Parents ask this in two forms. "How long should a tutoring session be?" and, from the parents of the youngest children, "how long should a 5 year old be tutored?" The honest answer to both is: shorter than most tutoring is sold in. Hours are sold in hours because that is easy to bill, not because an eight year old learns for sixty minutes. Here is the length that works at each age, and how to tell when a session is too long.
Session length by age
| Age | Grade (US) | Session length | Sessions a week | How it is built |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 to 5 | Pre-K, Kindergarten | 20 to 30 minutes | 2 or 3 | Four or five activities of about five minutes; a parent alongside |
| 6 to 7 | Grades 1 to 2 | 30 to 40 minutes | 2 | Three blocks with a change of activity; a parent in earshot |
| 8 to 10 | Grades 3 to 5 | 40 to 50 minutes | 2 | Two blocks with a short break; ten minutes of practice on other days |
| 11 to 13 | Grades 6 to 8 | 45 to 60 minutes | 1 or 2 | Review, new work, practice; the child writes for most of it |
| 14 to 18 | Grades 9 to 12 | 60 minutes | 1 or 2 per subject | One topic in depth, exam questions, marked working |
| Test practice | SAT, ACT, AP, state tests | Up to 90 minutes | 1, close to the test | A timed section, a break, then review of every error |
These are lengths for one-on-one sessions. In a small group, add ten to fifteen minutes, because each child gets less of the tutor.
Why shorter and more often wins
Two things are well established about how people learn. First, attention on one task is limited, and it is shorter the younger the child. Second, practice spread over several days is remembered far longer than the same amount of practice done in one sitting. Psychologists call this the spacing effect, and it has been found again and again for over a century.
Put together: two 30-minute sessions on Tuesday and Friday teach more than one 60-minute session on Wednesday. The second half of a long session is the least productive time you pay for, and the gap of seven days before the next one is long enough to forget half of it.
This is also what the research on school tutoring programs finds. The programs with the strongest results are the frequent ones, three or more sessions a week, with the same tutor each time. The types of tutoring and the evidence for each are in different types of tutors.
How long should a 5 year old be tutored?
Twenty to thirty minutes, two or three times a week.
A five year old attends to one activity for about five to ten minutes. So a session is not one lesson. It is a chain of short ones:
| Minutes | Activity |
|---|---|
| 3 | Hello, a song or a counting game: something the child can already do |
| 5 | Sounds and letters: two or three sounds, said, seen and traced in the air |
| 5 | Counting real things, or objects on the screen, one touch for each |
| 2 | Stand up: a movement game with numbers or sounds |
| 5 | A short story read together; "what happened?" |
| 5 | The new thing for today, as a game |
| 3 | Show a parent one thing learned; goodbye |
Three rules at this age. A parent stays near, in the seat for the first weeks and in earshot after. Stop while it is going well: ending five minutes early with a happy child is worth more than finishing the plan. No homework beyond ten minutes, and that ten minutes is reading together.
Whether a five year old needs a tutor at all is a fair question, and the usual answer is no. Tutoring at five makes sense for a specific reason: a move between countries or school systems, a child learning English, a speech or early-reading concern the school has raised, or a child far ahead who wants more. What works at this age, and what to skip, is covered in online tutor by age.
Signs a session is too long
Watch the last ten minutes. A session is too long if, near the end, the child:
- starts making mistakes on things they got right earlier
- asks how much time is left, more than once
- slides down in the chair, fiddles, or looks away from the page
- gives one-word answers after talking freely at the start
- needs the tutor to repeat every question
One of these now and then is ordinary tiredness. Most of them, most weeks, means cut the session by a third and add a second one in the week.
Signs a session is too short
It happens less often, mostly with teenagers. If the tutor regularly runs out of time before the student has tried a problem alone, or a high school student never gets to a full exam question, the session needs to be longer. From Grade 9, sixty minutes is right, because a single exam-style problem with its working and its marking takes fifteen to twenty.
How many weeks?
| What you should see | When |
|---|---|
| The child goes to the session without a fight | Weeks 1 to 2 |
| Homework takes less time; fewer "I can't" | Weeks 3 to 4 |
| The tutor can name the specific gaps and show them closing | By week 4 |
| A better mark on a quiz or test | Weeks 6 to 12 |
If week 8 arrives with none of the first three, the problem is not the session length. Ask the tutor what they found in the first sessions; the questions to ask are in signs your child needs a tutor.
What to ask a tutor about length
- How long are your sessions for a child this age, and why?
- Can we have two shorter sessions for the price of one long one?
- What do you do when my child is tired after twenty minutes?
- What should happen on the days between sessions?
A tutor who offers only sixty-minute blocks to a six year old is selling a timetable, not a lesson.
What we do
Our classes follow the table: 25 to 30 minutes at four to six, 40 to 45 minutes for Grades 3 to 5, and 55 to 60 minutes from middle school, one child and one tutor, the same tutor every week. Because we charge by the hour, at US$10 to $13, two half-hour classes cost the same as one hour, and for young children that is what we recommend. Every class is recorded and a note goes to the parent. The free 30-minute first class is a real lesson, and for a five year old it is also the right length.
Questions parents ask
1How long should a tutoring session be?
2How long should a 5 year old be tutored?
3How many tutoring sessions a week are needed?
4How long should a math tutoring session be?
5How long before tutoring shows results?
See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →
Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.