<p>This thread is about having a private tutor all year every week to make sure that a smart kid gets the highest grade possible in an AP class. It’s about the trend one parent became aware of: taking a kid who would get an 85 to a 94 in an AP class and giving him a tutor so he gets a 96 to a 98. It’s considered “failing” if you not only don’t get an “A”, but it has to be a high “A”. It’s the trend of providing tutors not for helping a struggling child, but for giving a child an academic edge over the rest of the class. It’s a rat race. </p>
<p>In every math class I am aware of there is extra help. The kids can go in before school , during a free period, or after school to work with the teacher over something they don’t understand. In very few instances is the teacher so bad that a kid requires a tutor to just learn the material. I think most people agree that in those unique situations where the teacher is bad and the parents don’t feel comfortable teaching an AP level class, a tutor might be called for. However, that is NOT what is happening. Tutors are being provided to children for a competative advantage. It’s insane. It’s the drive that everyone has to take every AP offered in order to shine. The idea that a child who is struggling in BC Calc, who has gone in for extra help and worked hard, but still doesn’t thrive in the class might just not be ready for BC calc is an alien concept. Silly.</p>
<p>Miami, It might work for you and for 2girls (above), but a large percentage of parents find it unworkable to be a primary tutor. Much of the time that is not for preparation or qualification reasons, but for relationship reasons. Students tend to push against parents much more than neutral 3rd parties. The older they are, the more that tends to be the case. So it’s a problem even when parents have time/availability to be the tutor and the qualifications to be tutor.</p>
<p>Tutors can provide a safe, non-emotionally charged option for a family. Also, a student is often much more cooperative with the kind of structure that many tutors insist on vs. what a parent either insists on, or assume will just “happen.” Parents tend often to have trouble enforcing structure from their children because of the less-boundaried nature of the relationship itself. Few children have the kind of formal relationships with their parents that an outsider can expect and enforce.</p>
<p>That is where I have a hard time understanding the whole AP thing. AP classes are suppose to be college-level course, designed to give academically advanced kids the opportunity to take a more rigorous curriculum (in a certain subject) as well as earn a little college credit. Realistically, very few kids are ready for college-level courses before senior year or maybe junior year in some cases. Otherwise, we might as well just do away with the junior and senior year and let them go to college after their sophomore year.</p>
<p>It seems pretty obvious to me that a kid who is in danger of failing an AP class doesn’t belong there in the first place. Of course, we all know that in many schools there is no pre-screening for AP courses and kids can sign up for darn near anything they want. But still, common sense should prevail. My son was ‘turned down’ for one or two AP classes he wanted to take, even though he had a strong B in the honors course and I had to trust that the teachers knew what they were doing. Unfortunately, at our private school, many parents would override that decision by going to administration and forcing the school to let their kid into the AP class…they were then often in need of a tutor for obvious reasons. Why do that to your kid? In my mind, it’s mostly about ego.</p>
<p>geogirl, our local public HS is rated in the top 200 nationally. Teachers have 35-45 kids per class in their AP classes and they are not routinely available, unless there is a problem. Kids have tutors to stay at the very top of the curve, not because they are struggle or don’t belong in the class in the first place. It is clear from this thread that this phenomenon does not exist in many other parts of the country, but that’s the way it is here.</p>
<p>Interesting thread. I am not aware of much academic tutoring in our hs, but perhaps it exists. </p>
<p>Some students do opt for SAT coaches, and I understand that. There are some excellent students that don’t do well in timed tests. But for better or for worse SAT is a big factor in college acceptances.</p>
<p>A point that hasn’t been touched on is that tutors provide efficiency in learning. Many students, especially those vying for spots at the top schools, are usually overloaded with work - several APs and lots of ECs, and there are not enough hours in the day to make sure that mastery has been achieved in every subject. Sure, most smart kids could probably slog through the material and self study to bring up their grade a few points, or go see the teacher for help, but most just don’t have the extra time. A good tutor can help the student quickly work through trouble areas without much wasted time. Many parents are willing to spend a few extra dollars to reduce the “pain” of the daily homework grind, especially when their children are tired and stressed.</p>
<p>We might not be typical–but I’m just not good at math (understatement!), and my H travels a lot so isn’t routinely available. So we cannot effectively help with math at home. My D who previously did well in all math classes hit a ‘wall’ this year. Very tough class load. Help night occurred during the time she is required to be elsewhere.</p>
<p>For her, professional tutoring was the best answer. Truly, she just needed some one-on-one attention on the specific stumbling blocks she was having. In just a few sessions, she is feeling confident, and doing much better. </p>
<p>She’s excited and motivated again. Nothing wrong with that. (and she really was trying to figure it out on her own, reading text, finding online resources, etc). That was not cutting it. Tutoring was vastly more effective!</p>
