Mumsnet users review the Tutorful service

[EllieMumsnet]

This activity is now closed

This is the feedback thread for the MNers who tested the Tutorful service with their DC. This service test was open to all UK MNers with a child, or children, who required tuition from primary school to A-level age. This was as much a test of the Tutorful service (using the site to find a tutor, messaging, arranging lessons, etc.) as it was of the lesson itself. Each tester received one free face-to-face session in a subject of their choosing.

If you don't fancy reading the full thread, you can take a look at the highlights here: Tutorful review

Non-testers, in order to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 voucher of their choice (from a list), please answer the following question: 'Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how did you find your tutor and what was the learning experience like?’

Here’s what Tutorful have to say: “We all know the benefit of checking online reviews before buying a new product, so of course you’d want to do the same for someone spending time with your child. Tutorful is revolutionising tutoring, and we’re revolving it around you. Our tutor search and comparison platform has been created based around your needs as a parent, plus every tutor on Tutorful has been referenced and personally approved by our Education Advisors.”

Testers please answer the following questions:

• What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?
• How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?
• Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson
• Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?
• Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?
• Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?

All testers who leave the required feedback will be entered into a prize draw, where one tester will receive a £100 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

• What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor? We've been looking for a maths tutor ever since the last one retired. I wanted to start my son on lessons too.

• How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor? This was relatively easy.
• Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson. My daughter was meant to do an online session as there weren't ant tutors locally but the tutor didn't log on so I can't comment on this.
• Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson? As above.
• Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience? Yes we have but I can't compare as we didn't have the session.
• Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better? I cant comment on the lesson, but I'd like some commentary along with the tutors feedback. This would help choosing a tutor. Also, if you state that you want a tutor who is a teacher or teaching assistant, only chose tutors should respond.

-What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?
My son will sit the 11+ in September and we wanted to have him assessed by an impartial observer as the school weren't providing any after school clubs going over the curriculum as they had done when my eldest was in primary.

• How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?

The process was straightforward enough. The app was easy to use, and pretty clear. The booking process was simple, though there was not a great selection of tutors available to me. When we did find a tutor, and after we had booked the session at our home, I found out that they lived very far away and I wondered why someone would advertise themselves as available to tutor within my area when they lived a considerable distance away. However, as the sesion was at our home I was not concerned about the distance. The tutor made it clear that they operated in double sessions only, but they had good reviews and appeared to have tutored hundreds of sessions from their profile, so we decided to go ahead.

• Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson

The session was only ok. The tutor was over an hour late, (see above re. distance!) though they made up the time afterwards. The tutor didn't do much with my son. They set mock tests in two subjects in order to assess his abilities. So for the majority of the two hour session, they sat in silence with my son doing the mock test. There was little interaction. After the session was over they gave very little feedback, saying they would have to assess his scores and would set the other two subject mock tests at the next session. My son liked the tutor, and wanted to give it another go, so we booked another sesssion for the following week. Again, there was little interaction as my son just sat another two mock tests. I was pretty disappointed as these sessions were costing me £60 and it just did not seem worth it to us, when we could set these things ourselves. The homework set for each week was just to re-do the things my son had got wrong and repeat the same tests numerous times. We decided to give the tutor one more shot but when on the third session there was still little interaction outside of setting mock papers we decided to cancel all future bookings. This was easy to do through the app and was confirmed instantly on the user 'dashboard'. Tutorful were very good at getting in contact after the first session to see if we had got on ok. I missed a call from one person who was checking all was ok, and then recieved a text from another doing the same. I liked that level of attention, it felt like my custom was appreciated and customer satisfaction was important to them, though I was highly suspicious that this attention was only because I was a Mumsnet tester...

• Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?

My son liked the tutor but felt he didn't get anything from the lessons.

• Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?

We have never used a tutor before.

• Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?

Overall the Tutorful experience was a positive one, even though it didn't work out with the tutor, but that was down to them, and not Tutorful.

• What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?

I was looking for a tutor to help my 9 year old develop his maths for the 11 plus in two years time. He is quite good at the subject at the moment, but there are gaps in his knowledge which his school has not addressed.

• How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?

I thought the whole process of searching and booking the tutor was very clear, concise and smooth. I liked that we received messages on registering and also reminders of the booking closer to the date, particularly as I had arranged this a few weeks ago. We could really get a feel for the tutor's character from their profile page and found the booking system very easy and straightfoward.

• Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson

I got a feel for our tutor's character prior to booking and feel we made the right choice. He had just the right personality to engage well with my 9 year old son. He called me a few days before the day to let me know of his schedule change later on in the year in case we decided to rebook. He covered a few topic areas in the maths lesson and my son learned a lot even within the hour. He managed to explain things in a way which was clear and fun for my son and he was able to follow and focus throughout the lesson.

• Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?

My son said to me afterwards that the lesson was "excellent" and that he learned such a lot!

• Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?

I have used a tutor service before for my older child, but I did not think the booking service was very clear. Also the tutor himself was ok, but I found the pace and content were not adequate enough.

• Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?

I really liked the whole booking service with Tutorial and thought the tutor was pretty exceptional to have achieved what he did in one short hour. Consequently, I can't think of one thing that would make Tutorial better at the moment.

Thank you very much for choosing us for this review.

What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?
It's my eldest daughter's last year of primary school and I wanted to boost her confidence in maths before she goes to secondary next year.

How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?
There were no tutors in my chosen subject in my area in Scotland, so I contacted Tutorful for help. They put out an appeal and I soon had messages from several tutors offering online lessons. We chose Yusef and he explained the booking process to me. It was reasonably straightforward.

Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson
It didn't start well as firstly my laptop completely crashed on me, then our internet went off. So, we were 15 minutes late starting, but Yusef was very patient and kept messaging me for updates. From there, the lesson went well. He was a really good tutor and had a nice manner. He explained things well and gave my daughter some good tips. She enjoyed the session and was buzzing afterwards about getting to grips with her long multiplication.
The downside was the slight delay on the boards, he would write up a sum and be explaining it but often we couldn't see it yet.

Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?
She would give him 5 stars. She thought he was great.

• Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?

Yes, we had a trainee teacher come to the house last summer on a weekly basis. Although the online session with Yusef went really well, I do prefer the home visits, just for that personal touch and building a relationship. Also, it was a bit more relaxed for my daughter and I had time to chat with the tutor as well. Plus, there was not the internet connection issues. Finally, our private tutor was substantially cheaper at £10 per hour, compared to the £35 Tutorial hourly rate. I could not sustain that over a summer holiday period.

• Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?

Better internet! Also, I think it is probably quite England orientated. We're in Scotland and there were no tutors in our area. If it was going to be a long term thing, I would question how well the English tutors know the Scottish education system and curriculum and that would concern me.

We were looking for a tutor to assess our daughter's maths skills.

Searching and booking tutor was very easy. I contacted two people and pick the one who I though was more suitable and experienced.

Tutor arrived 15 mins before the booked time. Our daughter found her friendly and they spent an hour going through different topics. I was not at home at that time but my husband though she rushed it. He said she would be in touch with me to share a feedback but she hasn't.

We never had a tutor before.

I would say to improve the page, I would want to find more information on tutor, such as what they specialise in or offer. Also as someone already mentioned, I would like the initial query sent to multiple people.

• What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?

To help with music practice and provide extra tuition. We also tried looking for some academic tutors but none seemed to match.

• How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?

Very easy however I found that there seemed to be a lack of choice in many areas. I'm sure if there were more tutors on the site it would be even better.

In terms of messaging, it felt a bit like internet dating. Some messages went a long time without an answer and others no answer so it's a bit of a waiting game at times. It loses a bit of a personal touch in that sense.
However,the actual booking process is quite straight forward.

• Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson

Very good tutor. Well structured lesson.

• Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?

The lesson was enjoyable.

• Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?

No

• Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?

Great staff at tutorful, quick to respond and follow up. More tutors would definitely help and quicker responses. Perhaps a function to show if the tutor had read the message would help as well.

Firstly, thank you to both Mumsnet and Tutorful for letting us trial this service.

What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?
Give my DD a boost with English - she felt she needed some help with comprehension and improving essay writing.

How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?
It was pretty straightforward. I found a lot of the English tutors charged more than £30 an hour, which is expensive, especially if they have no teaching qualifications. A lot of them in my area were over £45! I would prefer a list of their availability and what dates and times they are able to teach. It would be useful to have more feedback and grades on their qualifications. If a tutor states that they have a GCSE in English, it could be a grade D, but you have no way of knowing! It also seems a lot of the tutors are very very young! The messaging and booking process was very easy. I think it would be great if the tutors were CRB checked too for peace of mind.

Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson
We chose Lucy as she was a qualified secondary school English teacher. She was also very young but very knowledgable. She arrived on time and seemed very enthusiastic.

Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?
She found the tutor very helpful and said she liked her very much. She said she helped her understand texts in more detail and interpret the meanings. She was keen on more lessons.

Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?
Yes - we have used a tutor for my son who needed extra help with certain subjects. The tutors I have used before were a lot more reasonable in price.

Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?
I missed a call from Tutorful, which seems great, but a little intrusive. I would prefer a text (which I did get) or an email. Like I mentioned before - CRB checks, more details on qualifications and availability times. More older and experienced tutors would be good too.

Thanks for the opportunity to test this service out.

Just an update with regards to the lesson that was cancelled by the tutor and not me, I was charged £10. Not from the credit on my account but my bank account! I had to call to get this refunded. Not great.

What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?
Our son is Autistic, in mainstream but about a year behind his peers. We wanted to see if he would gel with a tutor and whether he would respond to one on one booster sessions.

How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?
I found the website very clear and easy to use. Unfortunately for us, because of our location, there wasn't a huge amount of choice, a local university nearby meant that most tutors were advertising advance maths skills which is not what we were looking for. We did find one specialist tutor who mentioned special needs education so booked her.

Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson.
The tutor was great. She really knew her stuff. We talked for about 20 mins beforehand and she really dug to know what interested him, what were his strengths and weaknesses. she based her session on what he was currently studying at school and i felt she was really engaged and interested.

Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?
He asked when she was coming back- a resounding success for us!

Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?
Never used one before, i've often thought about it, but didn't really know where to start given our SEND needs.

Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?
No- i thought the service was great. It was clear, easy to use. Communication was great, really very happy overall- this was down to the tutor herself.

• What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?

I was wanting to book a KS1 Maths tutor for my daughter who has just finished Yr1 and has been stu going with maths. I was hoping to get her assessed to see what help I could give her through the holidays so she isn't lagging for Yr2 and also in case the tutor had any tips for helping her understand mental maths.

• How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?

I actually found the process very easy, probably because the summer holidays had just hit I was able to secure a date pretty easily. I found searching the website a bit hit or miss as despite putting in my area/postcode and subject I was getting very random results I.e. A drumming teacher or tutors miles away. I was also confused about whether you went to the tutor or they came to you as this is was clarified.

• Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson

We were really lucky we made contact with tutor D who came back within a few minutes of us messaging with dates that she was free. We. We're able to do pretty much anything which obviously helped so we're able to book her after about 3 emails back and forth. She stated she would come to us which was a big help.

She arrived on the dot and was friendly and personable upon arrival. My daughter was really excited (despite me booking on her first day of school holidays!!!). D suggested that it would be easier without me in the room so I made myself scarce in the next room, I listened in a few times and D seemed to be very calm and patient with my daughter, every time I popped my head in they were harder at work, heads down. I guess I was expecting a bit more fun and games as daughter is only 6 so it all felt very studious.

At the end of the session D gave me a 15minute debriefing and some tips on how to work further.

• Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?

My daughter loved her lesson and really liked D, she got lots from it as she's learnt a new technique to help her. I believe this lesson gave her a bit more confidence to tackle this subject. Following this lesson she decided to do 30mins of maths problems by herself.

• Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?

We have never used a tutor before

• Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?

I was unsure of the DBS checks that tutors have as I couldn't find this information on the website - tho I may not have looked in the right place.

Also it would be better if glitches on location and subject search were fixed.

**What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?
I thought some interim French and German lessons during the summer would be a good idea so my son's language skills wouldn't atrophy.

• **How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?

I was told to selected two or three tutors but was contacted within minutes by the first tutor I'd chose. We messaged and I'd booked the session for the same day within around ten minutes. It was all really easy and straightforward.

• **Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson

The tutor give my son an exercise book and followed up the session with an email of his strengths and weaknesses to work on.

• **Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?

He said she was nice and the lesson was fun.

• **Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?

Yes we have used Peerz online tutoring, Peerz is cheaper but only offers maths and English and is online only. Both have their strengths, I think in person tutoring is probably more effective but the online tutoring gives you a set lesson plan and worksheet to complete to reinforce the learning which is a useful tool.

