A private Tutoroffers one to one help to students to prepare for exams. You should have experience in the specific subjects of interest. This role requires a minimum degree in Education specializing in the specified subjects. Be ready to discuss your expertise in your subject area and your work history. Some clients may require a higher degree. Use the below top 20 questions to prepare for your upcoming interview.
1. Why Are You Interested In This Role?
Explain to the interviewer your interest in this role. Be enthusiastic about the role and show passion in Education in your answer.
Sample Answer
“I am interested in this role because I see that my education and experience closely match the job description. I am enthusiastic about one-to-one help to students as I get to see them improve their skills on a daily basis. I like the intellectual fulfillment I get when I see students improve their skills. The opportunity is also great for me to develop my skills while getting a financial reward. The flexibility the role offers interests me. I will also get to exercise different tutoring styles because I will be handling different learners and m work will be to ensure they are at par with what we teach.”
2. What Are The Roles Of A Private Tutor?
The interviewer wants to see if you know the roles you will be playing. The job description is a good guide when answering this question.
Sample Answer
“For this role, you will need to identify the learner’s individual needs. Use this information to create lesson plans to assist the learner in improving in the required areas. You will then prepare, assign and mark home works. You will also prepare the tests for the learners and mark them. You will work with the students to ensure they develop or improve skills as agreed. In the end, you will discuss the progress with the learners and/or with their parents or guardians. You will also check if they are making progress in their normal school work to judge the effect of the work you are doing.”
3. What Are The Qualities That A Private Tutor Need To Be Successful?
Can you identify the qualities that will make you successful in this role? This is what the interviewer is looking for. Share what will make you excel in the role. If the job description has a person attributes section, you can base your answer on it.
Sample Answer
“To be successful in this role you need to be self-disciplined as you will have to stick to scheduled timelines and plans. You need great communication skills that will ensure that the sessions are delivered well. It helps to have good experience in tutoring as it will help you know the learning styles to employ with different learners. You also need patience as the learning speed may differ from student to student and you should be able to adapt their pace to realize progress. You also need to be dynamic, flexible, and able to switch learning styles depending on your assessment of the student. You should also be able to make the learner motivated, confident, and enthusiastic about their ability to master the subject.”
4. What Major Challenges Did You Face During Your Last Role? How Didyou Manage Them?
This role may present challenges from time to time. Share a challenge you have encountered before and how you were able to navigate through it.
Sample Answer
“The main challenge I have faced in my work is pressure from parents. I have tutored students whose parents wanted instant results. They would be as anxious as to why in two weeks their kid’s grades were not improving. Most of these learners were very slow in their grasp of the subject matter. To counter this, I sit down with the parents after the initial assessment of the learner’s abilities. I explain to them my assessment of their kid and explain the learning styles that will be best suited for them. I also give timelines on when they should expect results. Setting these expectations at the start of the engagement has ensured that parents are aware of what to expect at each stage. It also reduces the pressure they mount on me for instant results.”
5. Describe Your Daily Routine As A Private Tutor?
Give an account of the way you will utilize your time as a private tutor. This will demonstrate your planning and organizational skills.
Sample Answer
“I do private tutoring from 4 pm to 9 pm. I have the option of either doing it virtually or face to face depending on the learner’s preferences. I ensure I arrive at the venue on time so as not to waste any time before learning starts. I share the notes beforehand so that the learner is aware of what we are going to handle on a particular day.”
6. Describe Briefly About Your Experience
The interviewer is interested in what you can handle. Share the experience that you have had that is relevant to this role.
Sample Answer
“I have five years of experience in teaching English and Literature. I am a full-time senior teacher and head of the department in my school. I have done private tutoring for close to four years. During this period I have assisted a number of learners to improve on their grades and understand their learning abilities. In this period I have seen tremendous growth in the students I have coached and I am proud of the progress they make. I have seen learners exceed their wildest imaginations in the subject area. I have also made friends through the mentorship I offer my learners in terms of general life issues.”
7. What Kind Of Strategies And Mindset Is Required For This Role?
As a private tutor, you need to employ strategies and mindsets that will assist your learners to trust you and therefore excel. Explain to the interviewer what these should be while relating it to how it will be instrumental in the learning process.
Sample Answer
“You should demonstrate a growth mindset in your private tutoring. You should reinforce to the learner that the aim is to grow in all aspects of life not just in one subject area. When they see how mastery in this subject matter relates to all areas of their life, it will be easy for them to learn. Reinforce the impact it will have in their future too. As a private tutor, you should be flexible to apply different learning methods to the learners you handle. Everyone has a different pace of learning. Tailor your sessions to make the most out of the sessions while ensuring real progress is also realized.”
8. What Is The Biggest Challenge That You Foresee In This Job?
Every role has challenges. The ability to handle them is what sets people apart. Share a challenge that you anticipate and give a plan of action on how you will overcome it.
Sample Answer
“The challenge I foresee in this job is students who are not willing to do the work. The ones who do not have the drive to strive for personal improvement. This is what makes me anxious about this role. If a student is committed to making improvement they become teachable and the work is smooth. However, I have a couple of strategies on how to help these breeds of learners. They assist me to put my mentoring skills to good work and it has borne great fruits in the past.”
9. How Do You Stay Motivated In Your Work?
The interviewer is interested in what keeps you going despite the challenges you meet along the way. Share what strategies you use to stay motivated always.
