Offering help with test prep and study skills is a specialized area within the field of online learning. It can be one of the more challenging specialities for online tutors to offer. This is partly because students seeking test prep and study skills for exam purposes will have a clear indicator of the effectiveness of the tuition they receive. The test results will be the proof of the pudding.
Assuming that the students have put in the necessary work, the quality of the outcome will reflect directly on the online tutors in question. For this and other reasons, online tutors may wish to pause before deciding to offer test prep help, unless they are entirely confident that they can deliver the results that their students are paying for.
The pros and cons of offering test prep and study skills help
On the plus side, in a competitive world, there is great demand for online tutors providing help with test prep. It can be a rewarding specialty for online tutors, since their input can measurably help students and launch them into the careers and futures of their choice. Happy students gladden the hearts of their online tutors!
It can also be a lucrative career path in the world of online learning, since there is high demand for services that give students a real competitive edge. There are some practical considerations, however, and tutors need to think about the difference between offering general study skills help and test prep assistance.
Online tutors offering a general study skills programme (perhaps geared to particular subjects) will be able to concentrate on some of the nuts and bolts of test success. Online tutors can help learners, with methods such as using flash cards, self-testing with interactive quizzes and answer-writing.
As importantly, online tutors can teach students how to set up a productive study routine and how to assimilate the material in suitably sized chunks. They can help devise a timetable that will ensure test-takers get through all the material in good time for the examination. In subject-specific tutoring they will provide test prep help with concepts and coaching in areas that the student is weak in. This general study skills assistance will help most students to up their game, and can help greatly in managing anxiety and exam nerves.
For some tests the stakes are higher and the approach more specialized. For standardized tests of various kinds (including the SAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT etcetera), online tutors will need expert and detailed knowledge of how the tests are structured, the criteria used in assessment and so on. In several ways, this is more about training students to take tests than about developing their insight and understanding of a subject. Some online tutors may therefore find test prep of this kind less rewarding.
Some tutoring geared to passing specific exams will also demand that online tutors have intimate knowledge of the curriculum and syllabus in different states, or even different countries. In practical terms, this may limit the number of students available, since few online tutors have the required detailed knowledge for all areas.
Most online tutors will be required to provide some training in study skills as part of their tutoring services. Offering test prep is a more specialized option that is not for everyone, though for those equipped to provide it, this can be a smart career move for online educators.