Qualities of a good online tutor: the ten that matter (subject depth, diagnosis before teaching, asking rather than telling, patience, empathy, structure, specific feedback, consistency, communication with parents, honesty about progress), how to test each one in a free class, the three that matter most online, and the red flags

Every tutoring site lists the qualities of a good tutor, and the lists are all the same: patient, knowledgeable, passionate, flexible. They are not wrong; they are useless, because a parent cannot test "passionate" and a tutor cannot be hired on it. This page is the list we actually use when we hire and train tutors, with what each quality looks like in a class and how a parent can test it in a free 30-minute session.

The ten qualities, in the order they matter

1. Real depth in the subject. A degree in the subject, and the ability to answer a question the child has not asked yet. Depth is what lets a tutor see where a method comes from, explain it three different ways, and recognise a gap from the shape of a wrong answer. A tutor one chapter ahead of the child cannot do any of that.

In a class: the tutor explains why a method works, not only how. Test: ask the tutor what comes after your child's current topic, and why the current topic matters for it.

2. Diagnosis before teaching. The best tutors spend the first part of a first class finding the gap: a few questions going backwards until the child is sure, then the lesson starts there. Most of what holds a child back is a specific thing from two or three years earlier that nobody found.

In a class: the tutor asks the child to do something easier than the current topic, and watches. Test: after the free class, the tutor should name something specific in writing. "She needs more confidence" is not a diagnosis; "she cannot add fractions with different denominators, which is why Year 8 algebra with fractions is failing" is.

3. Asking rather than telling. When the child is stuck, the poor tutor explains again, more slowly. The good tutor asks a question: what is the question asking you to find; what did you do last time; what would happen if. The child who answers has learned to get unstuck; the child who was told has learned to wait.

In a class: the child does most of the talking and nearly all of the writing. Test: count, roughly, who writes more. If it is the tutor, it is a lecture.

4. Patience that does not become drift. Patience is letting the child try, fail and try again without rescuing them. It is not letting the class wander, or spending twenty minutes on one question. The good tutor is calm and keeps the class moving.

In a class: the tutor waits before helping, then gives the smallest possible hint. Test: watch what happens in the silence after a question. Five seconds of waiting is patience; immediate rescue is not.

5. Empathy with a purpose. The good tutor notices the child is tired, frightened, guessing or bored, and changes the class: a shorter task, a smaller step, a win before the hard thing. Empathy without a purpose, being kind while nothing is learned, is the commonest way a likeable tutor fails a child.

In a class: the tutor adjusts; the child relaxes and then does something hard. Test: at the end, can the child do something they could not at the start? Kindness alone does not produce that.

6. Structure. Every class has the same shape: a recap, the new idea, guided practice, the homework started, a summary. Children learn better inside a routine, and the parent can see what happened.

In a class: the class starts and ends on time, and the child knows what comes next. Test: ask the tutor how a typical class runs. The answer should take fifteen seconds.

7. Feedback that names the specific error. "Good try" teaches nothing. "You subtracted the exponents instead of dividing; look at the rule again" teaches the rule. Good tutors mark line by line and say what, exactly, went wrong, and they do it kindly and quickly.

In a class: corrections are specific and the child fixes the error themselves. Test: look at a piece of marked work from the tutor, or at the note after the free class.

8. Consistency: the same tutor every week. Most of tutoring's effect is the relationship. A child who trusts the tutor is willing to be wrong in front of them, and being wrong is where learning happens. A pool of tutors cannot build that; neither can a tutor who cancels.

Test: ask, in writing, whether it will be the same tutor every week.

9. Communication with the parent. Online, the parent is not in the room, so the good tutor tells them: a short note after each class, the recording, and a plain answer to "is it working". A tutor who sends nothing leaves the parent guessing for a term.

Test: what arrives after the free class. A recording and a note, or nothing.

10. Honesty about progress. Including the honesty to say that something is not improving and the approach should change, and the honesty to say the child does not need a tutor for this. Tutors who promise a grade or report only good news are selling, not teaching.

Test: ask when you will see a change and what it will look like. A specific answer with a timeline (homework quicker in three weeks, a test better in six to eight) is honest; a promise of a grade is not.

The three that matter more online

Online tutoring has the same ten qualities plus three that matter more through a screen.

• Reading the working on a shared whiteboard. There is no paper to glance at. The tutor must use a whiteboard, insist the child writes on it, and read every line as it appears. A video call where the child works on paper and reads out answers loses most of what tutoring is for.
• Holding attention through a screen. Shorter explanations, more doing, a change of activity every ten minutes or so for a younger child, and the camera on.
• Deliberate communication. The note and the recording after every class, because nobody else saw it.

Red flags

• The tutor does most of the writing and talking.
• The tutor explains the current chapter again instead of finding the gap.
• Nothing specific is said about the child after the first class.
• The tutor rescues the child the moment they pause.
• Praise for everything, correction for nothing.
• A promised grade or score.
• No recording, no note, or reluctance to have a parent in the room. The safety side of that is in is online tutoring safe.
• "A tutor from our pool."

What the research adds

The large studies of tutoring find the biggest effects from trained tutors working one-to-one, on the school's own curriculum, regularly over months; the qualities above are what "trained" means in practice, and the research is summarised in does online tutoring work. The twelve questions to ask any tutor before paying, which test most of these qualities in ten minutes, are in how to choose an online tutor.

Where to get help

Our tutors are a named team of women educators with master's degrees in their subjects, teaching online since 2018, trained on the ten qualities above and held to them by the recording of every class. The free 30-minute first class is the test of all ten, with you in the room, and the note afterwards names the gap. The team page says who they are.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →