Jump to content

do you have/had tutoring in IB?


the_queen

Recommended Posts

Yes ahahhaha, I have tutors for English, Chem and Math. 
Partly because I was failing these subjects in IB1 and also Chem HL was just too hard for me... Since im not a very mathematical based person :/

And tutors that understand the IB Syllabus is hard to find, I've had 2 math tutors and 3 chem tutors. I think the best tutors for IB are past IB Students or someone who understands the IB syllabus

Edited by gallagher.may
Link to post
Share on other sites

I had tutoring for English and parts of Maths. My English tutors were people in the grade above me that had taken the IB and thus could help accordingly. We got really lucky halfway through the year and the smartest girl in the ib was waiting until she went to uni in August and did tutoring for us all. She was the biggest help and knew content so thoroughly!!! Honestly she was very effective and really helped teach me how to do commentaries etc. But i'm not sure if finding someone like this is likely?! My maths tutor wasn't IB based but she said she had helped some IB students and maths was pretty universal so it was okay, the IA did kind of confuse her though so maybe an IB tutor was better.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I got tutoring in my last year for English A1 (from here, in case anyone needs it) which saved my life. They are IB examiners and tutors so they know the curriculum inside out. My teacher at school was impossible and I felt she didn't have a whole lot of knowledge of the IB English curriculum. I learnt a lot with my tutor in just a month, faaar more than in class. :D

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I made it through the IB with no tutor!!! I'm so proud of myself for trying (or rather struggling) as a fully self-sufficient, independent learner haha (no seriously, I really did struggle, I remember getting 4s and 5s for Chemistry hl and bio hl....)

But as for having no tutor being a good choice?

Hmmm, we'll just have to wait until I find out my results in January.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I paid for some tutoring with one of my school's Chemistry teachers outside school for 2 or 3 sessions to tackle the difficult bits of the HL syllabus. We had no Chemistry teacher for IB2, just a series of replacements, and all my friends doing A Levels (and who therefore had a teacher!) said this lady was brilliant at explaining things - turned out they were right! :P She really saved my bacon, especially because I'm mathematically illiterate and the calculation aspect of Chemistry just blew my brain without somebody going through every little step.

 

I think for explaining concepts and helping you get over hurdles of comprehension, it's great to have somebody to help, although I do think people massively under-utilise what is already available to them in that regard. I mean assuming your actual teachers are good enough (and present!) that you can just ask them for most things, it's amazing how many people say they're afraid of asking - I mean what is the point of a teacher if not to teach you stuff?? :blink: Answering your questions and helping you understand is their entire job! Some teachers know very little or fail at explaining, but those are few and far between, relatively speaking. Even though I felt I met a lot, it was mostly due to the 'tenured' nature of my school's establishment. Hired for life, competence regardless.

 

But if there's a subject which is being taught really badly then it can be useful. The only thing I would say is that I think a lot of people just seek tutoring either because their parents (not themselves so much!) are worried about them or because they think it will result in magical learning without them having to do much themselves. Like a kind of life coach or something. I personally think that side of things is a waste of money - you should try and get the hang of this stuff yourself and put the effort in yourself first, and only if that's not working seek help. Being able to learn stuff by yourself is a skill for life.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

But if there's a subject which is being taught really badly then it can be useful. The only thing I would say is that I think a lot of people just seek tutoring either because their parents (not themselves so much!) are worried about them or because they think it will result in magical learning without them having to do much themselves. Like a kind of life coach or something. I personally think that side of things is a waste of money - you should try and get the hang of this stuff yourself and put the effort in yourself first, and only if that's not working seek help. Being able to learn stuff by yourself is a skill for life.

 

I love this paragraph of your post the most, because I hold exactly the same point of view. Getting a tutor is a lazy alternative in my opinion, because it often discourages people's independent-thinking ability. Learning stuff by ourselves is not only fun, but also very rewarding. This is because thinking independently can help increase our curiosity within the subject which will consequently encourage us to look for a much more nuanced understanding of the subject.

