• The size of the tutoring team is very important. The larger the team, the better the chances that the tuition coordinator can find the best tutor whose experience and qualifications suit your requirements. You should choose agencies that have a minimum of 20,000 home tuition teachers in their database.
• At least 30% of a credible tuition agency should consist of tutors who have PhD’s, Master’s or are NIE-trained MOE current/ex teachers. The better tuition teachers want to join only the best tuition agencies. They know that dependable tutor agencies have more clients, and numerous good assignments for them to choose from every day.
• Many of our parents/students avoid agencies that have more than 20% of their tutors whose highest academic qualifications are polytechnic diploma’s or junior college certificates. The market rate of hourly fees charged by experienced university undergraduates is $30/hr, and the rates tutors who had stopped studying at JC or polytechnic levels is $20/hr to $25/hr.
• How would you be able to know if a tuition agency’s database comprises mainly of lower-qualified tutors? Their websites will always emphasize “affordable tuition rates” as their main or only attraction. Given that the difference in monthly rates between a polytechnic graduate and a university graduate is only about $30 – and in most cases, are at the same rates or sometimes even lower than group tuition. Learn Fast – “affordable tuition rates” shows up in websites whenever a tuition agency does not have tutors whose other clients are already paying them higher rates.
• Parents would pay rates that they feel are fair and appropriate, according to the tutor’s track record, academic qualifications, and number of years of experience. Tutors accept an assignment based on hourly rates, the grade target/current level of skills of the student, and the availability of slots in their teaching schedules.
• University undergraduates or graduated tutors tend to have easily scored comfortable A’s in the subjects that they teach, and most parents would of course prefer that their children are taught the correct content, as well as skills in answering difficult questions. If the tutor was not able to score A in say Physics, can he/she help you score an A?
• Good tuition agencies require that their tutors have at least 2 years of tutoring experience before including their details into the tuition agency database. This is to ensure that the tutor has the requisite commitment to being a good tutor, as well as the relevant experience and track record of improving their students’ grades, and are not experimenting with your child’s academic future.
• Be wary of tuition agencies that promise to show you profiles “immediately”. If a tuition agency has a large pool of eligible and qualified tutors to reach out to for your assignment, it takes time for good tuition teachers to respond. Agencies that get back to you “immediately” with tutor profiles are either not thorough, or worse, have only a very small tutor database. Good home tutors might not respond immediately when they receive tuition assignment messages – because they are very likely to be busy teaching during that time and are not desperately and idly sitting around hoping for messages to arrive. Tuition teachers typically apply for assignments between 4 to 18 hours after they have received the assignment message. If a tutor waits too long, it might indicate that the tutor is not keen to take on more assignments at that hourly rate, or worse, has time management/punctuality issues. A good timeframe for a dependable tuition agency to get back to you with profiles of responsible tuition teachers should be 1 to 2 working days after you have given them the description of what you are expecting of your tutor.
• Trustworthy tuition agencies hire university graduates as their tuition coordinators because graduated coordinators can properly understand the academic and learning needs of tuition students. There is no difference in the hourly rate that you pay to your home tutor, so you might as well get the best value for money and professional service when you are looking for a good home tuition agency.
• Tuition coordinators who are university graduates will be able to ask the assignment applicants the right questions in order to assess if he or she is truly able to teach according to your requirements – even if the tutor claims to have 8 to 10 years of tuition experience. Because at least 70% of each age cohort has at least a Bachelor’s degree, it will be easy to find tuition agencies that hire only university graduates as their tuition coordinators.  How would you know if the coordinator is likely to have at least a Bachelor’s? His or her English grammar and vocabulary, when you call or Whatsapp the agency.
• Look at the tuition agency’s Facebook posts. The passion that the tuition coordinators and management have for the MOE subjects clearly shows if the agency is really qualified to help you find suitable tutors. If the tuition agency cannot be bothered to post the latest content and interesting developments that engage their discerning tutors, parents and students, would this tutor agency genuinely have enough outstanding tuition teachers?

So what are you waiting for? Hire a tutor from Learn Fast Singapore today!