What homework should you give between private tutoring sessions without overloading the student?

Between two private tutoring sessions, the right work to set is not necessarily an extra exercise. It is a short, precise task that the student can do alone and that responds to a difficulty identified during the session. Depending on the need, it might be recalling a rule without looking at the lesson, redoing a step that was not understood, solving a different exercise or simply noting what is blocking them. To avoid overload, the tutor should take into account the school homework already set, choose a priority and explain what will be picked up at the next meeting. Some students, in fact, need no extra work at all.

1. Before setting homework, identify what needs to improve

A student can leave a private tutoring session having got several exercises right, without being able to redo them alone. Conversely, they may have understood the essentials and already have enough work from their school. In both situations, systematically adding a sheet of exercises would be the wrong decision.

The first step is to make a simple diagnosis with the tutor: what difficulty was observed, what can the student now do without help, and what should be checked before the next session?

Three goals particularly justify targeted work between two sessions:

• Consolidating knowledge: the student has understood a rule, but may forget it if they do not retrieve it by themselves.
• Gaining independence: they succeed with the tutor’s prompts, but still hesitate when they have to start alone.
• Preparing the next session: a difficulty needs to be identified or a prerequisite revisited before moving on.

The work set should match one of these goals. “Redo the exercises in the chapter” remains too vague. “Solve two equations on your own and note the step where you get stuck” says exactly what is expected.

It is also worth distinguishing between the homework set by the school and the work suggested by the private tutor. The second should complement the first, not create a second list of obligations. If the school exercises already let the student practise the targeted skill, they may be the best material for continuing the tutoring.

2. When should you add work between sessions?

The right decision depends less on the school level than on the difficulty encountered, the existing workload and the student’s independence.

Situation observed	Work to favour	What to avoid
The student has understood, but forgets a formula or a definition.	A few recall questions without consulting the lesson.	Copying out the whole lesson.
The student only succeeds when guided.	A similar exercise, to be started alone.	A series of harder exercises with no possible help.
The student keeps making the same mistake.	A targeted question on that mistake, followed by a correction.	Redoing the whole chapter.
The student already has a lot of school homework.	Reusing an exercise set by the school, or adding nothing.	Layering two work programmes on top of each other.
The student does not yet understand the principle of the lesson.	Going back over a worked example and putting a question into words.	Demanding independent solving too early.
The student has mastered the topic and has time to spare.	A transfer problem, different from the examples worked on.	Multiplying identical exercises.

The conclusions of the Education Endowment Foundation on homework point towards putting quality before quantity. Its summary notes in particular that tasks linked to what has been learned and accompanied by feedback on the work are generally more relevant. It also stresses that results vary with age and learning conditions, with a limited level of certainty for some conclusions.

These observations mainly concern school homework. They provide useful principles for organising work after a private tutoring session, without showing that a particular volume of extra exercises would automatically produce progress.

3. How do you choose how much homework to set without overloading the student?

The question is not “how much homework should a collégien (lower secondary student) receive?”, but how much extra work can this student reasonably do this week? No number of minutes suits every age, every subject and every situation.

Before setting an exercise, the tutor and the family can look at four criteria:

• The school workload: announced tests, homework due and other commitments already scheduled.
• Independence: can the student understand the instruction and get started without constant intervention from an adult?
• The teaching priority: does the activity address an important obstacle, or is it simply extra work?
• Feasibility: are the documents, the equipment and a realistic time slot available?

In a busy week, a single recall question or no extra homework at all may be preferable. When a student has time and a specific difficulty has been identified, an exercise of five to ten minutes can be a reasonable starting point. This duration is an example of how to organise things, not a universal scientific recommendation.

The tutor can ask: “How much time do you think you will have for this work before our next session?” This question avoids imposing a duration based on the tutor’s own speed of solving rather than the student’s.

It is also useful to build in a stopping rule. If the student is still stuck despite a serious attempt, they can circle the problem step and bring their question to the next session. Spending forty minutes on an exercise designed to take a few minutes is not a teaching goal in itself.

4. A concrete example: organising a lower secondary student’s work between two maths sessions

Take a fictional situation, representative of private tutoring. A quatrième student (the third year of collège, around age 13–14) has a weekly private maths session. Their tutor notices that they understand adding fractions during the session, but sometimes forget to write them with a common denominator when working alone.

Their school has already given them several maths exercises, a French assignment and a history test to prepare. The private tutor therefore chooses not to add a whole new series.

During the session: identify the precise mistake

The student works on the calculation 3/4 + 1/6. To add the two fractions, they can use the common denominator 12:

3/4 = 9/12 and 1/6 = 2/12, so 3/4 + 1/6 = 11/12.