 

Generally, I think it's better to avoid having a tutor. If you find a subject hard, then "fill your heart with love is enough!!!" (quote from Richard Feynman) :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

I never had proper tuition, but I did get my boyfriend to go through some of the HL maths stuff with me :D

 

On the other hand, I have provided tuition for kids in my school after I finished my IB. Mainly for students who just weren't doing well in school. I think that while many teenagers falsely believe that not giving a crap in school makes them look cool, lots of them also want to do well. It doesn't make them bad kids, they're just being teenagers. So, I helped them out initially by being their after-school teacher, and slowly as their attitude improved, more as a "come to me with your questions" teacher, if that makes sense. 

 

Tuition can also help to boost a student's self confidence. There are many who just give up at a subject, thinking they're bad at it, after a few nasty tests. Teaching them the next few chapters carefully helps them score better in subsequent tests, and after that, voila, they've got their confidence back! 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

 

But if there's a subject which is being taught really badly then it can be useful. The only thing I would say is that I think a lot of people just seek tutoring either because their parents (not themselves so much!) are worried about them or because they think it will result in magical learning without them having to do much themselves. Like a kind of life coach or something. I personally think that side of things is a waste of money - you should try and get the hang of this stuff yourself and put the effort in yourself first, and only if that's not working seek help. Being able to learn stuff by yourself is a skill for life.

 

I love this paragraph of your post the most, because I hold exactly the same point of view. Getting a tutor is a lazy alternative in my opinion, because it often discourages people's independent-thinking ability. Learning stuff by ourselves is not only fun, but also very rewarding. This is because thinking independently can help increase our curiosity within the subject which will consequently encourage us to look for a much more nuanced understanding of the subject.

 

Generally, I think it's better to avoid having a tutor. If you find a subject hard, then "fill your heart with love is enough!!!" (quote from Richard Feynman) :)

 

This would be true in an ideal world, however sometimes students are "behind" due to a lack of previous education, through sheer laziness or some other reason. A tutor allows them to catch up in a fairly short amount of time. For example, I personally struggled with Math early on in the IB, however after getting a tutor, I currently have a strong seven in Math. Personally, I think it is very ignorant to describe the use of a tutor as a "lazy alternative"

Edited by imperative560
Link to post
Share on other sites

 

 

But if there's a subject which is being taught really badly then it can be useful. The only thing I would say is that I think a lot of people just seek tutoring either because their parents (not themselves so much!) are worried about them or because they think it will result in magical learning without them having to do much themselves. Like a kind of life coach or something. I personally think that side of things is a waste of money - you should try and get the hang of this stuff yourself and put the effort in yourself first, and only if that's not working seek help. Being able to learn stuff by yourself is a skill for life.

 

I love this paragraph of your post the most, because I hold exactly the same point of view. Getting a tutor is a lazy alternative in my opinion, because it often discourages people's independent-thinking ability. Learning stuff by ourselves is not only fun, but also very rewarding. This is because thinking independently can help increase our curiosity within the subject which will consequently encourage us to look for a much more nuanced understanding of the subject.

 

Generally, I think it's better to avoid having a tutor. If you find a subject hard, then "fill your heart with love is enough!!!" (quote from Richard Feynman) :)

 

This would be true in an ideal world, however sometimes students are "behind" due to a lack of previous education, through sheer laziness or some other reason. A tutor allows them to catch up in a fairly short amount of time. For example, I personally struggled with Math early on in the IB, however after getting a tutor, I currently have a strong seven in Math. Personally, I think it is very ignorant to describe the use of a tutor as a "lazy alternative"

 

Well said!

Especially if you're blind and your teacher refuses to slow down/explain a certain concept in a different way because  she just fails to comprehend how hard it is for you to go through a complicated equation, i.e. have it read  by a screen reader character by character and then try to think it over. (because that's the only way you can do it if you're blind!)

