Online Tutoring Services: 5 Common Misconceptions

Online tutoring services have been around for years, but many people still don’t know how to approach using them. Are they just as effective as face-to-face lessons? Do they help students in the same way? When choosing an online tutor, what should you look for? Here are the three most common misconceptions about online tutoring services, and why these myths should be discarded in favour of the truth.

Five Most Common Misconceptions

If a company offers tutoring services for just $10 per hour, it must be a scam. There are some great companies out there that offer tutors to students at very reasonable rates. These tutor services charge only what they need to make their operation sustainable, which is usually less than $20 per hour of tutoring time. 

1. The quality is lower: This isn’t always true. Many of these services offer a wide range of tutors to choose from, and they vet their tutors carefully before they start working with them. That way, you can be sure that you’re getting an experienced tutor who knows how to help you reach your goals.

1. Communication with teachers: Some of these services have chat features and other ways to communicate with your tutor. Others do not, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for a different teacher if you feel like you aren’t getting what you need from your current one. You should always be able to request a new tutor if you aren’t happy with your current one.

1. Academic knowledge vs. skills: Some of these services offer teachers who have a lot of experience working with students, but they don’t necessarily have degrees in education or teaching certifications. That doesn’t mean they can’t help you learn—it just means that they may not be able to get you college credit for your work.

1. Parental control: Many of these services offer a way for parents to see what their children are working on and how they’re doing. That way, you can be sure that your child is getting help with things you’ve asked them to work on.

1. Interaction with other students: Some of these services offer a way for you to interact with other students who are working on similar projects. This can be a great way to get help from your peers and learn new things, but it’s not always available.

What do you Understand by Geometric Mean?

A mathematical operation that takes a set of numbers and finds their average. The geometric mean is calculated by multiplying all of the numbers in a set together, then taking that product and raising it to a power equal to 1 divided by the number of items in that set. For example, take three numbers: 1, 2, and 4. Their geometric mean is (1 x 2 x 4)1/3 = 2. 6. 

• This may seem like an unnecessarily complicated way to find an average, but it’s very helpful when you have numbers with different units; for example, if you had a set of weights measured in pounds and ounces, you could use a geometric mean to calculate an overall weight without converting everything into pounds first. 

• It’s also great for finding averages that involve negative numbers—for example, (–2)1/3 = 2. 6. It can be a little tricky to find a geometric mean if you don’t have an advanced math background, but it isn’t impossible; you just need to know how to manipulate exponents.

If you want to learn more about how geometric means work and why they’re so useful in certain situations, check out the Cuemath for more details on Geometric means and other topics of maths.