As students progress through their educational careers, they will undoubtedly encounter a challenging course, leading them to seek tutoring aid.

Tutoring, especially in academically-competitive regions such as Irvine, is a common phenomenon, as it provides a variety of benefits for students. Private tutoring, for example, offers one-on-one interactions between the tutor and student. This opens up the option for the tutor to shape his or her entire teaching method around the needs of the tutee. Instead of a teacher covering content for the general benefit of an entire class of students, the tutor can specialize his or her lessons in order to target the weaknesses of a single student.

According to Supporting Education, an online newsletter centered around education, one-on-one instruction eliminates most external distractions in a common classroom and can be used by tutors to devote all of their efforts toward a single student’s education. This often results in a richer learning experience than learning in groups.

Additionally, a Turkish study discovered that 15 year-old students who received private tutoring for mathematics saw improvements on exams; according to the study, one hour of tutoring is valued to be around 12 to 15 points on a test.

Many argue that tutoring is ineffective, as tutors may attempt to aid the learning of their tutees by doing their homework for them, opening up room for exploitation. However, according to The Conversation, an academic-focused media outlet, tutoring should aim at becoming a replication of what occurs within a classroom. The goal of tutoring is to allow students to function independently; a student’s growing dependence on a tutor should therefore be attributed to the inadequacy of the tutor rather than the tutoring process itself.

Although tutoring may not be a necessity to learners, it remains an incredibly valuable resource.