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

But if there's a subject which is being taught really badly then it can be useful. The only thing I would say is that I think a lot of people just seek tutoring either because their parents (not themselves so much!) are worried about them or because they think it will result in magical learning without them having to do much themselves. Like a kind of life coach or something. I personally think that side of things is a waste of money - you should try and get the hang of this stuff yourself and put the effort in yourself first, and only if that's not working seek help. Being able to learn stuff by yourself is a skill for life.

 

I love this paragraph of your post the most, because I hold exactly the same point of view. Getting a tutor is a lazy alternative in my opinion, because it often discourages people's independent-thinking ability. Learning stuff by ourselves is not only fun, but also very rewarding. This is because thinking independently can help increase our curiosity within the subject which will consequently encourage us to look for a much more nuanced understanding of the subject.

 

Generally, I think it's better to avoid having a tutor. If you find a subject hard, then "fill your heart with love is enough!!!" (quote from Richard Feynman) :)

 

So you think asking for help is a 'lazy alternative'? How can you be so ignorant? What you're saying implies that we don't need any human touch in education! Being able to learn things ourselves is definitely an advantage, but that's only possible if you're generally good at the subject in question.  That's why I really hate it when I ask a simple question and people tell me to look up the answer on the internet. Yes, you can look up anything on the internet/in books, but there's no point in learning texts by heart and not having a clue what all the fuss is about!

 

This would be true in case of  tutors who do their students homework for them/think for them. (I doubt such tutors even exist.)  Besides, those who are truly lazy don't even make an effort to seek help, believe me! There's nothing wrong with asking for help with subjects you struggle with, tuition does exactly the  opposite of what you think it does.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

This would be true in an ideal world, however sometimes students are "behind" due to a lack of previous education, through sheer laziness or some other reason. A tutor allows them to catch up in a fairly short amount of time. For example, I personally struggled with Math early on in the IB, however after getting a tutor, I currently have a strong seven in Math. Personally, I think it is very ignorant to describe the use of a tutor as a "lazy alternative

Well said!

Especially if you're blind and your teacher refuses to slow down/explain a certain concept in a different way because  she just fails to comprehend how hard it is for you to go through a complicated equation, i.e. have it read  by a screen reader character by character and then try to think it over. (because that's the only way you can do it if you're blind!)

 

I'm sorry if you think my post was offensive. I truly didn't mean to be patronizing, or to condemn you guys as 'lazy people'. My original intention was only to emphasize exactly what Sandwich was trying to say in her post. Your misunderstanding probably comes from my own fault to have misused the phrase 'lazy alternatives'. And for that I am sorry.

 

I've realized that you are a blind person, and for that I have nothing against your decision of getting a tutor. However, I think you should realize that you need a tutor because you've lost your ability to see, not because you don't have the ability to understanding things by yourself. And that is a huge difference.

 

Now, I want to explain a little about why I think tutoring is sometimes not a good idea:

 

What you're saying implies that we don't need any human touch in education!

 

No, I truly didn’t mean that. In fact, I think the help from teachers, books, internet, etc, are enormously useful in the process of learning. I just think that getting a tutor is not very necessary.

 

That's why I really hate it when I ask a simple question and people tell me to look up the answer on the internet. Yes, you can look up anything on the internet/in books, but there's no point in learning texts by heart and not having a clue what all the fuss is about!

 

Well, to be honest, I don’t think it’s good to compare teachers/tutors as some sort of machines who have to give you an answer for any question that you ask them. They should be the ones who guide you to the right materials that you need to understand the concept. That’s what my maths teacher did. When I asked him about a math problem relating to expanding a trig function, he didn’t show me the answer at all. Instead he told me to look up the answer myself through some lectures on MIT open course. I was quite angry at him at first, but then I was really glad that he did, because those lectures became enormously useful as it ignited my passion for studying about differential equations. Besides, if the question is really simple as you say, then it’s not really that hard to seek the answer over the internet, isn’t it?

 

So you think asking for help is a 'lazy alternative'? How can you be so ignorant?

