Read what Mumsnet users thought of GoStudent’s online tutoring platform

[BellaMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnet users with a child aged 8-16 who tested GoStudent’s online tutoring platform. Selected testers received 4 private tutoring sessions in their chosen subject, used over the course of 4 weeks.

You can find out more about GoStudent here. Here’s what GoStudent has to say:

“The digital learning platform GoStudent was founded in order to tackle a fundamental problem in education: access to top teachers at an affordable price. Our mission is to build the number 1 global school by connecting students with their ideal teachers, enabling children worldwide to unlock their full potential. GoStudent offers individual tutoring classes via online video chat to children and students aged 6-18 in all school subjects. Focusing on sustainable learning successes, GoStudent offers memberships between 6 and 24 months, and currently provides over 350,000 one-to-one tutoring lessons per month."

Testers, please give your feedback by answering the following questions as well as sharing any other thoughts you have and completing the short survey we’ve emailed you. Testers of GoStudent were invited to start taking part in different weeks. Please wait until we email you to ask for feedback before answering the below questions.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

All testers who give the required feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

It was done over Zoom there was no rushing out and finding something to entertain my younger child with during the session, and my child was familiar with how it worked. I also liked that communication was via WhatsApp.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

Mostly easy as he had already been using Zoom for home schooling.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

English and handwriting. My child did it gain any confidence in these subjects.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

No. The work was taken mostly from Twinkl, which anyone can access at a fraction of the price and print worksheets.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

It's hard to pick what I liked the most because I really liked the whole set-up. Everyone I spoke to was really nice and even though I get anxious on the phone I felt comfortable talking to them because they were so nice. We then switched to communicating via WhatsApp, which for me was perfect!

Because we trialled it during the holidays, we were out of routine, which made finding dates and times for the lessons harder, but they were consistently good about me chopping and changing and because it was all done over WhatsApp, it didn't stress me out having to keep ring them.

My son's assigned tutor was so lovely. She was very enthusiastic and from what I heard she wasn't ground down at all by my son's very monosyllabic responses!

I also liked that I was emailed and texted the appointment details too, making it easy for me to remember to write it in the diary.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

Very easy. After all the home schooling, for which we have been using Zoom and Teams, this platform was very similar and therefore very familiar.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

English. I have no idea if he felt anything, he's 15 and if I ask how he feels about anything, he replies with "I don't know"! I think he did though, he sounded very engaged (or at least as engaged as I've ever seen him) when he was in the lesson from what I could hear from downstairs!

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

If a friend was looking for a tutor then I would definitely recommend GoStudent yes. Why? Because of how easy it was, how well they communicated, and how enthusiastic the tutor was.

Both me and my son (8) were really impressed with GoStudent, despite his initial refusal reticence about doing anything else on-line.
Although we really rated the free sessions, I wouldn't sign up for it without a real specific need/goal for tutoring as the length of term you have to commit to (6 or 12 months) is a lot. without a

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

It was easy to use, the WhatsApp group was a convenient way to arrange lesson times or raise queries & the session content was tailored to my child.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

Very easy - after the first session my son was able to sign himself in and out. I didn't use the actual platform much but what I did do was easy to navigate. We had some issues before the first session as I couldn't find the link I'd been sent - I would strongly suggest in future these are sent via email as well as by text.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

Physics - an odd choice for an 8 year old maybe but he was really enjoying doing circuits at school! Because of various issues in his class he wasn't able to access all of the extension work so it was great for him to explore the topic more widely, as well as reinforcing what he learnt in school.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes I would, if they had a particular subject that their child needed support with or was really interested in. Given that my son didn't have anything specific he needed help with, I was impressed that the tutor (Adam) was quickly able to assess his level of knowledge and build on that, whilst keeping him engaged - no mean feat after so much Zoom! If you had a specific need or goal to work on it would be really helpful.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

They were very friendly and very flexible. They were also very patient with me as we had to cancel one and missed another by mistake but they still happily offered another session.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

I would like the link to the session by email and not via text as I couldn't click on it or copy and paste it so had to watsap them to send the link.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

Maths. She said she enjoyed her session and the tutor was very kind and helpful. Not sure if she felt more confident as she really struggles with maths and never feels confident.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes probably.. Its good value compared to other company's but i do prefer a face to face tutor.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

The tutor was fantastic, she really help my son with both confidence and achievement and it didn't feel too much like work.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

No problems at all, we were sent a link - email and text - to a zoom meeting and then just watched the screen. The software the tutor used to display questions was good and didn't require anything special from us.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

DS had tutoring in Maths, he is 8 in year 4 and maths is his strongest subject but he finds it so boring in class he is literally bored to tears. I've had many, many convos with his teacher but they just give him (boring) extension worksheets - he was starting to hate the subject. Working with the tutor was fantastic, she suggested a topic, checked his knowledge and kept challenging him until she found gaps - then filled them. She was very patient with him (he is only 8) and kind and super encouraging. He does feel more confident and more importantly he feels both challenged and interested again.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes I definitely would, I assume they would be able to do a trial lesson before committing because I imagine the individual tutor must make a big difference.

The only slight negative (and this is nitpicking really) is I felt their communications went overboard. I had contact from one person - I think she was the coordinator and she was great, good at explaining and organising. She set up the first meeting with the tutor which was all fine, then after that first lesson she added me to a WhatsApp group with herself, the tutor and another person who was the 'customer care manager' - this manager also wanted to have a telecon with me which seemed unnecessary and a bit of a time commitment. We just finishing our sessions - one to go - so I haven't spoken to anyone about continuing yet and feel a bit weird that I don't know which of the 3 it will be - are they going to play good cop bad cop??

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

The staff were very friendly and professional and I liked the ease of communication on WhatsApp.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

My 15 year old son found it very easy to use, although it would have been helpful if he had also received the access link via text message and on WhatsApp as I was usually at work at the time. I guess this would be easily resolved if we signed up.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

My son had chemistry lessons which he really enjoyed and proclaims to feel more confident in a couple of the topics that he was struggling with previously. Thank you to his tutor Nurina.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

I would recommend to a friend as I like the way it was so easy to organise the sessions via WhatsApp and the flexibility of the tutor. I am also impressed that you can switch subjects on a regular basis.
I haven’t signed up yet as I’m waiting for parents evening in a few weeks to see which subject would be most beneficial. I was also waiting to see how much homework my son would have to fit into his busy schedule before committing to extra work.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

Good customer service which make it very easy to choose the tutor and schedule logistics.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

very easy

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent? math and english. Yes my kid likes it. The tutor has focused on the weak area.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why? Yes i will. The overall experiences are very smooth.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

They contact you before starting to find out what you aim to gain and where the help was needed.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

Very easy as done through zoom and the account online as can just click to join meeting.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

English, could hear my daughter laughing and enjoying the call each time . Finding new tools to help her with writing and proving she can do things and not to be afraid of saying what she thinks.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes as the confidence that gain and little extra help especially after missing so much makes a difference we are looking at doing monthly meeting

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

I thought the phone call to start with to try to find out more about my child and our expectations was fantastic. We were initially told that we could trial 2 subjects with 2 lessons in each which would’ve been helpful as we were interested in continuing the lessons after the trial period if they were suitable to catch up with education missed due to covid and a serious health issue my DS had.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use? Lee struggled to get in the zoom meeting to start with but after a bit we were sent the link and got in. The fact that both Saul and the tutor were in the Whatsapp group chat along with my son and I was very good and felt reassuring. Once DS was in the zoom meeting it was easy but I have to admit that I had no clue how to use zoom as I’d not personally used it before therefore a little heads up would’ve been useful for zoom virgins!

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent? French and sadly not really. I think the first lesson was positive and he felt like it was going to be helpful. However, the second lesson he was asked about how he’d got on with his homework but he’d not been set any so I think that had him on a back foot. The lessons then were more of here’s the words in French translate these English sentences. I would say that 80-90% of the time DS was guessing the answers and was often looking puzzled at me (he was allowed the camera to be switched off which isn’t great for a high schooler as they don’t engage as much as if they know they’re being watched). I just think that the method of teaching didn’t suit my son but I’m not criticising as it may suit others?

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why? I think I would need to trial a different tutor. I like the idea of GoStudent and think it’s just a case of finding the right tutor to interact and engage with your child. Perhaps for my DS it was that French wasn’t his preferred topic or perhaps it was because the lessons had to be rearranged a few times? I’m not sure but either way the tutor wasn’t the right fit and I didn’t like to say as I’d been told that we couldn’t do the 2 subjects after being told we could. Getting appointments was very difficult but I was told it was because of the mumsnet trials which I could see being a possibility so I wouldn’t judge based upon that. It’s just frustrating to organise activities a week or two in advance around the tutoring only for it to be rearranged less than 24 hours before. For now I won’t use GoStudent but I would consider using them again next year and the year after in preparation for GCSEs. As for recommending them, I would definitely tell anyone that asked to try them for themselves but think a trial offer of 1 or 2 lessons at half price would be a great incentive to do this.

Thank you for giving me a chance to trial this with my DS. He is now keen to work harder at school to avoid a private tutor in his free time - therefore it worked!

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

Easy to use

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

Easy to use

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

English and more confident

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes, good value and good tutors.

