For countless numbers of graduate school applicants, preparing and sitting for the GRE, GMAT, LSAT or MCAT can be extremely stressful.  If you are considering working with a test prep organization, you will most definitely want to follow this blog series.  MyGuru offers excellent test prep services for grad school applicants. They offer GMAT tutoring, GRE tutoring, LSAT tutoring, and more. Perhaps more importantly, has the outcomes to prove that their strategies and individualized approach with students works.

We are delighted to offer this interview series, which will feature a new interview question every two to four weeks.

Below is our fourth question for MyGuru.

Grad School Road Map: How can tutors go wrong in providing their services?

Stefan Maisnier, Director of Online Tutoring:  I have heard some stories, let me tell you. But here are the three most common mistakes all tutors can make if they aren’t diligent, including yours truly!

1) Teaching an Inflexible Curriculum. The primary benefit of private tutoring is participating in a class of one. That one student should not be treated like all other students! To avoid falling into the one-size-fits-all teaching trap every tutor should spend the majority of the first session of instruction with any new client learning about the student’s needs and building a customized schedule (including homework!) tailored to that student and that student only. Furthermore, every tutor should have extensive knowledge of various third-party resources, as well as the official practice materials from the test producers of course, that can be deployed efficiently so that the student is only working with materials that will benefit him or her specifically. Once again, every tutor should be able to most effectively help their students and knowing which practice materials are most beneficial for different learning styles and score improvement needs is imperative!

2) Becoming a Living Answer Key. I personally recommend to my students that every tutoring session be at least 90 minutes in duration to ensure that each lesson includes some new content. It is so easy to spend an hour going over homework helping with missed problems by showing how to approach individual practice problems after the fact, but that won’t help your student. Instead, you’ll just prove that as a tutor you can take the exam you are teaching. Yes, this is a valuable skill, but remember which person in the session needs to take the exam! It’s also important to stress the importance that every student should self-review their own practice problems in an attempt to identify their own mistakes. Almost every practice resource has explanations, and if they don’t (looking at your LSAT PrepTests) a simple trip to Dr. Google will provide more explanations than you can shake the proverbial stick at. Improvement is achieved by forcing students to engage in their own review before bringing a question to a tutoring session, only if it’s truly a stumper.

3) Acting Infallible. Some of the best teaching moments I’ve had over the years have come from mistakes that I’ve made that my students have caught. It’s inevitable, every tutor will make a mistake, and when you do – own it! The worst thing you can do is pretend it didn’t happen. At least once a quarter, I’ll be in the middle of a logic game for the LSAT or a data sufficiency for the GMAT or a reading comprehension question on any of the exams and I’ll be unable to explain the correct answer. Now, every tutor should always have the correct answer handy to ensure that no wrong information is provided, but in the moment, even the best tutor may not be able to articulate the logical inference or work the algebra or locate the phrase required to reach the correct answer. In this moment, the tutor should simply exhibit the skills encouraged in every test prepper – set the problem aside and move onto the next question! It’s a hugely valuable example if you can say let’s move on to the next problem and as an expert, your tutor should be able to complete the rest of the questions. Now, the tutor should always go back to the problem and follow up after the session with the proper explanation. In my case, it’s always some silly misread or misarticulation that would never be caught until I walk away from the problem for a moment and just about without exception as soon as the session is over I go – dang it I forgot the negative sign or shoot that said could be and not must be!

Any tutor worth their rate will follow these three rules to make sure that they provide the best instructional experience for every student they have the pleasure of working with.

DISCOUNT ON DR. DON’S BOOK RIGHT HERE ON THE GSRM WEBSITE!!

Be sure to check out Dr. Don’s book, “Road Map for Graduate Study, A Guide for Prospective Graduate Students,” right here on the GSRM website. For a reduced price CLICK HERE, go to The Book page, scroll down, click on the Order Now box, and use discount code GSRM.