 

It’s totally not true that I think asking for help is a ‘lazy alternative’. Don’t get me wrong. In fact, that’s the opposite of what I truly believe. Asking for help is a very good way of learning in my opinion, and that’s exactly the reason why I’ve spent hours on IBSurvival, not only to help other people, but also to ask for help from other people. So I think asking for help is really not a ‘lazy alternative’.

 

At the same time, I do believe that asking for help too much does lead to some sort of dependence, thus discouraging students’ curiosity in searching for a more nuanced level of understanding. For instance, I’ve seen few people trying to study IB chemistry only by watching Richard Thornley’s youtube channel, which I consider to be nothing more than an online tutor. And then it turned out that they became very much dependent on Richard Thornley, too dependent that they couldn’t understand the concepts without these videos. And I certainly think it is probably the same case with my tuitions out there, because it’s often the case that a tutor would sit with the student, going through all syllabus points, helping the student to do even very simple questions. I’ve personally done a bit of tutoring myself (to my fellow IB classmates); and in many times, after I showed them my worked solution, many of them said “wow, that’s so easy then, I could have done that by myself”. This is to say that there are students who come to the teachers for help simply because they think that they can’t do the question by themselves, not because they don’t have the ability to do the question.

 

As a person who always tries to promote an independent learning environment, I strong believe that self-study brings many benefits. First, it gives students self-confidence, as it shows that people can do something by themselves. Secondly, self-study is a life-skill, as Sandwich has pointed out. It’s also exactly how universities work nowadays. And thirdly, self-study boosts students’ curiosity and imagination. For example, I once derived the formula for the derivative of the exponential function by myself without having any prior understanding of calculus. And after that, I gained lots of understanding within mathematics. I don’t think this form of knowledge can come from any source of tuition/books/teachers, because it clearly came from my self-study & curiosity within the subject.

 

Anyhow, enough of my ‘babbling’! I just want you guys to see the other side of the discussion.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

 

This would be true in an ideal world, however sometimes students are "behind" due to a lack of previous education, through sheer laziness or some other reason. A tutor allows them to catch up in a fairly short amount of time. For example, I personally struggled with Math early on in the IB, however after getting a tutor, I currently have a strong seven in Math. Personally, I think it is very ignorant to describe the use of a tutor as a "lazy alternative

Well said!

Especially if you're blind and your teacher refuses to slow down/explain a certain concept in a different way because  she just fails to comprehend how hard it is for you to go through a complicated equation, i.e. have it read  by a screen reader character by character and then try to think it over. (because that's the only way you can do it if you're blind!)

 

I'm sorry if you think my post was offensive. I truly didn't mean to be patronizing, or to condemn you guys as 'lazy people'. My original intention was only to emphasize exactly what Sandwich was trying to say in her post. Your misunderstanding probably comes from my own fault to have misused the phrase 'lazy alternatives'. And for that I am sorry.

 

I've realized that you are a blind person, and for that I have nothing against your decision of getting a tutor. However, I think you should realize that you need a tutor because you've lost your ability to see, not because you don't have the ability to understanding things by yourself. And that is a huge difference.

 

Now, I want to explain a little about why I think tutoring is sometimes not a good idea:

 

What you're saying implies that we don't need any human touch in education!

 

No, I truly didn’t mean that. In fact, I think the help from teachers, books, internet, etc, are enormously useful in the process of learning. I just think that getting a tutor is not very necessary.

 

That's why I really hate it when I ask a simple question and people tell me to look up the answer on the internet. Yes, you can look up anything on the internet/in books, but there's no point in learning texts by heart and not having a clue what all the fuss is about!

 

Well, to be honest, I don’t think it’s good to compare teachers/tutors as some sort of machines who have to give you an answer for any question that you ask them. They should be the ones who guide you to the right materials that you need to understand the concept. That’s what my maths teacher did. When I asked him about a math problem relating to expanding a trig function, he didn’t show me the answer at all. Instead he told me to look up the answer myself through some lectures on MIT open course. I was quite angry at him at first, but then I was really glad that he did, because those lectures became enormously useful as it ignited my passion for studying about differential equations. Besides, if the question is really simple as you say, then it’s not really that hard to seek the answer over the internet, isn’t it?