• **Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?

A follow up worksheet to strengthen the learning taught during the session. I felt like there was too much communication, I received both an email and text every time I messaged back and forth with the tutor, then one when payment was taken, then a phone call and two texts to see if I was happy with the service.

We decided to use Tutorful to support my 7 year olds passion for Maths. We wanted a tutor would could provide fun, thought provoking maths teaching, outside of the standard curriculum.

I found the Tutorful website very easy to navigate, and all 3 tutors we contacted responded very quickly, and very positively. One tutor stood out for us, and we arranged a meet up.

Our tutor was extremely enthusiastic from the start, and clearly enjoys teaching, and maths. She is really friendly, and my son enjoyed his first session very much. Our second session is already booked.

My son said he really enjoyed his lesson, and said he had learnt 2 new things, which is high praise from him as he insists he only learnt 1 new thing in the past year at school!

We have never used a private tutor before, but have been very pleased with Tutorful and would definitely recommend their service. My only criticism is that the process seems quite demanding in the beginning with lots of emails/texts from Tutorful, which may have put me off (I don’t like being pressured!) had I not been so keen to get a session booked.

• What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?

I was looking for something to keep my son's (8) learning up over the summer holidays, and develop his interest in a particular area. After chatting, we decided to find a tutor that specialised in classics to develop knowledge around ancient greece! As we are pretty busy, it needed to be someone who would come to us, rather than us to them.

• How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?

This was hard work and I felt like giving up. Often messages were not replied to. We eventually found our tutor, and she has been very communicative and helpful! The actual use of the website itself was fine, it was the human aspect that was hard!

• Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson

Our tutor was great! She turned up when she said she would, was knowledgeable and friendly. She instantly put us at ease and was happy to have both myself and my younger daughter present too. She had prepared material, which she bought along, and gauged my sons level of knowledge, through discussion and questioning. We all learnt something new, and couldn't fault the experience! Looking forward to our next session!

• Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?

He was inspired by the session, and even asked when his next session would be immediately after the tutor had left

• Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?

We hadn't used a tutor before so couldnt comment on this one.

• Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?

My only comment would be to make selecting and booking a tutor easier. The actual website itself was easy to use, but it was difficult to get responses etc from some tutors. Also, we area few miles from our local city centre, and many were reluctant to visit, even when we offered to pay extra to cover time/distance travelled.

• What were you primarily looking to achieve by booking a private tutor?

We want to engage a tutor to help DD improve her Maths over next year. I was intrigued to see how this service works. I gave her the choice though, and she went for piano this time, which she has been lobbying for for a while. I thought I would give it a go, in case we could return to it in next academic year to get a Maths tutor.

• How did you find the process of searching for, messaging and booking your tutor?

It was easy. We are located in a big city so there were quite a number of potential tutors. I think we are all pretty used to the system of searching, checking reviews and so on. That worked well. It was possible to filter things in various ways which was useful. Search was fine. Contact worked well. We were given an indication of typical response times. Mine took a little longer, but I was in no hurry. Contact worked in a number of ways, through the site, as text message. All was fine. Registration and booking was straightforward. No problems at all. I only contacted one tutor, as I wuld have found it awkward to contact a few and then choose just one of them, but I suppose I would do that if I was going for a long term person and really wanted to check out what people were like. Payment was easy enough. I was curious about the system - what percentage goes to Tutorful, what to tutor, how do they stop people doing work on side etc etc. But did not ask those questions of anyone. I am a pretty laid back person, so I guess I did not worry about things like DBS - probably should, but it seemed to me that you could have that as a requirement if you wanted.

• Share any feedback about your tutor and the lesson

Tutor was great. Very lively, enthusiastic. He suggested just a 30 min lesson as first one - as DD is a beginner. That was fine. Pricey, but these things are. He came well prepared, left her exercises to do. She loved it and wants to continue. I could hear them from another room and he seemed to be communicating with her like music teachers at school never have.

• Does your child have any feedback to share about their tutor and the lesson?

She loved it. Wants to do more. Really got the point. Began reading notes in first lesson - school has never managed to communicate the point of sight reading.

• Have you or your child used a private tutor before and if so, how does this compare to that experience?

No, never. Only in group work in small outfits near us for Maths and English - and Kip McGrath stuff - very different.

• Could anything have made your experience with Tutorful better?

