How to prepare a truly personalised tutoring session

After six years of private tutoring, I find it useful to distinguish between two sessions that may nevertheless carry the same chapter title. Two students who are “stuck on fractions” can have opposite needs: one does not understand what a fraction represents; the other understands the concept perfectly but makes mistakes when finding the common denominator. Giving them the same exercise sheet would be topic-based preparation, not personalised preparation.

This approach is consistent with the Education Endowment Foundation’s summary on one-to-one tuition. Among the implementation conditions it highlights are precise identification of gaps, choosing content suited to those gaps, tutor preparation, planned feedback and monitoring of progress. The summary is based on 123 studies and rates the overall strength of the evidence as moderate: it supports the value of targeted tutoring, without allowing anyone to promise an automatic result for a particular student.

1. Gather the useful information before the session

Personalisation begins before you open a textbook or an exercise bank. The tutor needs to obtain enough information to prepare a working hypothesis, without turning the family into an educational secretariat.

For a regular session, four things are often enough:

• the chapter or concept currently being studied;
• a concrete difficulty: an exercise they are stuck on, a marked test, an instruction or a point from the lesson;
• what happened in the previous session;
• any deadline: a test, homework to hand in or an exam.

For a first session, ask instead for a recent marked test, the current chapter and, if possible, an exercise the student has actually attempted. A corrected test is often more informative than an average: it shows the type of mistakes, the way of writing, the steps skipped and sometimes the class teacher’s comments.

The 2025 version of the Tutoring Quality Standards from Stanford’s National Student Support Accelerator lists the use of formative assessment among its research-based standards: the tutor must have the time and means to collect, analyse and then use information on the student’s level in order to prepare subsequent sessions. These standards apply to structured tutoring programmes and are not a mandatory protocol for private tutoring, but the mechanism transfers directly: data is only useful if it changes what you plan to do.

Don’t ask for everything “just in case”

Receiving the entire exercise book, every test since September, three textbooks and twenty pages of notes does not necessarily make for better preparation. Useful information is information that answers a question.

For example: “Is the student stuck on distributivity or on negative numbers?” One marked test and two calculations may be enough to decide. Conversely, downloading ten documents without knowing what you are looking for only adds preparation time.

For a first session, our checklist for the first tutoring session details the information to obtain and how to build the initial diagnosis without turning the session into an interrogation.

2. Set an observable goal

“Understand functions”, “make progress in French” or “go over the chapter” are not good session goals. They describe a topic or an intention, but do not allow you to decide whether the session has moved things forward.

An observable goal describes what the student should be able to do.

Goal that is too vague	More usable goal
Understand equations	Solve three linear equations alone and explain the operation carried out at each step.
Go over the essay	Build a two- or three-part outline from a question and justify the role of each part.
Improve spoken English	Talk for two minutes about a familiar topic using five expressions practised in the session.
Revise for the test	Identify the three types of exercise in the chapter and get at least one of each type right without the correction in front of them.

This level of precision helps in choosing exercises. If the goal is “knowing how to choose between expanding and factorising”, preparing twenty mechanical expansions does not meet the need. You need exercises in which the student first has to decide which form is useful.

The goal must also remain realistic for the time available. A one-hour session does not always make it possible to “fill the gaps from collège (lower secondary school)”. It can, however, make it possible to identify a central gap, work on it and check whether the new method holds up on a similar task.

Plan the criterion that will make you change course

Preparing a personalised session also means allowing for the possibility that your diagnosis is wrong. If the student immediately gets right the exercise meant to reveal the difficulty, do not spend thirty minutes following your sheet. Move up a level or test another prerequisite.

Conversely, if the student gets stuck on a step you assumed they had mastered, slow down. The EEF’s work on checking for understanding and adaptive teaching sets out exactly this logic: students’ answers should guide the decision to correct, scaffold, prompt or go further. The structure prepares the session; the student’s answers determine how it actually unfolds.

