A tutor is an education professional who provides academic support with some deep knowledge and expertise on a particular subject or subjects to students who are pursuing those subjects. Their responsibility is to provide assistance to the students through the learning process and motivate them to achieve better results. The setting in which the tutor provides education to the students is a non-classroom setting. According to research, it has proven that tutoring is the best way to help students to boost their self-confidence so that they can participate and share their ideas in a classroom while getting better grades.
There are so many reasons why you should consider being a tutor, some of these reasons are that tutoring is a flexible job and indeed rewarding as you get to be a part of students’ careers and make a positive difference in their life. Being a tutor also supplements your income as you get to increase your income while sharing knowledge with others.
The perk of tutoring is that you get to do multiple jobs at a time, for example, you could be working as a software developer in a company and have completely opposite role than being a tutor at your job, but you can fix the schedule of your tutoring classes as per your job. If you are working as an individual tutor, you get to set your own rates and decide your own time, and even if you are working as a tutor in some coaching institutes you get to decide your working hours at steady pay.
So, if you are considering this job, it can prove to be a great source of intellectual and financial fulfillment and you can add your experience being a tutor in your CV and your resume as well. So, let us now go through 21 common interview questions that can help you with your preparation for your tutor interview.
Best 21 Tutor Interview Questions with Answers
Question 1. How is tutoring different from classroom teaching?
Answer: “Tutoring is very different from classroom teaching as each and every session of tutoring is uniquely designed and created for each and every student present in the session. And each student is paid equal attention which makes tutoring a one-on-one learning experience, which a student might not get in a classroom setting. A tutor can influence a student and make a real impact on his/her grades.”
Question 2. What is the most rewarding part of being a tutor?
Answer: “The most rewarding part of being a tutor is that students really look up to their tutors. Being a tutor I get to motivate them and help them build their confidence. It brings me a great sense of gratification and pride knowing that my students do get benefits from my teaching and pass with flying colors. The most rewarding part is when you get to be a part of the whole journey of growth of a student.”
Question 3. What all qualities make a good tutor?
Answer: “Being a effective tutor, one must be
- A lot of patience while teaching a student as everyone learns at a different pace.
- Flexible enough to be able to cope up with external changes as the environment is dynamic.
- A good communicator and a good listener.
- Academic experts and also should have the basic technical knowledge to be able to operate and conduct online meetings.
- One should also have a positive attitude and the ability to stay focus to be able to differ the motivated students from those who are unmotivated.
- Emotionally intelligent and self-disciplined.”
Question 4. How can you determine the progress of a student and also If a student understands what is being taught or needs some additional input?
Answer: “I believe in evaluating the performance of students by taking periodic tests and quizzes. I have the ability to assess the weak areas of a student and work on improving them. I keep the flow of communication open during the session so that the student does not resist asking a query in the middle of a lecture.”
Question 5. What is your preferred environment to be in while teaching?
Answer: “I prefer the surroundings to be quiet and peaceful so that there is no disturbance while teaching as students get easily distracted from a minute disturbance.”
Question 6. What is your availability?
Answer: “I will be available before and after my office hours between 7 am to 9 am in the morning and after 5 pm in the evening.”
Question 7. What grade levels are you most experienced with tutoring?
Answer: “I used to take private tuitions for the standard 11th and 12th, so I have the most experience in teaching high school students.”
Question 8. What is your tutoring philosophy?
Answer: “I believe that a tutor should always first study the student behavior so that you can think from their point of view as well. The classroom environment should be positive so that the student can flourish and my philosophy also states that students can have multiple doubts and one may ask the same question multiple times, the key to answering each of their questions is patience to be able to help students.”
Question 9. Do you prefer online or in-person tutoring?
Answer: “I do not prefer online teaching mode has a lot of hindrances like network issue, voice breaking issue, and also you rarely get a response from students as the environment is not that serious, so I prefer in-person teaching.”
Question 10. What is your favorite thing about being a tutor?
Answer: “My most favorite thing of being a tutor is teaching students things apart from the academic part so that they can get practical knowledge of the world and learn more.”
Question 11. Do you prefer working alone or in a collaborative setting?
Answer: “I am a team player as well as an independent one. I can work effectively in both settings. Although, the collaborative setting enables a student to gain more knowledge.”
Question 12. How does your educational background help you to be a better tutor?
Answer: “I come from an economics background, I have been working in that field for 3 years now. With this experience, I can share so many practical stories with the high school students who are at a very initial stage of their careers to get a better look out of the industry culture.”
Question 13. What methods do you use to keep students or clients engaged during a lesson?
Answer: “There are some students who get bored and feel overworked in between lessons. To keep them interested and active throughout the lecture I try to talk about things that would interest them, and try to relate them with studies so that I can better incorporate references to their interests.”
Question 14. Describe your approach to a typical tutoring session.
Answer: “As soon as I enter the class and ask the students about how they feeling, active or tired so that I can decide what lesson do I have to teach them so that they don’t start to feel overworking their brain. I have a standard lesson plan and I tend to switch between easy, medium, and hard lectures to keep the flow of the syllabus productive. I make sure that each one of them is willing to share whatever they feel like to me so that I can start my tutoring session with positivity.”
Question 15. How would you handle a difficult student?
Answer: “With my tutoring experience, I have learned that when a student is not engaged in the class, it is either because they might be having a bad day or personal issues and if the content that I am teaching is either too easy or too challenging. I tend to address such issues by privately talking to a student. After discussing the issue with them, I try my best to find the best possible solution to their problem that may help them pay better attention in the class.
Question 16. Which subject can you teach the best?
Answer: “I can teach English Literature and Social Studies the best.”
Question 17. Do you belong to any professional educational institutes?
Answer: “No, I do not belong to any professional educational institutes, I work as a software manager in a tech company.”
Question 18. How would you support a student who continuously achieved poor grades despite tuition?
Answer: “I would try to pay more attention to that student. I would take some assessments to figure out what are the specific weak areas of the student and help him gain a better grasp of that lesson.”
Question 19. Tell me about yourself.
Answer: “From the past year, I have to build a lot of life skills that have helped me to become an efficient tutor. I am a good leader and also a very optimistic person. I love teaching and nurturing young minds.”
Question 20. Why do you want to be a tutor and why do you want to work here?
Answer: “I find teaching career very appealing, and your institution has everything that I am looking for. I know some of the tutors who work in your institution and I have heard a lot of positive things about your organization and that is why I want to work here.”
Question 21. What’s your style of teaching as a tutor?
Answer: “My teaching style is interactive, transparent and supportive.”
Download the list of questions in .PDF format, to practice with them later, or to use them on your interview template (for Tutor interviews):
References
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X1830589X
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