FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
I price by service, difficulty, and distance: 1. Free services: .1 Overall goal setting with person paying for service, including discussion of my guarantee and rates, and setting schedule, 1/2 - 1 hour. THIS MUST BE DONE BY EMAIL AND CONFIRMED BY PHONE. .2 Optional "getting to know you": Personal introduction to student, face-to-face. 1/2 hour, free with minimum lesson. .3 Free 15 minute basic assessment. Optional for students with current averages of B or above, mandatory otherwise. .4 Free lesson preparation of any length, subject to right to refuse to give lessons .5 Free travel to and from place we meet for lessons, your home or a public library, up to 20 driving miles ROUND TRIP from my home in Shirley Village. Part or all of the following towns are included: Shirley Village, Shirley Center, Ayer, Littleton Common, Groton Center, West Groton, Lunenburg, Lancaster, North Leominster. .6 Free written graphical reports of progress to person paying. .7 Free verbal reports of progress, unanticipated problems, and correction plans, to payer and student together 2. Paid services .1 optional paid complex assessment at $60/hr, after simple assessment, .25 to 1 hours, at my request and payer's agreement .2 Paid detailed goal planning on per day basis, typically 5 minutes per hour, at same rate as lesson, as first part of lesson. This is reviewed as part of free payer/student review after lesson. .3 Low-rate PERSON-TO-PERSON tutoring @$30/hr, based on all subjects listed elsewhere, and not listed as High-Rate below. .4 High-rate PERSON-TO-PERSON tutoring @55/hr, for the following subjects: - SAT and other college entrance exam prep, EXCLUDING ACT, which is low rate. - High School AP, and Freshman or Sophomore College: Calculus, general Math, Physics, Expository Writing in English - High School AP and Freshman College: Physical Chemistry, Biology . 5 Short TELEPHONE or COMPUTER TELECONFERENCING tutoring, NO GUARANTEE,15 minutes minimum to 1 hour maximum, at $20/hour flat rate. Time includes goal setting and report to payer. 3. Travel to and from your location All in-home services are . Plus mileage $1.00 per ROUND TRIP MILE over over 20 miles from my home in Shirley Village, up to 100 miles. 4. Discounts Minus TUTORING discount for: .1 Single lessons of 2 hours or longer: 25% discount for time over 1 hour. For example, 2 hours at $30 rate cost $30 for first hour, plus $22.50 for second hour. . multiple students: 50% discount for 2nd through 5th student taking same lesson - same time and place. . Sequences of 8 or more lessons: 25% discount for ALL lesson time, credited on 9th lesson and following. Example: You've paid for 8 lessons that have been held successfully, at $30 each, for a total of $240. You wish to continue, in the same subject. You now have a 25% credit, of $60. You will get a 9th and 10th lesson free. Subsequent lessons will be at 75% of $30, or $22.50 each. You will still pay for mileage beyond minimum free mileage. Example: 2 students for 1 hour costs $30 for first student, pus $15 for second student. Discounts CAN be combined. Notes: 1. All tutoring times include reasonable breaks for students, and brief bathroom and water breaks. 2. Payment, by Cash or equivalent, including personal checks, is required for single lessons, on or before the start of lesson, or lesson will not be held. I do not accept credit cards, bank transfers, or Pay Pal. I do not accept payment for multiple lessons in advance. 3. I do not travel in severe weather conditions, including flooding, severe electrical storms, gale or hurricane force winds, freezing rain, ice storms, glare ice on roads, black ice areas, and severe snowstorms. I do not travel through to or through dangerous areas, including but not restricted high crime areas, and on highways that are dangerous, restricted, or impassible due to construction, weather, downed tree limbs, accidents, etc. 4. I charge cancellation fee of 50% of lesson charge, if do not cancel with at least 4 hours notice. If I show up and you don't, you owe me for mileage. Mileage fees are always charged, except in cases where I do not meet my guarantee. Then only the current lesson mileage is not charged. 5. Mileage fees are not subject to discount, even for free tuition lessons.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I regularly do elated work in Math and Science both as a hobby and as learning, directly to help students in their tutoring sessions. In the past year, I've brushed up on: . college Second Year Calculus, particularly summing series of real and complex functions . college Ordinary Differential Equations . college Physics of optics, particularly in optical fibers . college Freshman Physical chemistry, with just a smattering of simple Organic Chemistry . college Physical Thermodynamics . basic topics in Electrical Engineering and Communications, particularly regarding practical properties of coaxial cable and optical fiber, including recent improvements, specifications, installation, and thermal properties. . Physics graduate level General Relativity . astronomy. As a hobby, I took photos of several things with my own telescope and camera, including images of the area of the sky where a recent supernova appeared near the handle of the Big Dipper
- How did you get started doing this type of work?
I've been a peer-to-peer tutor since my senior year in High School. My first paid job was in the fall of 1965, when I taught a linguistics graduate student how to program computers. I also helped him to design his program, which was to make a printed listing of all the pronounceable one-syllable words in English. The grad student learned what he needed to do, and how to do it in about 4 hours with my help. I charged him $40 - about $280 today. That got him an A in his graduate Linguistics course! Recently, I'd been a substitute teacher, but the market for teachers is completely saturated. Teachers with 20 years of experience have been the victims of layoffs. So a relative newbie like myself, with no PERMANENT, FULL TIME, teaching experience, has no chance to get a full time teaching job anywhere. What's left to do? Tutor... because it's ranked by clients, on the basis of results, not by years of experience!