3. Review the previous session before preparing a new one

In regular follow-up, the most useful source is often not the textbook chapter: it is what happened the week before.

Before the next session, find at least:

• the previous goal;
• the mistake that kept coming back;
• what the student could still only do with help;
• the work that was to be prepared;
• the next step planned.

This review avoids a common flaw in private tutoring: each session looks good in isolation but does not form a path. The tutor explains a new chapter, corrects the day’s homework, then forgets the difficulty worked on two weeks earlier.

Start with a short check

If a method was understood in the last session, do not assume it is still available. Prepare a short task that requires the student to reuse it without looking at the previous correction.

Example: last week, the student learnt to solve 3x + 5 = 20. At the start of the next session, give them 4x - 7 = 13. The aim is not to redo exactly the same exercise, but to check that the structure has been retained.

If the student succeeds immediately, move on. If they make the same mistake again, you have an important piece of information: the previous session may have produced momentary understanding, not yet an independent skill.

On NOEO, this continuity can rely on the session report, which keeps a structured teaching record after the session. The NOEO Tutor space lets you find, for each student, their goals, the history of sessions and session reports, and the relevant documents. The NOEO Quality Charter also asks tutors to adapt sessions to the student’s actual level, prepare sessions in advance and assess progress regularly.

4. Choose few exercises, but choose them precisely

Good preparation is not measured by the number of exercises open in your tabs. Instead, prepare exercises that serve different purposes.

For a new or fragile concept, a simple sequence might be:

1. a diagnostic exercise to locate the mistake;
2. a worked example or guided exercise to establish the method;
3. a similar exercise without help to check the student has made it their own;
4. a transfer exercise in which the student has to recognise the strategy themselves.

You will not necessarily use all four. The point is to have a progression available rather than a series of identical questions.

An example in Maths

Suppose the goal is to be able to expand an expression using double distributivity.

You can prepare:

• diagnosis: 3(x + 4), to check simple distributivity;
• modelling: (x + 2)(x + 5), worked through with the student;
• independence: (x - 3)(2x + 1);
• transfer: an exercise in which the expression must be expanded to answer a broader question.

If the diagnosis reveals that simple distributivity has not been mastered, double distributivity will have to wait. That is precisely the role of the first exercise.

A meta-analysis published in 2023 on worked examples in mathematics synthesised 55 studies and 181 effect sizes and finds, on average, a moderate positive effect on mathematical performance. This supports the use of worked examples when the procedure is new or complex. It does not justify showing the correction throughout the session: the student must then produce work without a model.

Prepare for the likely mistakes

An exercise becomes much more useful when you know what it helps you distinguish. Before the session, ask yourself: “If the student gets this wrong, what are the two or three plausible causes?”

This question reduces the time spent improvising an explanation after the mistake. It also helps you choose a second exercise capable of deciding between several hypotheses.

5. Plan several explanations of the same concept

Personalising does not simply mean repeating the first explanation more slowly. If it does not work, change the representation, the example or the level of abstraction.

For the equation 3x + 5 = 20, you can for example:

• explain the idea of carrying out the same operation on both sides;
• use the image of a balance to represent the equality;
• go back to simple numbers before using an unknown;
• have the student check the solution by substituting x into the original equation.

These explanations are not four different lessons. They shed light on the same mechanism from several angles.

Preparing an alternative is particularly useful when a student can recite a rule but cannot explain why it works.

Don’t plan every possible explanation

The idea is not to prepare five analogies for every exercise. Choose one main explanation and one alternative for the point that is genuinely likely to cause a block. Personalisation should reduce unnecessary work, not multiply materials.

Another option is to prepare an intermediate question rather than a new explanation. Instead of showing the solution straight away, ask: “What is the same on both sides?”, “What information are you looking for?” or “Which step do you already know how to do?” In this way the tutor keeps the student reasoning.