1. The initial contact and the tutor who was interested in my child and what they like
2. It was very easy
3. Maths, yes
4. Not sure as it is quite a commitment (6months)

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

Ability to have trial lessons. The level of customer service you get from the team. That you can communicate with them via WhatsApp and they are quick to get back to you. The tutor sends screenshots of what was covered in the lesson.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

My child finds the platform easy to use when having her lesson. However, I am having issues seeing my credits etc.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

My daughter has had 4 Maths lessons so far and is feeling more confident as they are pitched at right level - not too easy to make it a waste of time and not too hard so she gets frustrated. We have a trial lesson booked in for English. I did ask for a science tutor too but still waiting to hear back.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes because it is flexible, and the quality of tuition and customer service is better than other tuition services I have tried.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

The enthusiasm of the tutor we were matched to.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

I'm not really sure what this means. We were set up via WhatsApp and meetings were conducted via Zoom. I never got a login for any sort of platform. Once the zoom link wasn't sent in time for the session but no other problems.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

English. We wanted art but this wasn't an option. DD really enjoyed being able to focus on creativity.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes - especially if we end up in a lockdown situation again!

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

The ease of tutoring remotely. We don’t have a car and have limits on mobility so travelling to tutors would be an issue

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

It was a little tricky to make the arrangements at first, but the admin and tutor made a WhatsApp group and put everything I needed in there. Once that was in place all was easy

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

Biology

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes I would recommend. I was very impressed by the tutor. We gave her very little to go on, but she clearly knew the subject and could tell where my daughter needed support from a short conversation.

Unfortunately my financial circumstances have changed (have become a single parent) and funding tutoring doesn’t look possible in the short term, or I would have arranged more sessions

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

Fabulously easy to get targeted support for my child. Tutor was excellent, and everything tailored to suit his needs and learning styles to have maximum impact.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

Very easy to use, we had no issues at all. He could manage the sessions himself so that he didn’t need me to check in.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

Biology for GCSE Science. Yes, this has really improved his confidence. His school teacher has noticed. Having a different perspective really unlocked an area he was struggling with. We genuinely felt the tutor understood our child and wanted him to succeed.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Absolutely, and I already have. Matching a tutor’s teaching style to your child’s learning style, followed by an easy to use platform was great. To then see the difference this has made in confidence to my son, I would gladly recommend this to anyone.

1.What did you like most about GoStudent?
The initial contact is super client focused. The tutor we had , was good at establishing rapport with my child.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

Had issues with using platform but it got sorted.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent? English, yes, definitely

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

I would recommend if you want your child to get better at his school studies. I'm not so sure about 11 + cut throat preparation.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

The convenience of having the session at home/online at anytime including evenings and weekends.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

It was easy to use the link to login to the Zoom call and subsequent sessions were usually arranged during the tutoring session. My child (aged 8) needed to be accompanied when setting up the call though.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

Maths & English (2 sessions of each)
My daughter says she feels more confident in English as that is the area which she was most struggling with and a little more confident in Maths. There was a good balance of recapping and learning new material.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

I would recommend to someone who was looking for a tutor, for the reasons stated above but have some reservations about the platform which I would pass on. These are:

• there were technical problems on GoStudent's side in terms of broadband stability and screen-sharing difficulties. There was also disruptive background noise on occassion.
• the tutor's educational background / qualifications are not disclosed although it was apparent from the two tutors we had experience of that some are better at engaging students, giving praise and adapting the lesson for the level of knowledge the student has.
• because of the way the lessons are delivered, the tutor won't get a feel for the student's abilities when it comes to writing and spelling.

What did you like most about GoStudent?
I’m afraid I can’t think of one

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

I’m afraid we had real difficulties in communication for several weeks. It was confusing as they didn’t contact us, contact has been sporadic and disjointed.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

Too hard to tell as only had two sessions tutor was really busy and couldn’t fit in with us so has not been great.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

No, our whole experience was not not positive

My feedback is merely to say that we never got our opportunity to try this. I got a call from a lady who asked about which subjects my dc would like to try, was quite pushy trying to persuade me to do a different subject to the ones I’d requested and didn’t really listen to me. She was going to call back to arrange the 4 sessions but never did. That was about 2 weeks ago.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

I liked the ease of use. It was so easy to set up get started. I Also loved how in depth they went to get to know my daughter, and match her with a tutor based on her personality & learning type. (They did matched her perfectly by the way, thank you Bethany!) Also having a WhatsApp group with customer support & the tutor in was a great touch!

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

It was so easy to use! We've used this on an iPhone/iPad & iMac and all so easy. Very straightforward to download zoom/or just use through the browser, click the link they send directly to you via text/email and your done!

