How to Work with a Tutor | St. Clair College

Working with a tutor is an important success strategy for many students. However, some students who are unfamiliar with tutoring at the college level, may not understand how to make the most of their time with a tutor or may not understand the limits of what a tutor can do. At St. Clair College, your tutor’s role is to help you address your immediate questions or areas of confusion. In many ways, YOU are in charge of the tutoring session and responsible for bringing forward the topics and questions you need help with.

Before coming to a tutoring session:

  • Read your course outline, understand what's expected of you in each class, and make sure you find and remember deadlines and other special dates.
  • Attend all your classes and be an active learner in class (ask questions, take notes, participate in discussions). Many questions can be asked right there and then to the instructor.
  • Use your instructor’s office hours. Your instructor is always your best resource. Try asking your instructor for help first and bring that information to the tutor in case you didn’t quite understand what the instructor told you.
  • Study the material before meeting with the tutor, work on homework and assignments, and try to get as far as you can by yourself. Prepare questions and identify ideas of confusion to discuss with your tutor.

Bring to a tutoring session:

Your textbook, course outline, notes from class, your homework and assignments, your quizzes and tests, and don’t forget a pen or pencil! If your tutoring session is virtual, through MS Teams, be sure to have these materials close at hand!

Remember: Your tutor is not an instructor. Your tutor been successful in the course you have taken or a course that covers similar materials. Your course instructor may use different methods, assignments, and materials than your tutor’s instructor. Your tutor may ask to review your notes, textbook, or other material such as online resources to help answer your questions. Working with your tutor to review these materials is a good way to learn how to use these resources for your independent learning in the future.

What not to ask a tutor:

  • Don’t ask a tutor to cram with you. A tutor’s help isn’t enough to learn in one session what should have taken a month or more to learn.
  • Don't ask a tutor to do the work for you. Learning is a process and working is an integral part of it. If you don't work, you won't learn.
  • Don’t ask a tutor to help you with exercises on a take‐home test, quiz or graded homework assignment. Tutors can work through similar examples or problems to help you with your challenges.

Tutors will complement your work, provide you hints, suggestions etc. but will not replace good, honest, hard work.

Things to know:

  • Tutoring is open to all registered St. Clair College students; however, we cannot guarantee that a tutor will be available for every course.
  • We communicate with you through your college email address, please check this regularly.
  • Students may ask for a tutor in up to three courses and receive one hour a week of tutoring per course. If you feel you need more, please discuss this with a Retention Coordinator.
  • We require notice 24‐hours in advance to cancel an appointment, please email our offices and your tutor when you know you will miss. Missing appointments, coming late or unprepared could result in having your tutoring suspended.
  • All information about your visit to Tutoring Services is confidential and is not released to your instructors without your explicit written permission.
  • Tutoring appointments may be one‐on‐one or small group sessions.
  • Walk‐in tutoring is intended for short questions. Tutors will be working with a number of students during each hour, often on different subjects, and are rarely able to sit with one student for extended time.