Tutoring 101 p1 - Military - Education Strategies and Tips - Military Times EDGE

Let’s turn one stigma on its head right away: Getting tutoring is not a sign you are dumb. Getting tutoring is a sign you are smart — smart enough to recognize when you need help and to take advantage of all the resources available.

“Usually the students who come to tutoring regularly do the best,” said Bill Talbot, an Air Force veteran who teaches accounting at Montgomery College, Md., and has tutored for years at the University of Maryland University College.

To get the most out of your tutor, whether you’re scheduling regular appointments, dropping in at a help center or posting a question on a college message board, keep in mind these common principles, courtesy of Talbot and Shelley Hintz, coordinator of student engagement at UMUC’s Center of Student Success.

• Do: Be assertive about getting help. “There’s kind of an academic wall [between professors and students],” Talbot said, especially in certain cultures. Break through it.

• Don’t: Wait until you’re completely lost. “Students put it off and it’s only going to make the situation worse,” said Hintz.

• Do: Talk with your instructor first. He might be able to clear up your confusion quickly and easily. That said:

• Don’t: Hesitate to turn to a tutor if you need a fresh perspective or struggle with your professor’s teaching style.

• Don’t: Just show up with a confused look on your face. “Sometimes students will come in and say, ‘I don’t understand statistics,’” Hintz said. “The tutor can’t really do anything about that.”

• Do: Prepare specific questions about what you don’t understand.

• Don’t: Be defeatist. “The student needs to go in with a positive attitude,” Hintz said. You’ll learn more — and you owe it to the tutor.

• Do: Bring your books and your syllabus. If you’re so lost that you don’t understand what you don’t understand, these could help the tutor pinpoint where you went off the road.

• Don’t: Treat tutoring like a make-up class session. “Even if you miss class, read the assignment and come with specific questions,” Talbot said. “Tutoring is not a class.”

• Don’t: Even think about asking your tutor to do your homework for you. Just don’t. They won’t. But:

• Do: Bring your homework as a possible exercise. Some tutors may not want to help with anything you’re turning in, Talbot said, but others (including himself) are willing to work through an assignment, even a graded assignment, in order to teach a concept.

• Don’t: Treat the Writing Center as a glorified spell-checker. The Writing Center at UMUC will send you significant feedback, Hintz said, but it’s not there to catch every missed apostrophe.

• Don’t: Go to a tutor to argue about a grade you got, or a policy you consider unfair. “The tutor can’t do anything in those situations,” Hintz said. Save your breath and your tutor’s time.

• Do: Ask whatever you need to ask. If you’ve put in the work, a tutor is not going to raise an eyebrow at any question, Hintz said. “Tutors go in knowing they’re going to address an array of questions. Tutors sign up to help students. It’s not a huge-paying job, so that’s what they’re there for.”

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Tutoring resources

Most schools offer face-to-face and/or online tutoring in certain subjects, and some textbook publishers include tutoring with the price of their books. At the very least, your school should be able to give you leads on finding a tutor.

Two resources that Shelley Hintz, the coordinator of student engagement at UMUC, recommends are Smarthinking.com, which offers online tutoring, and Wyzant.com, which lets you search for tutors by ZIP code so you can meet in person.