Sample Answer
“Education is my passion. I am passionate about seeing growth and improvement in my learners. I get joy in seeing them transform right in my eyes and therefore I do not need to employ elaborate strategies to stay motivated. The daily progress I see keeps me going and wanting to see more of it. I also do aerobics which assists me to keep my energy levels high and staying in shape. This ensures that I keep up with the energy of my learners who are always young people.”
10. Describe A Time When You Failed In This Role And The Lesson You Learnt?
Failure is imminent. What matters are the lessons learned? Give a story of a failure and what lessons you learned. Explain how those lessons have been instrumental in your career.
Sample Answer
“When I started private tutoring, I had not started by assessing the learner’s needs first then discussing the best approaches to handle the subject matter with them. As a result, I succumbed to pressure from my parents for instant results. One time I got a learner who had been out of school for a while due to ill health and I was to bring her up to speed with the rest of the students in her class within a month. I accepted the challenge without considering whether they learn fast. The parents were constantly frustrated as they expected that at the end of the month the student will be among the best in the class. This also placed too much pressure on me which I passed on to the learner to catch up fast. All my attempts failed miserably and the parents had to hire another tutor since we were not able to make any progress. This made me learn that it is good to make a prior assessment before starting so as to tailor the learning to the individual needs. This strategy has worked well in my role.”
11. Why Doyoufeelyou Are The Most Suited For This Role?
What makes you stand out from other candidates? Ensure you make the interviewer know that you are the best they should hire from a pool of candidates. Use this opportunity to highlight all your strengths for the role.
Sample Answer
“I feel that my educational background, skills, and experience closely match this role. My passion for education will ensure that I excel in this role. I have a track record of transforming learners to top students within the specified time. I believe that given a chance, I will easily surpass your expectations in this role. I am also flexible and patient which has enabled me to employ multiple learning strategies to ensure my learners achieve the expected milestones.”
12. Share With Us Your Greatest Achievement.
What are you proud of in your private tutoring journey? Give a story about your big achievement that is relevant to this role.
Sample Answer
“My biggest achievement has to be a learner I worked with three years ago. The parents had given up on whether the learner will be assisted and I was hired as a last resort before finally hanging in the towel. The learner had been through a number of tutors and there was no visible improvement. The Parents were clear from the start that they were not expecting much from the engagement. I took up the role and studied the learner to understand them better first. I figured out that I needed to be his friend before we make any headway. To my surprise, he started warming up to me and we established trust that made the learning experience incredible. The parents were surprised about the great improvement witnessed. I still speak to the learner from time to time and I am impressed about the progress he has made so far.”
13. What Feeling Do You Get When A Student Fails?
The interviewer is interested in what goes through your mind when a student fails. Give examples of how you will use this information to change the learning style.
Sample Answer
“I feel sad seeing my students fail because of the investment I put in to ensure they succeed. When a student fails I do not lose motivation. I use this information as feedback to try different learning styles. I tweak my teaching style until we arrive at something that helps the student to start succeeding in the subject matter.”
14. How Do You Go About Tutoring Students With Different Learning Abilities?
You are likely to have a group of learners with different abilities and you need to figure out a way to ensure that each one succeeds. Share your approach in such a scenario.
Sample Answer
“I understand that with tutoring there is no one size fits all. There are fast learners and there are slow learners. I mix up teaching styles as I know there are those who lose interest fast and need to be engaged. I devote more time to the slow learners to ensure that they are at par with the rest.”
15. What Strategies Do You Use To Keep Students Engaged Throughout The Whole Lesson?
Share with the interviewer strategies that you use to keep learners engaged.
Sample Answer
“I like to keep my learners engaged in my classes. To achieve this I use games and involve the learners in the class as much as possible. I also make students work in teams in some classes to keep them involved. These strategies have worked in ensuring that their attention is maintained throughout the class.”
16. How Do You Manage Stress?
The interviewer is interested in your strategies to manage stress and stay in top shape when tutoring. Share the strategies that you use.
Sample Answer
“I like to exercise daily for a few minutes. I have realized this helps relieve stress and ensure mental clarity. This helps me manage my stress levels well.”
17. Do You Have A Tutoring Philosophy?
Share with the interviewer your teaching philosophy if you have one. Be honest in your answer to this question.
Sample Answer
“Yes, I do have one. My philosophy is that school should provide an environment that is stimulating and safe to enable them to grow socially, emotionally, physically, and mentally. They should grow all rounds to be transformers of the society.”
18. How Do You Handle Disruptive Students?
Explain to the interviewer what you would do with disruptive learners in your class.
Sample Answer
“I understand that some students are disruptive and it may be due to attention deficit disorders. I attempt to keep the classes very engaging. When it becomes borderline disrespectful I speak to the parents or guardians. In extreme cases, the student is dismissed from the class not to affect the morale of the ones who want to learn.”
19. What Is Your Opinion On Online Classes?
The interviewer is interested in knowing your ideas regarding technology in teaching.
Sample Answer
“I believe technology is good when incorporated in the learning experience. The Pandemic has made the development of so many tools to facilitate learning. I enjoy the online classes as it minimizes wasting time moving from one location to another.”
20. Do You Have Experience Tutoring Multicultural Groups?
The interviewer is interested in whether you can handle multi-cultural groups. Share your experience on this.
Sample Answer
“Yes. I work with international students and I have therefore interacted with students from different backgrounds and cultures.”
Conclusion
Use your experience as a teacher to communicate effectively with the interviewer. As a teacher, you can easily learn the expectations of the interviewer and answer them to their heart’s desire. These questions should help you ace the interview.