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

My daughter had maths tutoring, she was very nervous starting off, but she was matched with Ciara, who was so lovely & patient with her! My daughter picked up lots of little tips from Ciara which I know she's being using in her school class to make her life easier. She was even looking forward to the following session, which I never thought I'd hear her say!

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes! Absolutely! It's such a simple platform, which takes the time to match you to a tutor that has the same learning style, interests etc, so there doesn't seem to be that awkward teacher/student interaction, it's much more easier to build a rapport! Follow up calls/ and being able to ask questions in the WhatsApp group is brilliant too!

Many thanks to Ciara & Bethany for making my daughters experience a very pleasant one!

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

The personalised element - very keen to tailor the content to what I asked for and the WhatsApp group meant I could be straight in touch rather than an automated phone system

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

I found it quite easy in terms of setting up a meeting, logging on etc - there were some issues with the tutors internet connection which made it lag or hard to understand and my child struggled with this, found I had to repeat the information the tutor was asking back to him or repeat my child's answers back to the tutor as she couldn't hear/catch what he said

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

My DS had tutoring in English- potentially I think there would have been a more noticeable difference over a longer time, 4 sessions is a bit short to tell

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes but I think it might be better suited to a very specific issue (say algebra rather than the whole of maths) or if you were prepared to engage a tutor for a long time

1. What did you like about Gostudent?

I really liked how they spent time asking the right questions so that my daughter was paired with the right tutor. Her tutor was enthusiastic and approachable and my daughter really got a lot out of their sessions.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

Very easy!

1. What subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using Gostudent?

Maths. Yes she did - think we are going to continue with the tutor as she said it has been really helpful to go over past papers and things she finds tricky in class. Maths was the subject she said she felt most behind in after the disruption of the last 18 months.

1. Would you recommend Gostudent to a friend and why?

Yes - It was a success. I was pleasantly surprised at the price of it too- thought it would be double that and so unaffordable for us.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent? The constant interaction with the sales team. Damien was very polite and helpful- he fully explained all the aspects of go student to us and booked us in for our sessions.

He invited us to a WhatsApp group to get a picture of the full experience and always wanted to help.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

The instructions initially provided by email were very simple to follow and was very clear. The only issues I encounted was being text messaged the web address of the tutoring platform, which I then had to type into my PC and only getting the chat address 30 mins before it was due to start. I would have liked to be a bit more prepared. The zoom calls were very easy to use, the teacher spoke clearly and was able to use the full resources such as screen sharing to keep us engaged.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

Maths and English We were asked by the sales team to recommend areas of the subject we would like taught,which is brilliant however with an ASD child - my son Rarely informs me about what he was doing so the tutor went in blind and was using twinkl resources which I could have gotten myself. So disrespect to the tutor Chloe who did amazing, but this wasn’t suitable for my son who couldn’t engage with the content. I think the idea of gostudent is to more aid in specific areas rather than the general He hasn’t progressed in these areas through the tutoring however it wasn’t because of the tutoring

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes - very polite and informative. They really care about the child and asked all the right questions. They wanted to teach my son and aid him with school however he struggled with the online platform due to his ASD. If he would have engaged a bit more then I would have fully signed up to the programme.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

Very good communication from the team, and flexible in finding suitable times for the sessions

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

Very easy

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

Maths. DS is confident in maths and we wanted to try the tutoring to stretch him. The first session seemed to be finding out his level then the following sessions were certainly more challenging which he enjoyed

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes, if I knew someone who was looking for a tutor, due to the ease of use and flexibility. With a qualfier that while we were happy with the tutor DS had, we couldn't comment overall on the quality of tutoring, whereas if we had a local tutor we would be recommending an individual rather than a service.

1. What did you like most about GoStudent?

Fantastic communication between GoStudent, the tutor and myself. The staff have been so friendly and helpful. The setting up of a WhatsApp group between GoStudent, the tutor and myself is perfect for me as it’s a nice, easy way to communicate when I have time.

1. How easy did you and your child find the tutoring platform to use?

After homeschooling the online learning set up was very familiar so very easy to use.

1. Which subject did your child have tutoring in? Did they feel more confident in the subject after using GoStudent?

My child chose Maths. She’s quite able in Maths so we used it as a chance to improve confidence after lockdown and stretch and challenge. My daughter was more confident after one session. She explained a method she’d started doing recently and didn’t understand, by the end of the session she fully understood and was very excited to go to school the following day to share her new knowledge.

1. Would you recommend GoStudent to a friend and why?

Yes, I would recommend GoStudent to a friend due to the excellent communication and ease of having the sessions on zoom. Having a younger child and multiple other activists through the week it saves having to drive them somewhere or try to tidy for a tutor to come round!