6. Organise a one-hour session without making it rigid

A personalised session needs a structure, but not military timekeeping. A good plan sets out blocks and decision points.

For a one-hour session, here is an example of organisation, not a universal rule:

Indicative timing	Purpose
0 to 10 minutes	Reactivation, diagnostic question, review of the previous work
10 to 25 minutes	Explanation, worked example or revisiting the prerequisite
25 to 50 minutes	Exercises with help gradually withdrawn
50 to 60 minutes	Independent check, summary and work before the next session

The timing should shift with the student. If the initial check shows that everything has been mastered, shorten the review. If an essential prerequisite is missing, spend more time rebuilding it instead of rushing to the last exercise planned.

Keep a few minutes to close the session properly

Finishing in the middle of an exercise because the hour is up loses part of the session’s benefit. The last few minutes are for getting the student to put into words:

• what they can now do;
• the mistake they will need to watch out for;
• what they need to work on again alone;
• the next step.

This summary also gives the tutor the information needed to prepare the next session.

7. Prepare the record and the work to set

Preparation does not stop at the last minute of the video call. If the session is to create continuity, decide before the session what you want to leave the student in case of success, partial difficulty or a major block.

The work set must match what was actually observed. Preparing a fixed list of ten exercises before you even know where the student is stuck contradicts the very idea of personalisation.

Feedback should point to a next action

The EEF points out in its 16-19 resource on feedback, published in August 2026, that useful feedback must be linked to the learning goal and give specific guidance on the next step. Conversely, it advises against vague comments or comments focused on personal traits.

Compare:

“Good work, keep it up.”

with:

“You can now set up the equation on your own. In the next three exercises, check the signs in particular when you subtract a negative number.”

The second message can be acted upon.

The meta-analysis by Wisniewski, Zierer and Hattie published in 2020 confirms more broadly that the effects of feedback vary greatly depending on its nature. It is therefore more rigorous to speak of precise, task-focused feedback than to treat every correction as automatically effective.

Prepare the next session as soon as the previous one ends

Before closing your notes, write one sentence for yourself:

“Next session, first check whether…”

This sentence is often the best starting point for your next preparation.

On NOEO, the session report fulfils exactly this continuity function: it can record the topic covered, strengths, areas for improvement, work to prepare or a recommendation for the next session. Not every field is necessarily filled in, but the record means you do not have to rebuild the history from memory. How NOEO works before, during and after each session shows how this preparation fits into the rest of the learning journey.

How much time should you spend on preparation?

There is no standard length of time that automatically makes a good session. It depends on the level, the subject, your command of the chapter and how well you already know the student.

For a regular student, preparation can become relatively short if you have a clear record of the previous session and materials that are already adapted. A first session, a very specialised subject or an exercise you need to solve yourself beforehand will take more time.

Rather than aiming for a fixed number of minutes, check five questions:

• What is the observable goal?
• Which exercise will let me check the actual level?
• Which explanation will I use if the student gets stuck?
• Which task will require them to redo it without help?
• What do I need to keep to prepare the next session?

If you can answer these five questions clearly, adding twenty minutes of searching for resources will not necessarily improve the session. Preparation is sufficient when it allows you to adapt the session without improvising the essentials.

Checklist for preparing a personalised session

• Review the student’s latest work and the previous session.
• Identify a goal the student will be able to demonstrate during the session.
• Prepare a short diagnostic task.
• Check the necessary prerequisites.
• Choose few exercises, each with a different role.
• Plan one main explanation and one alternative for the critical point.
• Prepare an exercise the student will have to do with less help.
• Keep a few minutes for the summary.
• Adapt the work set to the mistakes actually observed.
• Note the first thing to check in the next session.

For a tutor who wants to structure this preparation in a single environment, NOEO brings together follow-up information, session history, documents and session reports in the Tutor space. You can find out how it works for tutors and apply to NOEO. Applying is free, and each application is reviewed according to subjects, year groups, experience and the framework of the Quality Charter.