 

So you think asking for help is a 'lazy alternative'? How can you be so ignorant?

 

It’s totally not true that I think asking for help is a ‘lazy alternative’. Don’t get me wrong. In fact, that’s the opposite of what I truly believe. Asking for help is a very good way of learning in my opinion, and that’s exactly the reason why I’ve spent hours on IBSurvival, not only to help other people, but also to ask for help from other people. So I think asking for help is really not a ‘lazy alternative’.

 

At the same time, I do believe that asking for help too much does lead to some sort of dependence, thus discouraging students’ curiosity in searching for a more nuanced level of understanding. For instance, I’ve seen few people trying to study IB chemistry only by watching Richard Thornley’s youtube channel, which I consider to be nothing more than an online tutor. And then it turned out that they became very much dependent on Richard Thornley, too dependent that they couldn’t understand the concepts without these videos. And I certainly think it is probably the same case with my tuitions out there, because it’s often the case that a tutor would sit with the student, going through all syllabus points, helping the student to do even very simple questions. I’ve personally done a bit of tutoring myself (to my fellow IB classmates); and in many times, after I showed them my worked solution, many of them said “wow, that’s so easy then, I could have done that by myselfâ€. This is to say that there are students who come to the teachers for help simply because they think that they can’t do the question by themselves, not because they don’t have the ability to do the question.

 

As a person who always tries to promote an independent learning environment, I strong believe that self-study brings many benefits. First, it gives students self-confidence, as it shows that people can do something by themselves. Secondly, self-study is a life-skill, as Sandwich has pointed out. It’s also exactly how universities work nowadays. And thirdly, self-study boosts students’ curiosity and imagination. For example, I once derived the formula for the derivative of the exponential function by myself without having any prior understanding of calculus. And after that, I gained lots of understanding within mathematics. I don’t think this form of knowledge can come from any source of tuition/books/teachers, because it clearly came from my self-study & curiosity within the subject.

 

Anyhow, enough of my ‘babbling’! I just want you guys to see the other side of the discussion.

 

I see what you mean, but you're obviously very good at mathematics, I admire you!:) What you said about self-study is indeed very true. One of the reasons why I decided against studying English in Hungary is that I already know pretty much everything that is studied over here. It just came naturally, like you said. :) However,  there are cases where private tuition is necessary.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

 

 

This would be true in an ideal world, however sometimes students are "behind" due to a lack of previous education, through sheer laziness or some other reason. A tutor allows them to catch up in a fairly short amount of time. For example, I personally struggled with Math early on in the IB, however after getting a tutor, I currently have a strong seven in Math. Personally, I think it is very ignorant to describe the use of a tutor as a "lazy alternative

Well said!

Especially if you're blind and your teacher refuses to slow down/explain a certain concept in a different way because  she just fails to comprehend how hard it is for you to go through a complicated equation, i.e. have it read  by a screen reader character by character and then try to think it over. (because that's the only way you can do it if you're blind!)

 

I'm sorry if you think my post was offensive. I truly didn't mean to be patronizing, or to condemn you guys as 'lazy people'. My original intention was only to emphasize exactly what Sandwich was trying to say in her post. Your misunderstanding probably comes from my own fault to have misused the phrase 'lazy alternatives'. And for that I am sorry.

 

I've realized that you are a blind person, and for that I have nothing against your decision of getting a tutor. However, I think you should realize that you need a tutor because you've lost your ability to see, not because you don't have the ability to understanding things by yourself. And that is a huge difference.

 

Now, I want to explain a little about why I think tutoring is sometimes not a good idea:

 

What you're saying implies that we don't need any human touch in education!

 

No, I truly didn’t mean that. In fact, I think the help from teachers, books, internet, etc, are enormously useful in the process of learning. I just think that getting a tutor is not very necessary.

