How to choose a maths tutor

Maths is the busiest thing on this site. And the question people ask most often about it — «who is the best one here» — is exactly the one with no answer. Someone brilliant at taking a child to an olympiad may have neither the patience nor the appetite for filling holes left three years ago. And the other way round.

So start with the task, not the person. There are usually five, and they barely overlap.

Five different tasks

First: keeping pace with school. The child is not drowning, but not swimming either, and the marks jump about. This needs someone who walks calmly alongside the syllabus and works through what was actually set.

Second: an exam. Here it is not only knowledge that matters but the things no textbook holds — how to spend the time, what to answer first, where marks are lost for no good reason.

Third: olympiads. Different maths, different problems, a different person — usually one who has been through it themselves.

Fourth: university — calculus, linear algebra, probability. A school tutor is often no help here, and that is no reproach to them.

Fifth: an adult who has decided to sort maths out from scratch — for work, for programming, or simply because it never came together the first time. They need someone who can explain to a person rather than to a pupil.

Falling behind in maths happens quietly

Maths is built like a staircase: miss fractions and ratios make no sense, miss those and percentages become guesswork, and from there everything rests on memory. Which is why «he suddenly stopped understanding» is almost never sudden.

A good sign in the first conversation: the tutor asks not «what were you set» but «where did it stop making sense». Sometimes the first few lessons go nowhere near the current topic and two years back instead. That is not time lost — it is the only way the rest will move.

If you live abroad

Online lessons erased the borders long ago, and maths travels through a screen perfectly well. But families living abroad have their own difficulties, and it is better to raise them at the start.

School systems differ, and so do their exams. Do not look for a tutor who recognises yours by name — simply say which system your child is in and what exam is ahead, and ask outright whether they have worked with it. An honest «no, but I will get up to speed» beats a confident nod.

Then there is language. A child in a local school thinks and counts in the language of that school: they may understand you perfectly at home and still know the terms only in the other language. Ask whether the tutor is willing to hold both. Many are — but it should be agreed, not discovered in the third lesson.

And the simplest thing of all: time zones. Settle the hour before you settle the price.

What to ask in the first lesson

Ask what they will start with and why that. Ask how many lessons a week they think are needed and what happens between them. Ask how you will know it is working — marks, practice papers, or simply that the child has stopped dreading tests.

The answers to those three questions tell you more than any list of qualifications.

How to read the reviews here

Reviews on this site are thank-yous, and that matters when you read them. Do not look for the answer «good or bad» — it is not there. Look for something else: what exactly this person is good at, and who they work well with.

«My daughter stopped dreading tests», «pulled a failing grade up a month before the exam», «explains it so that it finally makes sense» — those are three different tutors, and they suit three different children.

See who is teaching maths now: maths tutors with reviews. Each one with a price, a way of working, and the words of people who have already studied with them.