If you have an absent-minded-professor type for a tutor, you have an abundance of knowledge but no way to access it. 

If you have a present-minded tutor who knows how to nurture the students’ learning process, you have an invaluable aid to your learning.

What MSA does to communicate clearly:

When we contract a tutor, we ask her/him to teach a sample lesson.  We have a conversation.  We interact.

The people who apply to work with MSA have studied at some of the top universities in the country.  There are some candidates whom we don’t hire even with

the kind of credentials any student of mathematics would envy, simply because they did not seem to have listening skills.

Our tutors listen. They are patient, they listen to your needs, they work with you at every step and continuously monitor your progress and take you from where you

are to where you want to be.  (Not from where you aren’t.)  Our tutors are very experienced and intuitive about students’ needs. 

What you can do to ensure your needs:

When you speak with a tutoring company the first time, be sure to ask about the communication skills of the tutors.  Have a conversation with the tutor yourself, and ask questions.  When you’ve been matched with a tutor, ask the tutor to explain a mathematical concept to you.  If you don’t understand the explanation, or if you find you’re having to work hard to understand or keep up, this might not be worth pursuing.

Knowledge of the subject matter:

A tutor needs to know the material not just well enough to pass the exam himself/herself but know it when on the spot.

A tutor needs to have teaching-knowledge as well as learning knowledge.  Concepts often seem to slip out of some people’s heads when they’re asked to explain them.  A real understanding of the context for a mathematical concept is necessary, and of the fundamental principles involved, not merely a pat method for solving a problem.  This is particularly true on the SAT or ACT, tests of reasoning rather than subject matter, and on higher level math courses such as college and graduate courses courses.

For graduate level courses: we’re the only tutoring company that specializes in tutoring for graduate school classes.  There are few people in New York City who are advanced enough in mathematics to be able to tutor these subjects, and very very few tutoring companies who have them.  The best mathematicians in New York know that MSA is the place to work.

How you can ensure this:

When you approach a tutoring company, ask what credentials the tutors have.  Look at the tutor profiles page.   During your first session, ask the tutor to explain why something works as well as how to do the math.

How to Do Your Due Diligence:

Ask a tutoring company if they’ve ever had this occur, and how they handled it.  [Ask for a guarantee that not only will your problem be addressed but that a backup tutor will be available immediately to ensure you’re ready for your exams in time.]

In summary, communication skill, real knowledge of the principles behind the material, and guarantees of responsiveness are the three most important things to ensure you’re getting a good tutoring experience that brings you to where you want to be in your studies and your grades.  Don’t just take our word for it—ask us, ask whatever other company you look at out there.

Take the time to get it right the first time, since it will waste valuable time and make things that much more frantic if you have to do it all again later—plus adding more confusion to your studies or those of your child.  And also, if you get a really good tutor, a really great match, you won’t just get the benefit of repairing what’s not been working in your education previously—you may find you are learning worlds more than you were before.