How do I cover the majority of what is necessary within a one hour span?
Being able to cover the material each lesson is quite a feat! Being able to cover most of the material each lesson is very important and can be done when lesson planning is used. Effectively to be a great tutor will involve answering as much questions as possible each lesson and making sure you maximise the time spent with the student. Below are a few ideas which can greatly help to increase the amount of material covered in each hour of tuition.
Plan lessons and set goals

Planning lessons is a terrific way to ensure the hour spent with the student is highly efficient. When you begin with the student, set some goals of what you and the student wish to achieve over the following fortnight, month, 3-month period. Once you have some short and medium term goals set- you can periodically monitor your progress to keep track on what is an isn’t going well. This will help you to reflect on what areas your student is having difficulty with and mentally prepare yourself to focus your time on what is necessary.
With a lesson plan which is based upon achieving pre-set goals, the hour lessons will be far more productive as you and your student can more easily prepare for lessons. You both already know an outline of what is going to be taught in each lesson, and then you can maximise the time you’re with the student.
A lesson plan is a great way for the student to begin setting academic goals which is a key element to success in academia. It allows progress to be monitored with ease, which will increase the confidence of the student as they see all of the ground they’ve covered in their tuition.
If you’re not sure if time will allow you to get everything covered within the tuition time – decide which necessary areas you wish to cover: and then tutor them! If time allows- you could go and teach the less important elements of the lesson afterwards as well. However, the most important thing is to ensure you’re continuing with your structured tuition plan, and that the student is happy as well!
Remember though that it will take some time for this planning to become habitual and for you and the student to develop a momentum around it. You may still fail to cover everything needed in each tutorial but over the longer term you will definitely cover much more material than you would with unplanned lessons.
Consider extra time with the student

There will usually be factors you cannot account for, like the extra time it might take to explain a concept, a distraction or a pop-quiz etc. The main thing to do if you feel you’re not going to have sufficient time is explain this to the student and perhaps their parents also. Mention the option of an extra 30mins of tuition, or another lesson later on in the week to go over the material you didn’t have a chance to cover. You can also ask the student to see their teacher at school for extra help.

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