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How Tutoring Works

Tutoring helps you achieve GMAT success
The biggest advantage of tutoring over other types of instruction is that tutoring is personalized to your specific needs. You may be a GMAT neophyte who feels intimidated by the math or grammar, or you may be an advanced student who needs help breaking into the 700s. You may need help only with math, only with verbal, or with both. You may want to focus on a few specific concept areas, or you may want to systematically review all the material that may appear on the GMAT. You may want to focus primarily on concept discussion, or you may want to work through lots of problems together. Whatever the situation, we’re here to help.
 

Logistics

Once you sign up for tutoring, you and your tutor will have an introductory phone call to coordinate the logistics (meeting times, locations, etc.). More information about logistics can be found on our Pricing & Availability page. You and your tutor will also discuss what study materials should be used for the tutoring. If you have a specific preference for alternate materials, you can discuss this with your tutor. You will need to get the agreed-upon materials before your first session, if you don’t already have them.

Your Study Plan

A great starting point for the tutoring will be to develop a focused study plan. The study plan should map out how you can advance from your current skill levels to your GMAT goals, taking your study preferences and timeframe into account. Your tutor will develop the study plan with you and can provide valuable feedback on how realistic your objectives are and what will be required to achieve them. The study plan should outline what concepts and types of problems will be discussed at each tutoring session and what studying and practice you should complete between each session.

Tutoring Sessions

Almost every tutoring session will be a mix of concept discussion and working through problems. With concept discussion, your tutor can make sure that you are comfortable with the relevant concepts and can fill in any knowledge gaps. Although it is critical that you have a clear grasp of the appropriate concepts before working through problems, a bigger benefit of private tutoring is in working through problems while your tutor actively observes your thought process. We want you to learn to approach problems quickly, efficiently, and correctly. By observing, your tutor can identify any errors that you make and offer corrective suggestions.

Homework

In order to benefit the most from tutoring, you need self-study and practice in between sessions to reinforce the concepts that you discussed. At the end of each session, your tutor will suggest “homework” for you to tackle before the next session. This will be a combination of concept review, practice problems, and diagnostic tests. The suggested homework typically will take 6 to 12 hours to complete. You can begin the next session by quickly reviewing the self-study and practice that you completed. If you identified some trouble areas that you encountered, your tutor can help clarify those concepts for you. You can also bring specific homework problems that you had trouble with to review with your tutor.

Tutoring is Dynamic

Your study plan should be dynamic; it will change as you progress in the tutoring based on your feedback and your tutor’s observations. You may need to quicken or slow down the pace. You may shift the time more towards concept discussion or towards working through problems together. You may need to spend more time on certain concepts and less time on others. You may need to work through easier or harder problems together. But no matter how the study plan evolves, the focus remains on helping you achieve GMAT success.

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