Updated August 17, 2026

The 5 Steps to Finding a Great Tutor

Effective tutoring can make a huge difference for students, helping them build independent study skills, improve their academic performance, and get excited about learning.

But with so many options out there, from local after-school centers to online group sessions, looking for the right tutor can be an overwhelming process.

We’ve been matching students with tutors for over twenty years, taking into account everything from academic fit to shared interests. Based on our experience, we’ve outlined the five key steps to finding a tutor who’s the right fit.

Use this step-by-step guide to figure out what’s important to you in a tutoring service and how to find what you’re looking for.

Then, when you’re ready to find your own tutor, get in touch with our team to find the right match.

Jump to section:
Step 1: Define your tutoring goals
 Step 2: Understand what makes a great tutor
 Step 3: Check out free resources
 Step 4: Explore tutoring options
 Step 5: Set up a trial session
 Next steps

Step 1: Define your tutoring goals

Before you start looking for a tutor, it’s important to know exactly what you’re looking for.

  • Academic support: If your child is struggling in a specific class, consider looking for a tutor who specializes in that academic subject. For example, if your student is having a hard time with algebra, a college math major might be able to help. 
  • Enrichment: Tutoring can also be a great way to help kids explore subjects that they don’t have access to at school, like languages that aren’t part of the standard curriculum. If you’re looking for enrichment tutoring, rather than support with a school class, make sure you look for a tutor who’s experienced at developing their own curriculum and schedule, as well as creating homework assignments.
  • Test preparation: For many students, tutoring can make a big difference when preparing for standardized tests. That includes college admissions tests like the SAT and the ACT, but tutoring can also help with admissions tests for high school, like the SSAT,  and with grad school entrance exams like the GRE, LSAT, and MCAT. Since doing well on these exams often involves a lot of “test strategy” and familiarity with the test, it’s important to look for a tutor who’s very familiar with the test content and format.  
  • College applications: Navigating the college admissions process involves very specific skills, so if you’re looking for support with application essays, look for an experienced tutor who understands the ins and outs of the Common App or Coalition App essay as well as the range of supplemental essays required for many applications.

Step 2: Understand what makes a great tutor

What makes someone the perfect tutor for a particular student depends on a lot of factors, including personality and teaching style. Still, there are a few criteria to keep in mind when researching tutoring services.

Experience: Every expert tutor was once a beginner (and working with a beginning tutor, or a tutor who’s still in school, can sometimes be a more affordable option than a more experienced teacher). Still, it’s often true that the more teaching experience a tutor has, the more able they’ll be to adapt to each student’s challenges.

Experience can refer to total tutoring hours, but it’s also important to look at the person’s experience in the specific area you’re looking for, whether that’s an academic subject or standardized test preparation.

Flexibility: Every student learns differently, and skilled tutors are able to adapt to different learning styles and needs. If you’re looking for help preparing for the SAT, for example, you don’t want a tutor who takes a one-size-fits-all approach and gives everyone the same practice questions. Ideally, the tutor should help you identify the areas you need to work on and focus their attention on those topics. 

Communication skills: Especially when they’re supporting students who are struggling in a particular class, it’s important for tutors to be able to explain concepts clearly and patiently. If one approach doesn’t work for a student, qualified tutors have other options they can try. From a parent’s perspective, it’s also important for the tutor to keep in communication about the student’s progress and make sure that goals and expectations are aligned.

Step 3: Check out free resources

One-on-one tutoring can be enormously helpful for students for families with the means to pursue this option. Free or low-cost educational resources can be a good alternative to (paid) tutoring sessions, or students can use a combination of tutoring and self-directed learning.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is one of the best-known educational non-profits, and for good reason. Founded in 2008 with the mission to “provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere,” its online platform includes videos and exercises on a wide range of academic subjects, as well as a free SAT prep program created in partnership with the College Board. 

Since there are no live instructors on Khan Academy, it’s not ideal for students who need more individualized support or feedback. If you’re looking for support with your college essays, for example, it’s not a replacement for a qualified tutor.

Still, Khan Academy is a great place to start for many academic subjects, standardized test preparation, and exploring new areas of study.

Learn to Be

Learn to Be is another fantastic option for families on a budget. It’s a non-profit organization that offers tutoring sessions for underserved youth in the U.S., working primarily with foster youth, homeless youth, and other lower-income families. 

Students working with Learn to Be have seen an average increase in test scores of 15.8% and an average GPA increase of 1.6 — nearly two full letter grades (for example from a C to an A-)! 