Maybe a little more description of each tutor - perhaps a video clip to show them talking, how they work with students. Also, find the subjects rather restrictive - DD would love to learn about archaeology, not for exam purposes necessarily, but just because. Didn't seem to be room for more hobby learning. I guess it is a small market given costs - but everything seemed rather dully tied to GSCE, KS2, KS3 etc etc. I have seen a bit how Outschool, an online teaching service, works, and it is rather more imaginative. I guess the grind here, the main money spinner, is prep for grammar school exams - how extremely tedious!

Hiya,
So, I was late to the party and initially found booking a bit tricky because of a glitch in the email so my registration didn't go through.

Once I'd sorted this problem it was easy to search for and message several tutors. All of the 5 that I messaged responded very quickly and sounded professional and friendly. Even though we're quite rural there was plenty of choice of tutors. Paying was straight forward and I wasn't worried about inputting my details.

I have been home educating my 11 year old daughter through year 6 but she's going to join secondary in September so primarily I was looking to get an assessment if you like and perhaps some refresher sessions in maths as that's not my strong suit when we were working at home. Dd was happy to have a maths lesson, she likes maths.

I found the tutor nice, older than I was expecting but in a good way. She seemed calm and reassuring and understood immediately what we were after, even if she did look slightly taken aback when I said we'd been home schooling.

I asked dd for her feedback and she said she was nice and calm, not like her other tutor 18 months ago who was cheerful and noisy and who stressed her out. ( She has ASD). Dd enjoyed the lesson and felt like she'd learned things that she didn't know before and was confident that she'd be happy to do it in school. She said there wasn't anything she'd change so I'd go with that. She's particular about who she feels comfortable with so if she's happy, I'm happy. I'd definitely use her again although at £50 an hour it was twice as much as what we used to pay.

As a previous poster said perhaps a video clip would be good particularly for children with additional needs as my DD doesn't like many people. 😂.

non-tester I haven’t used tutors yet for my DC but am probably going to as they need it in the future. DS is finding school maths too easy so am contemplating getting a tutor to do some extension work with him (he has asked about this)

Non tester. My DC have both been to a tutor for 11 plus prep. She was recommended by a friend whose daughter had been and it gave her confidence although she didn't pass the test. I didn't want a 'pass at all costs' tutor so this lady was perfect. She just helped them grow in skills and confidence. I am thinking about getting one DC a science tutor at some point, depending on how they develop, but have no idea where I would look. You can't beat recommendations.

Non tester. I have never used a tutor and it's not something that I've ever thought about using. Having read the posts on this thread, it is now something I'm more open to and would look into it if I feel any of my DC need a bit more help.

I found a tutor on First Tutors- for Yr9 maths. Vetted by them and references taken etc. It worked fine for almost a year- tho my son didn't enjoy it one bit, he knew it was helpful. Then the tutor announced he wanted to travel for a month, and would do double lessons for the month before so we didn't lose out.
My son couldn't bear the idea of double lessons, It wasn't convenient for us, I doubted my son would benefit, and I couldn't afford double up front, so we said "no thank you, we'll just skip the month while you're away". The tutor then refused to come anymore saying we were "not on the same page".
Very unprofessional.

Non tester. Not used a tutor but I'd consider it if needed.

I was looking for some music lessons for my daughter. I found the site search function very easy to use.
We’ve never used a tutor before but I would definitely recommend it. My daughter has really enjoyed her lessons and in fact gets on so well with the tutor that we are still continuing her lessons.

Non tester

We've never used a private tutor but my brother has (for my nephew).
He found it really helpful and the results were impressive.
I think we'd find it a struggle financially - I can't imagine it is cheap? - and also time wise - my nephew uses to do it before school which seemed quite tough & made his 'learning' day long.

Non tester.
Yes, we've hired a tutor before. We found her through word of mouth, asking people we knew had used tutors before.
We've been very happy, it's a one-to-one session each week and tailored to meet DD's needs.

Non tester - we have never used a tutor but I would certainly consider it in the future if DC needed extra help.

I've never used a tutor for my dc, but I had one for Maths O-level. She was utterly wonderful, and lifted me from near the bottom of the bottom set to achieving an A (the highest grade at the time) 6m early and a B at Additional Maths 6m later.

Obviously I was able, so what was going on at school that made me unable to learn there?