Should my tutor do things for me?

It comes as no surprise to most people that our answer is no, a tutor should not do things for a student. Besides being ethically dubious, this type of "help" does not really help the student, because the student misses the learning opportunity. Once in a while when a student is having a really hard time, parents will be flustered and will pressure a tutor (or even flat ask) to come very close to crossing the line in the matter of who is actually completing the work. Of course, our tutors refuse to cross this line or come anywhere close to it. Professional tutors can feel the line drawing near, and diffuse the situation.

So what is OK? Our policy on this is that the tutor should coach the student by asking questions, challenging answers (to get student to explain them) and discussing concepts needed to solve problems or answer questions. Tutors also may show or demonstrate how to do a problem or a question that the student will not be graded on. Homework is usually perfect for this sort of demonstration, because it is designed to be practice in order to master a concept fully.

For instance, if there is an example in the book, or a homework problem, the tutor might demonstrate the framework for solving the problem by working it out step by step while the student writes along with her. Then, the tutor might have the student do the next problem more independently, and the next one more independently, and so on until the student is going through the problems himself. The goal is the understanding, and the student needs to demonstrate that, not the tutor. After all, the tutor has already graduated!