I’ve seen a good variety of students come for tutoring. Things that definately make a tutoring session good are the student AND the tutor being prepared. I had one session where I basically sat back as the student would tell me everything she knew about a topic. I didn’t even get a chance to write anything down on the form because she said so much, so fast. We had a really good biology conversation (nerd alert) because she knew the material so well and I could tie all of that in and help her connect all these different topics. It was good to hear her say that she felt much more confident for the test and we went over some test taking strategies since it was the first test. The student was thinking critically and organizing the material in her head and I just provided positive reinforcement. Other tutor sessions aren’t so easy when one person is not prepared. Sometimes you just have to say to them that they need to read the material before there can be any kind of discussion about it. When there’s that silence after you ask a question and you can tell they have no idea what you’re talking about all you can do is say ok, let’s look in the text where they talk about that and then after reading it we can discuss it and make sure we understand it. Sometimes it helps when they read it aloud and then I ask questions because right there they have practiced looking something up, reading about it, and then trying to understand it. What made me nervous the first couple times I tutored was what I would do if they asked me a question and I had no idea what they were talking about. I realized though that it happens and it’s actually a good learning opportunity for the student if handled correctly. I always bring other biology textbooks so we can look things up together. That’s really important in studying because you can stare at the text forever and not get it, but sometimes a different approach or another source will lead you to that ‘ah hah’ moment. I also ask the student before the session what they want to go over more specifically so I can make sure I am up to speed on those topics. Also I make sure we’ve talked about their learning style so the session is effective and geared towards how they learn. Some of the things I do now when tutoring are using other sources (internet, textbooks) to look up more information on topics we are discussing to show them how important that is when studying. Also I have them explain to me the concepts and think about why you would do some bio. technique or how does that topic relate to (x) etc. I haven’t had any ugly tutoring sessions but some definately had more uneasy moments than others. I’ve learned a lot from the ‘tougher’ sessions and will be that much more prepared next year.