10 signs that a child may need private tutoring

Several signs can raise a flag: a concept stays misunderstood despite several attempts, the same mistakes keep coming back, homework takes longer and longer, the study method is not working or the student starts avoiding a subject. Before deciding, look at the trend, talk with the child and, if necessary, speak to their teacher.

After six years of private tutoring, there is one criterion I am particularly wary of: the overall average. It naturally draws parents’ attention, but it often arrives after the first signs. Conversely, a one-off 9/20 does not automatically mean adding an hour of tutoring every week, any more than a drop in the first term averages amounts to a diagnosis.

So the useful question is not just “what are their marks?”, but: where exactly is the blockage, how long has it lasted, and can the student still get past it on their own?

1. Results drop over time in one subject

A drop in results becomes significant when it forms a trend. Going from 15 to 9 on a particularly hard test does not mean the same thing as seeing several successive assessments deteriorate in a subject that was previously under control. To tell a one-off incident from a real signal, read our advice on the first marks of the year.

Look at what lies behind the marks:

• do the mistakes always concern the same concepts?
• does the student lose marks because they do not know the lesson, or because they do not know how to use it?
• do the teachers’ comments mention fragile knowledge, a lack of method or insufficient work?
• is the difficulty limited to one subject or present everywhere?

This distinction matters. Éduscol (the French Ministry of Education’s resource site for teachers) points out that school assessment serves in particular to identify what the student has learnt and where they struggle, in order to help them progress. A mark on its own summarises that information imperfectly: you need to look at the skills and knowledge that still need consolidating.

If the drop is sudden and affects almost every subject at once, the first reflex should not necessarily be to book several tutoring sessions. You need to look for what has changed and talk with the child and the school.

2. Gaps start to build up

This is probably the signal I consider most important in private tutoring. Some school difficulties do not stay isolated: they make what follows harder.

In maths, a student with a shaky grasp of fractions may then struggle with algebra, equations or certain problems. The problem that shows up in November is then not always the concept taught in November: it may go back several chapters.

The same thing happens in other subjects. Fragile grammar hampers writing; limited vocabulary makes it harder to understand a text in a foreign language; a poorly understood essay method resurfaces in every new assignment.

The tell-tale sign is this: the teacher explains the current chapter, but the student gets stuck on a skill that was supposed to have been acquired earlier.

Private tutoring can be relevant here because it makes it possible to slow down exactly where the class has to keep moving. The work of Nickow, Oreopoulos and Quan, which brings together experiments in school tutoring in a systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2024 in the American Educational Research Journal, finds on average a positive effect of tutoring on learning. Results vary widely depending on the programme, however: simply “having a private tutor” guarantees nothing. Support has to be genuinely targeted at the student’s needs.

3. The same mistakes return despite corrections

A repeated mistake tells you more than an isolated one.

A student can perfectly well understand a correction when it is shown to them, then make exactly the same mistake three days later. It is a common situation: understanding when someone explains is not yet knowing how to do it again alone.

To check, gradually withdraw the help. After correcting an exercise, set a similar exercise a few days later, without a correction and without immediately reminding them of the method.

Three situations can emerge:

• the student succeeds alone: the concept seems to be consolidating;
• they hesitate but eventually find the method again: it is being acquired;
• they hit the same blockage and do not know how to start: the difficulty deserves to be reworked.

A useful tutor should therefore not simply multiply corrections. They need to identify where the mistake comes from, change their explanation and then check that the student becomes able to solve the problem without assistance.

4. Homework takes an unusually long time

There is no universal length of time that allows you to say a collège (lower secondary school) or lycée (upper secondary school) student “works for too long”. The amount of work varies with the level, the teachers, the time of year and the homework set.

The best point of comparison is often the child themselves.

An hour of maths is not worrying if it exceptionally corresponds to a major assignment. On the other hand, if an exercise that used to take twenty minutes now takes fifty, or if every evening turns into a series of blockages, something needs to be understood.

In particular, look at whether the student:

• rereads the same lesson endlessly without knowing what to remember;
• stays in front of an exercise for a long time without identifying the first step;
• starts over several times for lack of a method;
• needs a parent for almost every question;
• works a lot without being able to explain afterwards what they have learnt.

In that case, simply adding more working time risks treating the symptom rather than the problem. The need may be subject-related, methodological or both.

5. The child knows the lesson but cannot apply it

“But he knew everything last night.” This sentence often reflects a confusion between memorising content and knowing how to use it.

A student can recite a maths formula and not recognise the situation in which it applies. They may know a history chapter but be unable to build a reasoned answer. They may learn a grammar rule and not use it in a new sentence.

The sign appears when the question moves slightly away from the example seen in class: the student no longer knows how to begin.

The need for private tutoring is then less about “going over the lesson again” than working on the step from knowledge to use. That means having the student solve different situations, asking them to justify their method and gradually reducing the hints given.

6. The study method is ineffective

Some students do not mainly have a problem with the amount of work. They work a lot, but in a way that produces little learning.

For example, they may reread their lesson several times, copy out long revision sheets, highlight much of the chapter or only redo exercises they already know how to solve. The work is real, so the diagnosis must avoid the easy judgement that “he doesn’t work hard enough”.

The difficulty becomes visible when you ask: “How do you know you have learnt your chapter?” and the student has no way of checking other than rereading it.

The research summarised by the Education Endowment Foundation on metacognition and self-regulation emphasises precisely students’ ability to plan their work, monitor their understanding and assess what they can really do.

In that case, a few targeted sessions can sometimes be enough to establish a method: define what needs to be known, test knowledge without notes, select useful exercises, analyse mistakes and then schedule a new check.

