Almost every guardian who calls us to replace a tutor says a version of the same thing: "He is a good student, but it is not working." The tutor is rarely unqualified. The mismatch is usually somewhere the interview never went.
A university name tells you what a tutor knows. It tells you very little about whether they can hold a distracted fourteen-year-old's attention for ninety minutes, or whether they will still be turning up in February.
Decide what the tuition is actually for
Write one sentence before you talk to anyone. Not "improve in maths" — something you could check in three months.
- Rifat needs to stop losing marks on geometry proofs in his school exams.
- Tasnim needs to be ready for HSC physics MCQs by October.
- Ayaan needs someone to sit with him so homework stops being a fight every night.
Those three sentences describe three completely different tutors. The first needs subject depth, the second needs exam-pattern experience, the third needs patience and consistency far more than a strong CGPA.
Send that sentence to the tutor before the first conversation. The good ones will come back with questions. That response is itself a signal.
The four things worth checking
1. Distance, honestly measured
The single best predictor of a tuition surviving past month three is travel time. A tutor who takes fifty minutes each way will be on time in week one and apologetic by week six — not because they are careless, but because the arithmetic of their day stops working.
Ask where they are travelling from, not which area they live in. And ask what their schedule looks like on either side of your slot.
2. Experience with your board, not just your subject
Bangla medium, English version, English medium, Madrasa and O/A Level are different products. A brilliant English-medium physics tutor can genuinely struggle with a Bangla-medium SSC syllabus, because the question pattern, the marking and the expected wording are all different.
Ask: "Which board have you taught most recently, and for how long?"
3. How they handle a topic the student already failed
This is the question that separates tutors. Ask them: "She scored 40% in her last algebra test. What do you do in the first two sessions?"
A weak answer is "I will explain the chapter again." A strong answer works out what she actually does not understand before re-teaching anything — because re-explaining the same thing louder is exactly what already did not work.
4. Whether they will tell you bad news
You want a tutor who will say "he did not do the homework this week" in week two, not in month three. Ask directly how they report progress and how often. "I will let you know if there is a problem" is not a system.
Verify before the first class, not after
Whoever you hire, and wherever you find them:
- See a photo ID and the student ID or certificate they claim.
- Confirm the phone number by calling it, not just receiving a call.
- For the first few weeks, keep the sessions in a shared part of the house.
On Excellence Tutor every tutor's NID and institution are checked before their profile goes live, and the badge on the profile tells you the state of that check. That removes one problem. It does not remove your judgement.
Use the demo class properly
A demo class is not a formality — it is the only chance to watch the actual thing you are buying. Sit close enough to hear it.
Watch the student, not the tutor. Are they answering, or nodding? Does the tutor notice when they have stopped following? Does the tutor talk for fifty minutes straight, or ask the student to explain something back?
Afterwards, ask the student one question: "Did that make sense?" A twelve-year-old will tell you the truth about this faster than any reference will.
Agree the boring things in writing
Before the first paid class, settle: the monthly amount, the number of days, the exact time, what happens to a missed class, when payment is made, and how much notice either side gives before stopping.
Ninety percent of tuition disputes we mediate are about one of those six things, and almost all of them were never said out loud.
Key takeaways
- Write one checkable sentence about what the tuition is for before you speak to any tutor.
- Travel time predicts whether a tuition survives better than any qualification does.
- Ask how they would handle a topic the student has already failed — the answer separates good tutors from qualified ones.
- Watch the student during the demo class, not the tutor.
- Agree money, days, time, missed classes, payment date and notice period before the first paid session.
If you would rather not run this process yourself, tell us what you need and the desk sends you a shortlist of verified tutors who already match the area, board and budget. It is free for guardians.
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