“Lighting the Torch of Knowledge”
New Student Welcome
This page, New Student Welcome, presents all the information new students and their families should know when taking lessons with us.
Since our primary goal is to have our students completely learn, retain and master the course material for which they are responsible, we have established a number of guidelines and procedures designed to maximize the likelihood of complete success. Please read the following very carefully to insure a problem-free group of lessons and refer to it as often as necessary.
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Over thirty years' experience with tens of thousands of students has made it clear that students who take lessons the same day and time each week catch up three to four times faster than those who skip one or two lessons a month. With this in mind, WE REQUIRE EACH STUDENT TO TAKE LESSONS ON A WEEKLY BASIS, AT LEAST ONE LESSON PER WEEK, UNTIL THE PARENT AND TUTOR DECIDE TUTORING IS NO LONGER NEEDED. If you ever cancel one of your regularly scheduled weekly appointments, WE REQUIRE YOU TO MAKE UP THE MISSED LESSON IN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING THREE WAYS: 1) Have a make-up lesson later in the week. 2) Have an extra lesson the following week. 3) Have longer lessons during the next few weeks. By so doing, the student will not be delayed in making progress and our mutual goal of complete success can be realized.
We keep track of lessons with Student Report Cards. Your tutor will use a new Student Report Card each month. Your tutor must bring the Student Report Card to each lesson and have both you and he sign on the line showing the date and time of the lesson. If you're not present at the lesson, either another adult or the student may sign the report card instead of you. These report cards are our official records. Please call us immediately at (888) 434-0944 if the tutor fails to bring one to each lesson to be signed.
The full fee due for each lesson is to be paid directly to the tutor at the end of that lesson. You may use cash, check or money order to pay the tutoring fee. If you pay by check or money order, ALWAYS make it payable directly to Certified Tutoring Service; NEVER make it payable to the tutor.
We require our tutors to assign written and study homework at each lesson to be done for and corrected at the next lesson. Their purpose is not only to practice the topics covered during the lesson and reinforce topics covered during previous lessons but also to enable the tutor to see at the next lesson what points need to be reviewed. For this reason, we require the student to complete the entire written homework assignment, spread the work out over several days and do it without assistance. If the student is helped by another, the tutor will be misled at the next lesson about the student's progress. If your tutor is not giving the student weekly homework assignments, please call us immediately at (888) 434-0944.
The first lesson is crucial in setting the stage for a successful tutoring relationship. First, we require your tutor to administer a comprehensive diagnostic test to find out the exact state of your child's knowledge. This 20 to 40 minute written and oral test is immediately graded upon completion. While your child takes the test, the tutor examines all available school quizzes, exams and homework assignments to obtain additional information. At the end of the lesson, your tutor has a consultation with you and makes recommendations about what what your child needs to do to achieve complete success. You and the tutor then decide on a weekly schedule that best meets your child's needs and your means.
All students must have the proper materials and books at each lesson, including the first. These include: 1) A notebook, preferably a large, 5-subject one, to keep all the tutor's notes, explanations, examples, model problems and lesson work logically organized in one place. 2) A loose-leaf binder filled with loose-leaf paper used by the student for the tutor's weekly written homework assignments. 3) A supply of sharpened pencils with erasers. 4) Any materials, supplies and books deemed necessary by the tutor. To prevent loss, these materials should never be taken from the house. They are to be used exclusively by the student and tutor for the lessons. In addition, the student's school textbooks, workbooks and notebooks must be home for each lesson. If your tutor fails to make sure the student has proper materials at each lesson, call us immediately at (888) 434-0944.
If you ever need to cancel or change a tutoring appointment, you must contact your tutor directly (NOT OUR OFFICE) no later than the evening before the lesson. For example, to cancel or change a lesson scheduled for Wednesday, you must contact your tutor directly no later than Tuesday evening. So, make sure you have your tutor's name and phone number and keep them in a safe, readily accessible place to use whenever needed. Also, make sure both you and your tutor have the same lesson day, time and length in mind when you agree on a tutoring schedule.
If you cancel or change a scheduled appointment on the same day as the lesson or if you fail to show up for a lesson, NO MATTER WHAT THE REASON, you will be charged a cancellation fee of one full hour for the missed lesson. You will then be expected to give your tutor the cancellation fee at the next lesson in addition to the regular tutoring fee due for that lesson.
The reason for this policy is simple. Calling the tutor at least one day prior to an appointment to cancel or change it gives him the opportunity to offer his time to another student. If, on the other hand, you cancel or change it on the same day as the appointment or if the student does not show up for the appointment, then the tutor has no way to fill the time in question with another student.
In turn, we expect our tutors to observe the same degree of consideration we expect from you. If your tutor ever cancels or changes an appointment without giving you at least one day's notice, fails to show up for a lesson or does not arrive at the appointed time, call us immediately at (888) 434-0944. We will then have a frank discussion with the tutor so that this will not happen again.
Our tutoring service is based on mutual trust. This means you trust us to provide professional tutors and we trust your promissory notes, i.e. checks, to pay for that service. If a check is returned by our bank unpaid, NO MATTER WHAT THE REASON, the tutor will charge you a $15.00 processing fee per check. Should any of your checks be returned unpaid, you will be required to make them good by mailing directly to A 1 Tutors a money order or certified check to cover both the face value of the returned checks and the $15.00 processing fee for each returned check. Unfortunately, about 1% of such returned checks are not made good. In these rare cases, WE WILL SEEK REMEDY IN NEW YORK CIVIL COURT. Section 11-104 of the New York State General Obligations Law states that, if a judgement is rendered against you in court, it may include not only the face value of each check but also liquidated damages in the amount of twice the face amount of each check or $400.00 per check, whichever is less. This means that should we need to go to court over two returned $36.00 checks which have not been made good, we can win a judgement of $268.84 (which includes the $72.00 face value of the checks, $30.00 in processing fees for two checks, $144.00 in liquidated damages and $22.84 in legal fees). In addition, the law provides criminal penalties (fine and/or jail) for people convicted of writing bad checks.
We always try to carefully match our students with qualified tutors to best meet their needs. Occasionally, however, our selection doesn't turn out to be the best possible choice for a particular student. This is usually due to poor rapport or chemistry between the tutor and student. If this happens, please call us immediately at (888) 434-0944. We'll discuss the situation and assign you a new tutor.
It may happen you need us again in the future. If, at that time, you'd like the same tutor or even another tutor, please give us a call at (888) 434-0944. We'll be glad to help you in any way we can.
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