Learn to Be tutors are volunteers who are passionate about educational equity. They range from current high school and college students to professionals or retirees. Students who need or prefer tutoring sessions in Spanish can also request a Spanish-speaking tutor.

Your student might qualify for free tutoring with Learn to Be if they attend a Title 1 school; receive free or reduced lunch at school; come from a single-parent home; are a foster child; are homeless; or qualify for food stamps. It’s possible to work with a Spanish-speaking tutor through Learn to Be.

Schoolhouse

Schoolhouse is a free online tutoring platform that offers peer tutoring, founded by Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy.

The platform is open to all students over age 13. Students can qualify as peer tutors by taking a test in a variety of subjects. Then they can volunteer to host online tutoring sessions to help their peers.

Schoolhouse can be a great one-off tutoring option for students who need help understanding a problem or have questions about material they’re learning in school. It doesn’t provide long-term, individualized tutoring, and since the tutors are generally high school students themselves, it’s not the place to find an expert tutor.

Step 4: Explore tutoring options

Once you’ve identified your student’s goals, you can explore the different tutoring options available.

Online tutoring offers a lot of flexibility, since students can join tutoring sessions from anywhere. It also gives families more options, especially if they live in a rural or suburban area. In-person tutoring can be a good option for kids who have trouble staying focused when they’re online, especially younger kids.

When you’ve decided on the right tutoring format, the next step is to choose the right tutoring service.

We’ve researched dozens of tutoring services that specialize in math, writing, college essays, and other subjects to help you find the right fit. 

When you’re evaluating tutoring platforms, there are a few factors to keep in mind.

  • What’s the company’s track record? Does it provide information on outcomes for its tutoring students?
  • What qualifications does the service require its tutors to have? Are they high school or college students, or are they required to hold degrees?
  • Does the service provide training to its tutors? Some tutoring services don’t offer their tutors any training at all, which usually isn’t a good sign – you might still get lucky and find a great tutor, but more likely, your tutor won’t have had the chance to gain any teaching skills.
  • What do previous students say? Look for reviews on the company’s website or on Google.
  • Are the prices in your budget? The service may offer a range of pricing options or a sliding scale.

Say you’re looking for SAT tutoring. Using these criteria to evaluate a tutoring service, you’d want to know what the average score increase is for students who complete SAT tutoring through the service, whether tutors are qualified and trained specifically for the SAT, and whether they offer different pricing options.

At PrepMaven, for example, students who complete a few months of individualized SAT tutoring often see a score increase of 100-300 points. The tutors are mostly graduates of Ivy League universities, with a handful from other top-30 colleges. Before offering SAT tutoring, tutors are required to complete a training course on teaching the digital SAT curriculum. 

For lower-cost tutoring options, families can choose to work with a tutor who’s a current college student, or they can choose small-group tutoring. 

For a free consultation about your student’s situation and how we can help, feel free to get in touch with our team.

Step 5: Set up an initial session

Once you’ve found a tutor who’s a good fit, set up an initial session. 

It’s important to communicate beforehand and at the beginning of the session about the student’s specific challenges and goals. That might be ongoing support with a difficult class, or it could be a more concrete aim, like increasing an SAT score by a certain amount.

After the session, evaluate what went well and if there’s anything you’d like to change. It’s important to be realistic – don’t expect to address all the student’s challenges in just one session. Still, communicate with the tutor if you have questions or concerns about the process.

A good in-person or online tutoring service will make sure that the student and tutor are a good fit. At PrepMaven, if you’re not satisfied with a session – whether it’s the first or the 20th – please let us know, and the next session will be on us. We’ll work with you until we find the right tutor.

Throughout the tutoring process, stay involved by checking in regularly with both your child and their tutor to make sure you’re on the same page.

Next Steps

When you’re looking for a tutor, it’s important to find someone who’s the right match for you.

PrepMaven thoughtfully matches each student with a qualified tutor based on their academic background, goals, and even shared extracurricular interests.

Schedule a quick, free consultation with our team today to find the right tutor for you.

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Ro

Rosamond graduated summa cum laude from Princeton. During college, she worked as a peer tutor for Italian, French, Greek, and academic writing. Since graduation, she’s continued to tutor students of all ages in French, Italian, Latin, English, and math, some of them for several years. She’s currently a graduate student studying the relationship between religion and secular law, and she works as a freelance journalist and translator.

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