At AAC, we believe that regular tutoring can help students foster consistency in all aspects of their academic life. When we get to work with a child on a regular basis rather than a purely remedial one, we have a chance to impart study skills like proper time management, homework organization, note taking, etc. A student who comes in once or twice a week begins to build these skills into their school routine on a daily basis, which causes a ripple effect that leads to consistent, measurable success. This success in turn boosts their confidence, leading to a positive cycle rather than a negative one.

Reason #4: Get the Big Picture of Your Child's Abilities Instead of Focusing on a Single Problem

When the need for remedial tutoring arises, a single problem can suddenly seem like the focus of your entire world. A child who is excelling in all but one area will often fee like they are "failing," despite the fact that they are ahead of the curve in the vast majority of their classes.

At AAC, we are able to give your student one-on-one attention and access professional tools that allow us to see the whole picture--which means we can see the strengths as well as the weaknesses. With a proactive approach to tutoring, our multi-subject assessments can pinpoint the standards a student is struggling with and the ones they have mastered. This allows us to create a personalized plan that addresses weaknesses before they become an issue--and simultaneously, we can work on advanced enrichment where your student demonstrates mastery. This means that instead of frantically playing catch up on confusing material, your student can actually get ahead before they ever deal with the frustration of falling behind.

While we are absolutely here to help your student when they start to fall behind, we can't encourage you enough to consider getting a jump on tutoring this semester. Whether that means focusing on a single subject, getting assessed across the board, or starting SAT/ACT prep, we have the professional insights and experience you need to set your student up for the best school year ever. Reach out today to see what we can do for you.