How do you choose a private tutor for your child?

A prestigious degree or a great deal of experience can be good signs, but on their own they do not guarantee good teaching. Above all, the first session should show that the tutor gets the student working, understands where their mistakes come from, adapts their method and can explain clearly what needs consolidating next.

The choice matters because a private tutoring session is not just an extra hour of explanation. Its value comes from what the tutor can observe far more closely: where the reasoning gets stuck, which step is poorly understood, which method is missing and what the student can genuinely redo alone. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the American Educational Research Journal concludes that tutoring has, on average, positive effects on learning, while showing wide variation depending on the programmes, the tutors’ profiles and the conditions of implementation. The right reflex is therefore to compare promises less and the tutor’s concrete way of working more.

1. Clarify the need before comparing profiles

The question “who is the best tutor?” is too vague. There is no best tutor in absolute terms: there is a tutor who is more or less suited to a student, a subject, a level and an objective.

Before even opening a tutoring platform, try to put the need into one sentence. For example:

• “My daughter is in 4e (the third year of collège, lower secondary school); she understands the maths lessons but gets stuck as soon as the exercise changes slightly.”
• “My son is in Première (the second year of lycée, upper secondary school); what he mainly lacks is a method for building his French essays.”
• “Gaps in calculating with fractions are starting to hold back the rest of the curriculum.”
• “There is no major difficulty, but the aim is to prepare for a specific deadline and practise regularly.” This distinction between ongoing support and concentrated preparation ties in with the question of choosing between weekly sessions and an intensive course.

These situations call for different profiles. A student who has built up gaps needs a tutor able to trace them back to their origin. An already strong student preparing for a demanding exam may need a specialist in the level, the expected methods and the types of exercise. A child who works hard but inefficiently sometimes needs a “chapter expert” less than a tutor able to observe how they organise themselves and rebuild a method.

Ask your child how they feel about it too. “I’m useless at maths” is not a diagnosis. “I can learn the lesson, but I never know which formula to use in problems” is already almost one.

This clarification then acts as a filter: you are no longer looking for “a good private tutor”, but for someone who knows how to deal with an identifiable problem.

2. Check skills in the subject and at the right level

The first criterion remains obvious: the tutor must master what they teach. But “being good at maths” or “speaking English” is not enough to describe a skill that is useful for supporting a student.

Check three levels of fit:

1. The subject: does the tutor genuinely have the necessary knowledge?
2. The level: do they know the concepts, methods and standard expected in the year group concerned?
3. The objective: have they already worked on the type of need in question: catching up, the Brevet (the end-of-collège exam), the bac (the baccalauréat, the French school-leaving exam), competitive exams, oral exams, study methods at lycée, higher education?

This distinction becomes important as the level rises. A very good science student can perfectly well support some collège or lycée students. That does not mean they are automatically the best choice for a very advanced specialist subject or a selective preparation. Conversely, holding a very advanced degree in a discipline does not prove that you know how to teach the basics to a 12-year-old.

It is also useful to check that the tutor works from the curriculum the student is actually following. School curricula change: the ministry publishes the official curricula for primary school, collège and lycée. For the start of the 2026 school year, for example, new French and maths curricula are gradually coming into force at collège. A serious tutor therefore does not assume that the content is identical to what they themselves knew several years earlier.

What should you look at on a profile?

A useful profile should make it quick to understand the tutor’s background, the subjects taught, the levels actually supported, their experience and their method. Generic labels such as “passionate”, “great teacher” or “guaranteed results” provide little information unless they are backed up by verifiable details.

On NOEO, the tutors shown are reviewed before approval and linked to declared subjects and levels. The selection does not replace the family’s choice, but it avoids starting from a completely open list in which every claim rests solely on the profile description.

3. Assess the teaching, not just the degree

Academic mastery and the ability to teach are linked, but they are not the same skills. A tutor may see the solution to an exercise immediately and still struggle to understand why the student cannot see it.

In private tutoring, good teaching shows above all in the questions asked. Take a student who makes a mistake in an equation. The tutor can simply correct the calculation. They can also look for the cause: a sign error, a poor grasp of negative numbers, misunderstanding the principle of equivalence, a step skipped too quickly or confusion between two methods. These diagnoses lead to very different sessions.

In its synthesis on one-to-one tutoring, the Education Endowment Foundation emphasises several elements in particular: identifying gaps precisely, offering high-quality interactions, linking tutoring to current classroom learning, providing well-constructed feedback and tracking progress to adjust the support.

To test a tutor’s teaching, then, watch what they do when the student does not understand. A good sign is that they change angle: a simpler example, a diagram, a counter-example, an intermediate question, a return to an earlier concept or a new exercise. Repeating exactly the same sentence more slowly is not adapting.

Another essential criterion: who does the work during the session? A tutoring session can feel smooth when the tutor talks, writes and solves everything. Yet the student may leave without being able to do it again alone. The tutor must gradually shift the activity to the student: asking them to justify a step, choose a method, explain their reasoning, check a result and correct a mistake themselves.

Criterion	Good sign	Warning sign
Diagnosis	The tutor looks for the origin of the mistake.	They immediately start the whole chapter again.
Explanation	They change representation or example if necessary.	They repeat the same wording.
Interaction	The student writes, answers, explains and searches.	The tutor dominates the session.
Correction	The mistake becomes information for what comes next.	The right answer is simply given.
Independence	Help gradually decreases.	The student only succeeds when guided step by step.

