Margaret

Emmy is a very good and wonderful teacher. my son loved studying more with her. She ensured that my son enjoyed the lesson and had fun learning. thank you very much Emmy.

Towards the end of our son's High School we realized he was failing in English Language. We knew he needed help desperately to make it to his GCSE. There was also very limited time to turn his grade around. We prayed for a tutor and Margaret was the answer to our prayers. She quickly identified the area that our son was struggling and worked on it. As a result our son secured a grade of 6 in English Language (from a grade of 4). I highly recommend Margaret to any child needing help with English. She is very good, kind and patient.

Margaret supported my son with English GCSE - she was fantastic. She had a really lovely style and was interested in his world outside of school, and really personalised teaching to his needs. He had lost his confidence and this was much restored, and did alot better than he had expected in the final exams. No hesitation to recommend Margaret.

Margaret has been tutoring my 15 year old son for his GCSE English exams. His grades have improved in the short time she has been working with him, he actually enjoys his sessions and says he finds them useful (high praise from a reluctant teenage lad). He struggles academically but Margaret has been able to provide him with tools to use in his exams and has worked on building his confidence.

I am a foreign middle aged English learner , B2 level.

Before our class begin , Miss Margaret allowed a short zoom meeting for brief introduction for each other，after listening my spoken English she pointed out my main problem was the tense problem which i agreed with. I emphasized that i wanted to improve my grammar mistakes and my writing skills as well. Since i was a student , i didn't know in what way we could work better, I hope she could tailor the class and be prepared in advance so class could be more efficient . I set myself 2 classes first. 1 time / week . Price is 30 GBP/class.

The 1st lesson content: i prepared some grammar questions in advance and sent the file 2 days at least in prior，i guess she didn’t look into them as i only got explanations for 10-15 questions during 1 hour , mostly they were same type Tense questions, there was too less achievement during 1 class. I sent a 350 words short writing for correction as a homework after the introduction meeting, she helped correcting after the 1st class ends.

At the end of 1st class she assigned me a homework which was to read a IELTS reading article then we would do discussion, i was intend to reject but was also wondering maybe teacher really had something useful that i could learn so i did what she told.

the 2nd class : When that day came, she read the questions listed in the text, i answered, then she started reading the 1st paragraph, i had to interrupt her because i had previewed it as homework and she should have taught this article before, in the limited 60 min to read the article really waste of time. She thought i need some input i agree but the input i don’t think need do in class, input is a daily task that you need read many sources to absorb new words/ phrases but they should not be done in 60min class, the main goal of tuition outside school i think it is getting correction feedback from teacher.

Obviously there was mismatch between tutor and tutee, we do not have same objects and it was not tailored content based on my situation and not suit my initial target.

As for wifi that one of the student mentioned in the feedback, our situation was it stopped 1 time / class, you need reconnect but you may discuss with miss Margret to see if she could make some minutes up for you.

Overall i think if you are a tutee under secondary school/ high school, i guess the class maybe work, but if you not i suggest you could look around again or at least you need have a short meeting first then decide.
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below is a reply to tutor 's feedback.

i agree the vocabulary and correct expressions are poor since i am just a B2 level learner，they indeed need be improved for every foreign English learner at any level, however the grammar problem was the main concern that mentioned in the beginning when in messages here and in the zoom short meeting. During the zoom introduction, the only pointed out problem was the grammar tense as well after listening my spoken English. If the main concern was brought up already and was clear to both ends then the class content should be tailored based on this demand.This is the meaning for finding a tuition class outside school and for short introduction meeting too .However the 1st class was myself to prepare correlative questions. The 2nd class was not related to this . The " in my opinion in need of a ride range of vocabulary and correct expressions in English " might be the reason where the mismatch is.

As for reading text , as mentioned above my point is : there is no necessity to read the paragraph word by word if both ends had previewed the article. It takes much time. Not like the compulsory education in school, tutee is paying £0.5/min, in the limited 60 min every minute could be meaningful and more efficient.

As for "The student took it upon herself to download the answer book after I suggested the reading to her." yes as mentioned above i was also wondering maybe teacher really had something useful that i could learn so i did what she told, but unfortunately i didn't find any special.

As for the work , yes as mentioned above I sent a 350 words short writing for correction as a homework after the introduction meeting, she helped correcting after the 1st class ends. There is no deny for correction.

As for list of questions , yes as mentioned above i got explanations for 10-15 questions during 1 hour which I thought too less for 1 class achievement, because of no advanced preparation what to teach , it takes some time to think and explain.

As for " the internet there was a minor interruption of a couple of minutes at the student’s end. " well this i am not sure whose end problem for the 2 times classes. Considering there is another one feedback mentioned this problem , i think i could do a gentle reminder here in case when someone encounter this problem you could discuss it .

In a conclusion , i think the main problem i encountered here is the class not tailored and not prepared enough. There is very big difference between teaching young child and adult, especially for secondary education or above. For the knowledge capacity i think any licensed tutor could be ok, but for the method ,it really depends. The adult is more good at comprehension so if the teaching method doesn’t altar accordingly , then it won’t be a efficient way. This feedback is not against anything about the tutor herself/himself, but i think you really need to know what exactly you need and if the tutor understand your needs and suits you ,only after this you are not waste of your time.