With the tutor, the calculation goes well. The problem is not a general misunderstanding of fractions: the student mainly needs to check that they think of this step without an outside reminder.

Between sessions: a single exercise with a clear goal

The tutor suggests solving 5/6 − 1/4 without looking at the previous correction. They also ask the student to write one sentence explaining why they chose a common denominator.

The expected answer is 5/6 = 10/12 and 1/4 = 3/12, so 5/6 − 1/4 = 7/12.

The instruction is limited: try alone, write out the steps and flag any blockage. If the school homework already includes a suitable subtraction of fractions, the tutor can choose that exercise instead.

At the next session: make use of the attempt

Three outcomes are possible. If the calculation and the explanation are correct, the tutor can move on to a slightly more complex problem. If the result is wrong because the denominators were subtracted directly, the tutor goes back over the rule. If the student has not started, the tutor tries to find out whether the obstacle was understanding, organisation or availability.

The value of this work therefore does not lie in its length. A well-chosen exercise produces information that makes it possible to adapt the next session. Even an incomplete attempt can be useful if the student says clearly what stopped them from moving forward.

5. How often should the student work between sessions?

The frequency depends on the type of task. A fact to be memorised can be revisited briefly at several moments, whereas a long problem needs a more substantial slot. The aim is to preserve a certain regularity without turning every day into an extension of the private tutoring session.

The Institute of Education Sciences guide on organising learning recommends in particular spreading learning opportunities over time. This approach supports the idea of small, spaced reviews, but does not set an identical schedule for every student.

Here are three possible arrangements for a week between two sessions:

• A busy week: no extra task, or a short check of a rule already studied through the school homework.
• Regular follow-up: a small independent activity after the session and a second attempt a few days later, if it is still useful.
• Preparing for an upcoming test: more targeted work on the expected skills, after checking that the plan is compatible with the student’s other obligations.

These scenarios are reference points for deciding, not prescribed frequencies. If a lot of extra time is systematically needed to finish the tasks, it is better to review the goals and the content of the sessions with the tutor than to keep increasing the homework.

6. Organising follow-up without turning parents into tutors

The parent’s role is not to redo the session, to correct all the answers or to sit beside the child during their exercises. It is mainly to check that the instruction is understandable, that the work can find a reasonable place in the week and that any difficulties can be passed on to the tutor.

This approach matches the aims of the official scheme Devoirs faits (the school-run homework support scheme for collège), which stresses the development of independence, the clarity of tasks and the link between work done in class and work done outside it.

With NOEO, the tutor and the student can work together in NOEO Live. After the session, the session report keeps a teaching record of the session. Depending on the information entered, it can set out strengths, areas for progress, the work to prepare and recommendations for the next session.

The tutor can in particular send exercises to complete after the session through this follow-up. The parent thus has better visibility, depending on the features and permissions of their space, without having to attend the session or reconstruct what was explained.

The student can also choose to create a Learn pack from an eligible session. It contains a revision sheet, flashcards and a quiz. It is not created automatically and remains separate from the exercises sent by the tutor in the session report. These materials can help to revise a topic, but they are not an obligation to do extra work after every session.

To understand this teaching continuity, how NOEO works before, during and after the session presents the different spaces and the follow-up available.

7. Mistakes to avoid and signs of effective tutoring

The main mistake is to judge how serious a tutoring arrangement is by the amount of homework given. A tutor who sets two targeted exercises may have identified the needs more precisely than another who systematically hands out a long list.

Several practices should raise a flag:

• Instructions that are too general: “go over the chapter” does not let the student know where to start.
• Homework unconnected to the session: the student does not understand why they are being asked to do this activity.
• Excessive difficulty: the work requires a method that has not yet been understood with the tutor.
• No feedback: the exercises are set, but their results are never used to adjust the tutoring.
• Pressure on quantity: a busy school week creates new tension instead of consolidating what has been learned.

Follow-up can be assessed against simple criteria: does the student start their exercises more easily? Do they repeat the same mistake less often? Can they explain a method without help? Does the tutor adapt the activities to what has really been achieved or not?

The Education Endowment Foundation stresses the importance of feedback in helping the student understand how to improve their work. This justifies setting aside a moment to examine the attempts made between sessions, rather than moving straight on to a new chapter.

When difficulties persist, it may be worth reviewing the type of exercises, the level of help or the priorities with the tutor. Families who want to discover the profiles and subjects on offer can browse the tutors available on NOEO, with no obligation to book.

The right work between two private tutoring sessions is the work that prepares a better next session. It should be targeted enough to have an identifiable goal, accessible enough to encourage independence and flexible enough to respect the student’s school and personal life. Sometimes that means two exercises. Sometimes, a question to prepare. And sometimes, no extra homework at all.