4. Examine experience and evidence of reliability

Experience counts, but you need to look at what it really means. “Ten years’ experience” can cover ten highly structured years just as well as ten years of one-off sessions with no real follow-up. Conversely, a student who has been tutoring for two years may have developed an excellent method for a limited number of levels.

Evidence of reliability is more concrete:

• background and qualifications clearly presented;
• clearly defined subjects and levels rather than an unlimited list;
• experience consistent with the student’s need;
• a method explained with concrete examples;
• punctuality and well-organised appointments;
• the ability to ask for the right documents before the session;
• clear professional boundaries with a minor;
• precise feedback on what was worked on.

Reviews can help, but they should remain one indicator among others. A positive comment shows that a family appreciated the support; it does not prove that the same tutor will suit your child. Favour reviews that describe what actually happened: clarity of explanations, regularity, adaptation to the level, quality of follow-up. A simple “great tutor” tells you much less.

At NOEO, the Quality Charter requires tutors, among other things, to teach only the subjects and levels they master, to adapt sessions to the student’s actual level, to assess progress regularly, to maintain a professional framework with minors and to send a Session report after each session. Here again, this framework does not guarantee an academic result: above all, it makes what is expected of the tutor more explicit and verifiable.

5. Test the quality of communication with the parent

The tutor works with the student, not with the parent in their place. But when supporting a minor, they must be able to communicate enough for the family to understand what is going on.

Good feedback looks neither like “all is well” nor like “needs to work harder”. Instead, it answers four questions:

• What did we work on?
• What is now understood or better mastered?
• What is still shaky?
• What should the student do before the next session?

This precision matters because feedback is only useful if it can be acted on. A meta-analysis of educational feedback shows a positive average effect that varies greatly depending on the nature of the feedback given. In practice, “well done” can encourage, but does not say what worked; “the solving method is understood, but sign errors are still frequent” makes it possible to decide what to work on again.

Nor should communication become constant monitoring of the child. The aim is to make the follow-up readable, not to comment on every hesitation. The parent needs the information that helps them understand how the work is developing; the student must keep a space where they can make mistakes, ask questions and search for answers without feeling assessed every minute.

6. Define the criteria for a successful first session

A first session does not need to produce an immediate rise in marks. Above all, it should make it possible to check whether the tutor and the student can work together effectively.

At the end of the session, ask yourself these questions:

1. Has the tutor understood the need? They should be able to rephrase the difficulty more precisely than at the start.
2. Did the student work actively? They had to search, answer, write or explain, not just listen.
3. Did the tutor adapt their explanation? At least when the first approach was not working.
4. Has a concrete difficulty been identified? Even if it has not yet been resolved.
5. Is the next step clear? The student knows what they need to review, redo or prepare.
6. Does the child dare to say they do not understand? Trust in learning does not mean being relaxed at every moment; it means being able to express a difficulty without fear of being judged.

On the other hand, avoid judging solely on “gut feeling”. A tutor can be very likeable and not demanding enough. Another can be more direct while creating an excellent working framework. The criterion is less “does my child adore them?” than “can my child learn with them, ask questions and gradually become more independent?”

If you are still hesitating between online and in-person tutoring, the choice of format deserves to be separated from the choice of tutor. Our guide to online private tutoring sets out the conditions in which remote tutoring is genuinely relevant and the tools that can make the work easier.

7. Signs that should prompt you to change tutor

A difficult session is not a failure. Nor is a poor mark after three sessions. Academic progress is never perfectly linear, and changing tutor at the slightest difficulty can prevent support from taking root.

On the other hand, certain repeated signs should lead you to reconsider the choice:

• the tutor never asks to see the student’s lessons, marked work, exercises or instructions;
• every session starts from scratch without picking up previous difficulties;
• the student only understands when the tutor is there but remains unable to redo a comparable exercise alone;
• the same mistakes keep coming back without the method changing;
• the tutor gives the answers very quickly instead of making the student reason;
• the explanations stay the same despite the lack of understanding;
• the objectives are vague and no specific work is set between sessions;
• cancellations, late arrivals or changes of time slot become frequent;
• communication with the family is non-existent or consists only of general judgements;
• the student never dares to say they are lost, or feels persistently belittled.

The best indicator is not only the school average. Also look at whether the student makes the same mistake less often, chooses the right method more quickly, needs fewer hints and whether a concept that has been worked on is still mastered a few days later. The mark still matters, but it is influenced by the chapter, the difficulty of the test, the marking scheme and many factors outside private tutoring.

Checklist: 12 questions before choosing a private tutor

• Is my child’s need clearly formulated?
• Does the tutor genuinely master the subject concerned?
• Are they used to my child’s school level?
• Does their experience match the objective?
• Are their qualifications and background clearly presented?
• Can they explain their method in something other than generic terms?
• Do they look for the origin of mistakes before correcting them?
• Do they make the student work enough during the session?
• Do they adapt their explanations when they are not working?
• Do they plan follow-up or feedback after the session?
• Does the student know what to do between two sessions?
• After a few sessions, is the student gradually becoming more independent?

If several profiles meet these criteria, there is no need to find a perfect theoretical difference before starting. A carefully observed first session often provides more information than another hour spent comparing biographies. On NOEO, families can browse tutors selected by subject and level or use the guidance questionnaire to clarify their need.