 

That's why I really hate it when I ask a simple question and people tell me to look up the answer on the internet. Yes, you can look up anything on the internet/in books, but there's no point in learning texts by heart and not having a clue what all the fuss is about!

 

Well, to be honest, I don’t think it’s good to compare teachers/tutors as some sort of machines who have to give you an answer for any question that you ask them. They should be the ones who guide you to the right materials that you need to understand the concept. That’s what my maths teacher did. When I asked him about a math problem relating to expanding a trig function, he didn’t show me the answer at all. Instead he told me to look up the answer myself through some lectures on MIT open course. I was quite angry at him at first, but then I was really glad that he did, because those lectures became enormously useful as it ignited my passion for studying about differential equations. Besides, if the question is really simple as you say, then it’s not really that hard to seek the answer over the internet, isn’t it?

 

So you think asking for help is a 'lazy alternative'? How can you be so ignorant?

 

It’s totally not true that I think asking for help is a ‘lazy alternative’. Don’t get me wrong. In fact, that’s the opposite of what I truly believe. Asking for help is a very good way of learning in my opinion, and that’s exactly the reason why I’ve spent hours on IBSurvival, not only to help other people, but also to ask for help from other people. So I think asking for help is really not a ‘lazy alternative’.

 

At the same time, I do believe that asking for help too much does lead to some sort of dependence, thus discouraging students’ curiosity in searching for a more nuanced level of understanding. For instance, I’ve seen few people trying to study IB chemistry only by watching Richard Thornley’s youtube channel, which I consider to be nothing more than an online tutor. And then it turned out that they became very much dependent on Richard Thornley, too dependent that they couldn’t understand the concepts without these videos. And I certainly think it is probably the same case with my tuitions out there, because it’s often the case that a tutor would sit with the student, going through all syllabus points, helping the student to do even very simple questions. I’ve personally done a bit of tutoring myself (to my fellow IB classmates); and in many times, after I showed them my worked solution, many of them said “wow, that’s so easy then, I could have done that by myselfâ€. This is to say that there are students who come to the teachers for help simply because they think that they can’t do the question by themselves, not because they don’t have the ability to do the question.

 

As a person who always tries to promote an independent learning environment, I strong believe that self-study brings many benefits. First, it gives students self-confidence, as it shows that people can do something by themselves. Secondly, self-study is a life-skill, as Sandwich has pointed out. It’s also exactly how universities work nowadays. And thirdly, self-study boosts students’ curiosity and imagination. For example, I once derived the formula for the derivative of the exponential function by myself without having any prior understanding of calculus. And after that, I gained lots of understanding within mathematics. I don’t think this form of knowledge can come from any source of tuition/books/teachers, because it clearly came from my self-study & curiosity within the subject.

 

Anyhow, enough of my ‘babbling’! I just want you guys to see the other side of the discussion.

 

I see what you mean, but you're obviously very good at mathematics, I admire you! :) What you said about self-study is indeed very true. One of the reasons why I decided against studying English in Hungary is that I already know pretty much everything that is studied over here. It just came naturally, like you said. :) However,  there are cases where private tuition is necessary.

 

Oh, I didn't mean that, you misunderstood me. I simply meant that I was quite mad at my teacher because we couldn't afford to get a tutor, which I would have needed back then. and, being blind, watching videos was out of the question.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I didn't have any tutors lol

-they were hard to find (you see IB isn't a very popular option here) and I was (and still am) quite lazy to make an effort to find one

-I was also obstinate and thought that no one could help me with memorising my notes and writing notes that I felt could help me scrape through my subjects

 

 

But it does go to show that you can still do quite well in the IB without tutors! (I managed with a 43)

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I had a tutor for english, mainly because I was borderlining failing (legitimately 3/4) during the first year of IB.

 

My tutor was a relief teacher at my school who used to teach IB English at St. Peter's Boys for about 8 years? She did help me quite a lot, but in the end, one of my friend's commentary made so much sense that I finally saw what IB English truly is. But she was an amazing person who guided me through my darkest times.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...