<p>Exactly, SVM. A helpful parent would have to take the time to re-learn calculus, which is a labor-intensive proposition. </p>
<p>I tutor the kids of friends (pro bono) in high school-to-college math/chemistry and I have spent hundreds of hours re-learning this stuff so that I can be of help. Not a lot of parents have the time to devote to it. I’m glad to help.</p>
<p>Plus another aspect of getting someone else to help your kids: Sometimes, parent/kid interactions can be very charged. It sometimes works better if a third party is involved. I can tell a kid something and he’ll accept it. If the parent said the same thing, there’d be a scene.</p>
<p>I expect the kids to study the material and do the homework problems. My job is to explain any concepts that aren’t clear to them and to help them with homework problems that they didn’t get. Plus, we work on test taking strategies (trust me, very basic stuff). </p>
<p>I would characterize me as a study buddy who can do all the homework problems. </p>
<p>{Note: my own kids would rarely ask for my help…See above: working with your own kids}</p>
<p>Paperplane, one friend pays me back by sending over Mexican food (especially tamales). I helped her son years ago for about 6 months and got Mexican food for a year! My husband asked if I couldn’t please manage to help one of her other kids…</p>
<p>My funny story - DH and I once came home to find my kids helping the hs babysitter with her math homework </p>
<p>Both kids are extremely bright. Both would be too proud to accept tutoring. According to another mom, one was the “go to kid” for questions on any subject. The other is just as smart…but has severe organizational challenges… truly would have benefitted from organizational coaching but refused. </p>
<p>There are many combos of traits out there. I think tutoring could be great for many situations, but not as a method to claw the way up to the top of the heap.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, I think what you are saying about parent math tutoring does not make sense. I scored a 720 on my math SAT back when we took it only once, and got an A in college calculus at U of Michigan. But when I tutored my kid in math (D1 needed significant support), I really had to work along with her to recall enough to help her. No way could I have just picked up a Calc book without having been helping all along and reviewing the book/assignments. And if I didn’t have strong math skills to start with, I think it would have been impossible to just figure out an assignment in the middle of the book. Math is a series of building blocks, not independent assignments where you can just read a few pages and remember all the steps and components.</p>
<p>MIT currently asks recommenders how the student achieved his/her academic results. They offer options that include hard work or natural ability.
I’m ready for them to add “private tutoring” to their list.</p>
<p>I recently learned that one of my Korean students was teaching AP Chemistry over the summer, in Korea, to American students of Korean descent, so that when they returned to their US high schools, they could take AP Chemistry and be ahead of the game. This is so skewed as to be ridiculous.</p>
<p>Actually, that has been indirectly referenced by me a few times. Sorry that I didn’t spell it out, but those who teach this do understand that the teaching of study skills does include efficiency as an aspect – an important aspect.</p>
<p>QuantMech - At our high school, students taking AP classes in some subjects (including AP chemistry) are expected to complete several chapters from the textbook on their own before school starts. I hadn’t thought of it, but doing this with a tutor might have been helpful. Might be a good summer job for college students or recent grads who are looking for work?</p>
<p>Seriously, I do not know that many students in the AP classes at our well-regarded public school have private tutors, but they do seem to spend lots of time working on problem sets and projects in groups after school and on week-ends, and preparing each other for tests. Teachers are also available before and after school, and for extra study sessions before the AP exams.</p>
<p>What seems to give some students a competitive edge, however, are internships arranged through parental connections.</p>
<p>Summer homework ahead of AP classes is not too uncommon (at least around here). The situation I was mentioning involved going through the entire course ahead of time, though.</p>
<p>My son does that. I gave him a college physics book when he was 13 and he read through it and did the exercises. He typically reads through the course texts before the class starts. Sometimes he watches videos from MIT, Yale, Berkeley too. This approach provides him with more time to do his CS labs.</p>
<p>Somewhat OT, but speaking of taking the same course twice - I’m still not sure how I feel about my child sitting in what is supposed to be a standard (non-honors)introductory college course alongside students who have already taken the AP course and gotten 5’s, yet are still at this level because the school discourages students from going on to the next level, or because the student is a pre-med seeking to max out on their GPA by taking an easier option. </p>
<p>This happens quite a bit at some schools, especially in science and engineering classes with brutal curves. Some departments do run separate intro classes for students with a good bit of background, as determined by placement tests and interviews, for less credit than courses for students with a “standard” background, if the student does not feel confident or is not ready for the next level.</p>
</p>
Sorry that I didn’t spell it out, but those who teach this do understand that the teaching of study skills does include efficiency as an aspect – an important aspect.</p>