Frequently Asked Questions
What's your teaching style?
You probably noticed the meticulously prepared pear when entering our website. We didn’t only do this to showcase Kevin’s baking. We also wanted to make a point: Pears are healthy, but they can also become a special treat, especially if someone takes the time to make them well for you. Likewise, education is necessary and good for you, but today’s competitive learning environment can make it miserable and stressful. Trying to acquire something we all need and should all want, students can learn to hate learning.
We offer an alternative: a learning environment that is both desirable and nourishing. We want you to look forward to SAT prep, to dream about reading Plato, to create probability problems for fun. After lessons, we want you to feel satisfied: like you’ve eaten your fill of something good and good for you.
Therefore, in our one-on-one sessions, we get to know our students; we try to make them feel comfortable, confident, and respected. This helps us better customize instruction and create an atmosphere conducive to opening minds to new information and behaviors.
Admittedly, there’s only so much one can do to make test prep fun: we know we can’t make pears into cake. Nevertheless, we can promise to make your learning experience a lot more delicious. (Look: We made a pear tart!)
What if your teaching style doesn't work for me?
Your relationship with a tutor is just as complex as your relationship with friends and family. Finding a tutor that clicks with your personality and learning style is just as important as finding a tutor with the right academic and pedagogic credentials. Therefore, if you aren’t happy with your tutor after your first session, we’ll offer a FULL REFUND. If we can’t offer the services you need, we want you to be able to find someone else.
Why Choose Pearwise Tutors?
We have Integrity. We believe you should get what you pay for. Many tutoring companies manage lots of tutors with varying credentials. You hire the company, but you won’t get their best tutor. You might be paying $100/hr, but your independently contracted tutor is making $20/hr (not including prep or transportation). Why should you pay top dollar for sub-par service? We aren’t college students looking for extra cash. We are a small business of professionals focused exclusively on tutoring.
We’re Direct. Because we’re small, we can use one simple platform to make communicating with your tutor quick and easy. While other companies can make it difficult to reach your contracted tutors (because they’re worried tutors will steal clients), we will never add a mediator to slow and confuse communication. We know direct access outside of sessions is necessary to creating the best lesson plans, keeping students on track, and offering constant feedback. If you work with us as a pair, we’ll also communicate with each other to keep lesson plans and schedules consistent and organized.
We customize instruction. Making the right lesson plan for each student takes time, but it’s worth it. Everyone learns differently, and you probably wouldn’t need us if standardized methods worked for you. That’s why customization is at the center of our mission. We put far more time into your student than the time we’re interacting. We’ll never charge you for prep time, but we’ll give you as much as you need.
With so many resources available, why use a tutor?
Flexibility: We mostly teach online and can therefore adapt to nearly any schedule. We can teach last-minute at 7am or 11pm. We’ve managed a 13-hour time difference. We know you’re busy, so we’ll work around you.
Comprehensiveness: There are many learning resources out there. Maybe you need Barron’s for reading but Princeton review for general testing skills. We sort through the options and give you the most relevant and useful advice.
Accountability: Not everyone has the discipline to stick to months of test prep, especially when picking through tons of irrelevant information. We’ll help you stick to a plan that best uses your limited time.
Simplicity: Because we’re a one-stop shop, we not only condense reams of repetitive test prep resources, but we can also coordinate our own lessons across subjects. For example, between SAT reading and SAT math, many test prep tips are the same. Why should you relearn them with each tutor or book? Because we work as a pair, we can remove wasteful repetition and constantly reinforce consistent core lessons.
Where do you teach?
How much do you charge?
Our rates vary depending on the type of tutoring, duration, and location (we tutor online and in-person near Nashville, TN). The main determinant is how much prep work we need to do (since we only charge for hours we’re actually meeting) and how many sessions you book in advance. For a quote, please send a description of your tutoring needs to pearwisetutors@gmail.com or fill out our contact form.