Most people hire a tutor for one thing: higher grades and better exam results. And it works.

However, as more and more people hire private tutors to give their children the best education they can, they’re discovering that the benefits are as much qualitative as they are quantitate. Cold, hard grades are just the tip of the iceberg. 

Tutoring companies like Tutorean know that tutoring isn’t just about numbers, it’s about people, which is why it goes to the length of employing artificial intelligence to match every new student to their perfect tutor. 

There isn’t a student out there who couldn’t benefit from private tuition in one way or another. Here are just a handful of often overlooked reasons as to why.

1. A whole new attitude towards education, and fun

In the world of professional educators, a private tutor has the enviable luxury of tailoring their lessons to fit their specific student’s personality.

Whether a child or teen favours methodical, task based learning or a more fast-paced, energy-charged approach, the right tutor can prepare the perfect lesson for each individual.

The result is simple: a positive learning experience. A positive learning experience leads to higher grades and, more importantly, a whole new, revitalised attitude towards education itself. The realisation that learning is actually fun.

Tutors are in love with the subject they teach, which will shine a whole new light on topic for their students. Ever found yourself caught up in somebody else’s passion for something? A private tutor has just the same effect.

2. A newfound respect for educators

When a conventional teacher has to spend 50% of every lesson shouting at disruptive students, and handing out detentions, it’s all too easy to see them as the enemy and equate their presence to strict discipline and antagonism.

Take it from me: it’s not much fun for the teacher, either. A teacher doesn’t want to spend an hour saying the same thing 1,000 times. A teacher wants to create an enjoyable and inspiring learning experience for their students. Sometimes, though, that’s simply impossible.

A tutor is no different to a school teacher, only without the disruptive students or a class of 30 to tend to.

With a private tutor it doesn’t take students long to get to know them on a personal basis, empathise with what they’re trying to do, and see their inner workings.

I’m a firm believer that if every student had a private tutor, they’d never make a school teacher’s life hard work again – they’d have grown to respect them.

3. A friend

A working-relationship with a tutor is more than just business. Teaching and studying is an interpersonal, human experience. An experience where great friendships are often born.

Whereas a regular teacher has to divide their attention amongst the masses, a tutor can give you all of their focus and attention, and really get to know their students.

It’s no surprise that private tutoring can often prove to be a productive and profound experience, for both student and teacher.

4. A ‘safe space’ to enjoy education

School can be an intimidating place, and we often don’t realise that ‘being cool’ was never that important until we’re adults.

And with good reason, it’s hard to go against the grain at school. Any children who do are often targeted by bullies, and made to suffer for simply being different.

The result is countless students, up and down the country, who feel they have to act a certain way in class, and adopt a disinterested attitude towards their studies.

A tutor provides an individual with a space to revel in all that is wonderfully geeky. A space for students to get excited about how mind-boggling it is to learn about the Andromeda galaxy, or admit that they know the first 30 digits of pi.

Even if the social environment at school is restrictive and unforgiving, students deserve to have a place to express and explore their true interests, away from cynical, mocking eyes.

5. Study skills you’ll use for the rest of your life

There’s a fundamental contradiction in the schooling system.

School is designed to set us up for life in the big wide world, but teachers are placed under unreasonable pressure to get good grades from their students. So much so, that they can’t risk taking the time to make their students more autonomous learners.

A few years down the line, in university perhaps, students find themselves failing, often on account of their lack of self-study skills.

In this regard, it’s possible to image a tutor as stabilisers on a bicycle. Sure, a student isn’t studying entirely by themselves, but they’re learning how to with an experienced guide. It is part of every tutor’s job to help their students hone study skills that they’ll use for the rest of their lives.

And yes, I do mean the rest of their lives, because study skills aren’t just about studying or academic work. They’re about organisation, prioritising tasks, and working to deadlines – skills every adult needs, no matter what their line of work.

6. Maturity

Taking the step to hire a tutor isn’t just about getting the right grade for a particular exam. It’s about a student taking their education into their own hands. In short: it’s about taking responsibility.

As well as gaining a valuable insight into the route to success (that going the extra mile yields better results), students form a professional friendship with an adult many years their senior, which is always a formative and maturing experience.

There is a reason that mature students get better grades. They’ve learned how to be disciplined, and can see their schoolwork in a wider context.

7. New perspectives

When very young students first go to public school, their eyes are filled with wonder. We can remember it ourselves – a place full of new people and new experiences.

A few years down the line, it’s all old news. Students often stay in the same class, or year group, throughout compulsory education, and will have each and every teacher countless times.

Whilst every school does everything it can to offer its students as wide an array of experiences as is possible, there are always limitations.

Then, when a student finally leaves school, they suddenly find themselves facing a world of opinions and ways of thinking that they never knew existed. That is, if they never had a private tutor.

A tutor can act as a bridge between the sometimes insular environment of school, and the world beyond. A new perspective, outside of the educational bubble that children must grow up within.

With the help of a private tutor, a student can start to realise that education isn’t just a building with the word ‘school’ written on it. It’s an endlessly rewarding phenomena that will change their life. 

As they study alongside their personal guide, they’ll see subjects they previously hated in a whole new dimension, whilst synonymously developing skills that will shape them as a person. 

Even if their son or daughter is getting good grades, it’s worth every parent asking themselves: what could my child gain from a private tutor?