Varsity Tutors

Varsity Tutors is a little on the pricey side. My son's tuition is very expensive already. He's in the college prep school. Initially, I was feeling like we weren't seeing the results that we had expected. However, we have seen such a drastic improvement with the second tutor. And because of the level of interaction that we have and his flexibility, if my son has a test coming up, he does not think twice to rearrange his schedule so that he can fit my son in earlier to make sure that they have a session right before the test. And they cover what's going to happen on the test. He doesn't think twice to deviate from the curriculum a little to make sure that he's adjusting to my son's little co-curriculum. So, that's one thing that has been huge. And in that case, the price is probably worth it.

Varsity Tutors actually recommended that we switch tutors because I was ready to pull back and try some other different options. The person that is like my account manager took about 30 minutes to talk to me about my son, individually as a young man, his interests, what he likes to do, and what he reads. They weren't academic questions. Some of them were, but for the most part they were more just about who my son was as a person. And he personally paired him off with this other tutor. And that's phenomenal. Also, they gave us some hours back because we weren't super happy. And so, I can't say enough. They have done everything to make this an amazing experience.

The company has been responsive overall. My account manager has been amazing. He doesn't think twice to call me just to ask how's everything going when my son had a mid-term, which was sort of gonna be a clincher on where this grade was gonna go. He emailed me the day before, and asked me to wish him good luck because he knew that that next day my son's mid-term was coming. They're so interested in seeing his success. My son is excited about learning Latin again. Earlier in the semester, he was just disappointed and sort of really dreading going to class everyday and dreading the tutoring session. And he's excited about it again.

What I’ve done is instead of my older son doing the regular tutoring, I’m having my younger one do more regular tutoring. He’s in 6th grade, and he needs some additional help on conjunctions and grammar. She’s working with him so that he has more time working on those things and what he would be able to do in class or homework. But I also have the flexibility of saying, “My younger one doesn’t need much this week, instead help out the older one using this time slot. I want you to review his essay and work with him on formulating ideas.” And it’s been working really well.

I like that it’s one-on-one and it really focuses on the needs of the child. They really tried to understand what the child needs. It’s really a private tutor but the fact that it’s online, and there’s also the option of instant tutoring, is fabulous. Because if it was a real person in my house, I’d have to be there or if it’s a real person, I might have to take my kids somewhere. The kids also love the whole online interaction because they do so much on laptop computers and phones that it really aligns with how they do things today.

The staff at Varsity reaches out to me from time to time asking how things are going or if I need anything else. They’re good at reminding me when I’m running low on hours because that’s something I don’t always have time to check. If I also notice that one of my boys or the other one needs slightly different help depending on what’s going in their English class or if they need help with certain things about reading or even if it’s reviewing a draft of something they’ve written and offering them some suggestions, I just need to send a quick email. And they totally understand, they incorporate it right away into the next session or if they can, they’ll accommodate with a special session. So to me, the flexibility in what they’re covering and how I schedule and when I schedule, that is tremendous. I just had a really great experience with Varsity Tutors. They’re very responsive, they’re working with me, they’re working with the kids as individuals, and that to me speaks volumes.

Varsity Tutors is pricey and I wish they cost a little bit less. That would be helpful but I know that their service comes with a price. Despite that, I like that they’re very open. There’s no material that goes for every kid and with Varsity Tutors, the teacher is going by my son. Instead of me pushing my son for the classes earlier, now he waits for her. So even though I cannot easily afford their service, I’ll continue longer. Either you spend 30 or 60, but if it is being used well, you don’t mind spending it. That’s how I look at it and it seems right. Being a typical mom, I keep throwing ideas at my son's teacher and she is always open to me.

At first I only wanted to try out Varsity Tutors. But after working for a while with them, I liked them. Sometimes in summer, my son would all of a sudden want to play outside more. Fortunately, whenever his teacher could, she could work with him on those hours. And whenever there is a math or science test, because I’m paying a lot, I make sure that along with the whole subject, she’s helping him with the critical thinking. So I ask her if she could suggest anything, what we should do with Akhil or if she could Google about a kind of test, and she would come back with me with the links to try or books that'd be good for his age.

One time, I asked her if she could give him a good and creative homework. And she thought ahead and told me that Akhil came up with a small story and it has A to Z alphabets in it. I liked that. So my son was thinking and writing something. Then one day, she said something about this book that everybody said to write about. She told my son not to worry about it. She told him to just write to her about the author and the content. She makes sure he gets the interest in what she’s doing with him. And he likes her, so that is working well. If at all I cancel one of his classes, my son gets mad at me.

Other than that, I lost my job for a while and we changed the session for only one class per week. So there hasn't been much advancement or change with my son but I don’t blame his teacher for that. Still, I see that my son has more potential. There was change when he was doing twice a week but there is a bump in his thinking and his spoken English. Still, I always recommend Varsity Tutors and I tell others that the best part about going with them is, you get your money's value and they're flexible. Sometimes, if you don’t go to the class, you lose the money. But with the Varsity, you can cancel ahead of the time and adjust something. You can go back and see that moved. So I tell them that instead of you spending $30 and you don’t enjoy the fruit of it, you should rather spend 60 with Varsity.

I was down and had a really intense recovery. I tried to learn the material and get my body to cooperate enough with me, so I can go in and take my exam. Danielle was really flexible in trying to help accommodate me, wait for me, and deal with me with regard to that because there were some times I couldn’t even sit and do the tutoring. There were times I had to stand the whole time and we would be tutoring for two or three-hour sessions. Sitting wasn't an option and that was uncomfortable. She would be really patient if I needed to take a five-minute break and we would come back.