7. A loss of confidence appears in one subject

This sign needs to be handled with care: a sentence such as “I’m rubbish at maths” is not an educational diagnosis and does not automatically mean that private tutoring is needed.

It nevertheless deserves to be taken seriously when it comes with observable behaviour:

• the student no longer attempts certain questions because they expect to fail;
• they refuse to show their marked work;
• they give up much more quickly than before;
• they turn a specific difficulty into an overall judgement about their abilities;
• they no longer dare to ask a question when they do not understand.

The tutor’s aim is then not to hand out artificial encouragement. They need to put the student back in situations where they can understand what is blocking them, gradually succeed at suitable tasks and then see precisely what they are now able to do.

If the distress goes beyond the school subject, becomes significant or comes with other unusual changes, private tutoring is obviously not a sufficient answer on its own.

8. The child starts systematically avoiding a subject

Avoidance can take discreet forms: always leaving maths until last, regularly forgetting the materials for a subject, claiming there is “nothing to do”, asking for help straight away before even reading the exercise.

Once again, look for the cause before the solution. A student may avoid a subject because they no longer understand it, because they do not know how to work on it or simply because they do not like it.

Private tutoring becomes relevant if the avoidance is linked to an identifiable difficulty that one-to-one support can address. It should not be used to automatically fill every moment when the child lacks motivation.

9. Homework causes repeated tension at home

When every exercise becomes a negotiation between parent and child, outside help can be valuable beyond explaining a chapter.

This signal is particularly useful when the parent gradually finds themselves in the role of the teacher: checking every exercise, re-explaining lessons, correcting mistakes and constantly having to push the work along.

The problem is not that parents should never help. But when the child can no longer make progress without that presence, the system becomes fragile and the tension can mask the original school difficulty.

The ministère de l’Éducation nationale (the French Ministry of Education) advises families to contact the teacher or, at collège and lycée, the relevant staff at the school when a difficulty appears. This conversation is often useful before concluding that a private tutor is the only possible answer.

An outside tutor can then restore clearer roles: the tutor works on the subject and the method; the parent keeps visibility over the work without having to reteach the lesson every evening.

10. A deadline is approaching and a specific difficulty remains unresolved

Private tutoring is not only for students who are failing. A student can have good marks and still have a very targeted need: preparing for an exam, improving a writing method, working on oral skills, consolidating a decisive chapter or adapting to higher expectations.

In that case, the goal must be explicit. “Getting ahead” is too vague. “Being able to build an essay alone within the time allowed” or “going back over the five calculation concepts that block the exercises in Première (the second year of lycée)” already gives a much more useful framework.

One-to-one tutoring is particularly worthwhile when it targets identified gaps and is linked to what is being learnt in class. This is also one of the points highlighted by the Education Endowment Foundation in its summary on one-to-one tuition.

Decision table: private tutoring or another response?

Situation observed	First reflex	Private tutoring?
A single bad mark	Analyse the paper and the cause of the failure.	Not necessarily.
The same gaps return across several assessments	Identify precisely which skills have not been acquired.	Yes, targeted support can be relevant.
The student works for a long time but ineffectively	Observe their study method.	Potentially, with a clear methodological goal.
A subject becomes something to avoid	Understand what is causing the avoidance.	Yes, if the cause is educational and identifiable.
Homework causes daily conflict	Talk with the child and the school.	Can help move academic support outside the family.
Sudden drop in almost every subject	First look for what has changed in the overall situation.	Not as an automatic response.
Good student with a specific goal	Define the educational outcome being sought.	Yes, if the support genuinely meets that goal.

One-off need or regular support: how to decide?

Once the need has been identified, one important question remains: a few sessions, or support over time?

I would always start with the nature of the problem.

A one-off need makes sense when a difficulty is well defined: going back over a specific chapter, understanding a method, preparing an oral or unblocking a few concepts before an assessment.

Regular support becomes more logical when the difficulty rebuilds itself every week: long-standing gaps, an unstable method, a need for regular practice or several interdependent skills to rework.

The frequency should never be decided once and for all, however. Good support must be open to reassessment. If the student still needs exactly the same level of help several months later, you have to ask what is really progressing.

Useful signs of progress are more precise than a simple rise in the average:

• the student makes the same mistake less often;
• they can explain why a method works;
• they start more exercises without help;
• they reuse a concept a few days after working on it;
• the time needed for certain tasks decreases;
• the prompts given by the tutor can gradually be reduced.

Marks obviously remain important, but they do not always make it possible to see these changes straight away.

Before starting tutoring: the 6-question checklist

1. How long has the difficulty existed? A bad day and a problem that has been there for two months do not call for the same response.
2. Is it limited to one subject or general? A very broad difficulty deserves a search for its cause before piling on sessions.
3. Can you name precisely what is blocking? “He’s bad at maths” is too vague; “he knows the lesson but cannot get started on proportionality problems” is something you can work with.
4. What does the child say? Their own explanation of the problem often provides information the average does not show.
5. What does their teacher observe? Marked work, teachers’ comments and conversations with the school help complete the diagnosis.
6. What should the student be able to do differently after the support? This answer will then make it possible to assess whether the sessions are really useful.

If the need is precise enough, the next step is to find a tutor suited to that difficulty rather than simply choosing the profile with the most impressive degree. To understand which criteria really matter, you can read our guide to choosing a private tutor. If you are considering online support, our guide to online private tutoring also sets out the conditions needed for remote support to stay interactive and well followed.

On NOEO, you can also specify your child’s subject, level and needs in order to browse selected tutors or ask for guidance. The aim is not to add sessions by default, but to start from an identifiable difficulty and build a follow-up that shows what is being worked on from one session to the next.