I also handled the finances at my church, which was a big deal, so sometimes, we would tutor for an hour on Sundays, then I would have to take care of business and she would tutor again. We were doing two a day and she would do groundwork, research the class, and dig in and see what was coming. She would be telling me, “Well, this is coming up. So, we need to focus on this.” It was more than just tutoring the actual material because she was really teaching me the material. She was taking the course for me, too, when it got harder because she would figure out what was next.

My personal life was getting in the way, so there were some things that I had to neglect. There was some homework I can't focus on and we were trying to nail with it, and that’s what we did and I got an A. We would calculate, “Well, what do we need to do to do this?” “Yes, this homework is not getting done. We're gonna do the work to learn them.” I took time in hours in having to go through it and we focused on that and drove the study guide so I can do well in the test, and I really did.

It was an incredible experience. It was very expensive, but it was very worth it. Danielle was incredible and I couldn’t imagine how she could be any better. I passed Calculus. I would tell my friends and family to get their credit card and worry about it later. I didn’t just pass, I actually got an A. My professor was highly impressed with me. In sum, I was able to be prepared because Varsity was there. I was able to accomplish the work because I had them to back me up.

On the other hand, I didn’t see much care from the second tutor. He would set up an appointment and then cancel at the last minute, and then set up an appointment and not show up. So, I contacted Varsity Tutors and told them I wanted somebody else. They hooked me up with another gentleman who was just as outstanding, if not more than the first one. I really enjoy having them. They were down-to-earth people that could relate to Jacob's problems because I found out that they had issues learning, too. One of them wants to become an engineer and the other one wants to become a doctor now. And it simply made me aware that they were so good. Also, both of them came from a long distance, so they’ve had a long drive to get up to our place.

My son's grades improved. He does not have a little understanding of the new ways of doing math, especially when it comes to algebra which he is really struggling with. He also had a problem with memorization, which is a key component of any type of math. He couldn’t memorize 1x1 to 12x12, which is an intricate part of math, but the tutors helped him through trial and error practicing that, and now he can do it instantaneously. Also, when he had problems with other subjects, they were able to jump in and help him with that.

My only issue that I have with Varsity Tutors was when I tried to get the third tutor. I called and spoke to them quite a few times, and it didn’t seem like they were working as hard as they did when they first tried to get the first two tutors. Time seemed to be ticking by without having a tutor, but overall, I was greatly satisfied. I still have hours with them, but I wanted to let it go this summer. I will pick them back up again in a couple weeks and let them tutor my son again. I do not regret getting Varsity Tutors. I went to everybody I knew around me and told them I was so happy with them.

We signed up for the first 50 hours. We used two tutors which was math and language arts. The first tutor for math didn't work out for us because she was always either calling out because she didn't have vehicle or her job or something happened, or she was late. So, I called Jen again. I told her the tutor wasn't working for me, and she changed it right away for me. She sent another tutor for math, which turned out very good. My son was almost able to have a friendship with the tutor and able to ask her questions because he is really, really shy. And if he don't know you, then he's not gonna ask you because he thinks he is not supposed to ask a lot of questions. So, he got really comfortable with her. But when we talked to her, she's not gonna be able to tutor this year because she applied for college and she was gonna move out of state. So, we said goodbye to her at the end of the year.

We finished the tutor with 100 hours for the whole year and it really helped a lot. My son is still behind in language arts because it's a lot of comprehension and reading. But with the tutor, he was able to pass it, which was really good. The tutor would come and help him. And he was able to talk to her and deal with her very good. It worked out for us. I really liked the program, and the tutors were always on time.

We are trying to get a tutor for next year, but I have been sick for the past six months. Right now, I'm in natural clinic here where you have to get and pay everything out of pocket. It's getting a little bit expensive for me. So, I spoke to Jen, and I asked her to give me a call by the beginning or middle of July to see if they have something. She always calls me when Varsity Tutors has a special rate for the hours.

Varsity Tutors gave her some confidence which was great. With Varsity Tutors, there are people out there that can answer questions and help you do better. She has encouraged 4 friends that then signed up for Varsity Tutors and had done well with it. And people are very pleased by it. Their younger siblings are using it. There are always some technical hiccups no matter what, but for the most part, Varsity Tutors' platform worked pretty well. It’s also nice that you can buy a varied number of hours. You don’t have to buy a certain amount. I like that it’s flexible and transferable to other things.

Overall, my son's learning experience at Varsity Tutors has been very easygoing. He was being tutored for the ACT and it has helped him in his schoolwork. He has used information and skills from there to help him improve his grades in school as well. When my son started his ACT adventure, he started out a 23 composite ACT. When he took a class, he went to a 26. After working with Varsity, he went to a 30. That's a pretty big jump and I'm really impressed. I'd definitely recommend Varsity Tutors. If you put in the work too and stay diligent and open-minded to the process, you will see the results.

Another time, my son texted a half an hour in advance to let her know that he needed to cancel a session, and they worked out a time to reschedule, but she never sent a confirmation for that time. The last straw was when they had actually begun a tutoring session, and 30 minutes into his technology quit working. He emailed her and then they spoke on the phone. He asked if he could run upstairs and log on to a different computer in our household to complete the session. With an hour and a half left of the allotted time, she refused to continue and offered him a session on a Saturday night instead.

When I texted and asked her why she refused to continue the session, she told me my message was inappropriate and wished us well. Although she seemed knowledgeable about the subject, I feel that she did not seem to appreciate the fact that we were paying her for a service and seemed to think her time was more valuable than ours. I called and was offered a new tutor, but with only 3 weeks until the ACT, I fear that starting over will be difficult. I have four children, and we have used tutors before from different companies with much easier, less expensive and more positive experiences.