While studying and practicing can help improve test taking scores, there is something more important, especially for success on the SAT.  Because a large part of the test focuses on reading and writing skills, extensive vocabulary is a must.  This can be gained through practice.  There are lists of good vocab in SAT study books.  There are “word of the day” calendars and emails, and you can buy flash cards and study guides.  The best way to improve vocabulary, however, is to read.  By reading, I do not mean pulp, or Tom Clancy and Danielle Steel.  I mean classic books.  Authors like Dickens and Hugo can be difficult to tackle in any situation, especially six weeks before the SAT.  Even more fast-paced books such as The Three Musketeers and the Lord of the Rings Series (yeah, the books, seriously read them) can be difficult to get through.  The main point should be to focus on the vocabulary usage in the writing.

The chosen book should be by an author who really knows his or her English (for example, Tolkien was an English professor).  Fantasy and science fiction books, however, such as Tolkien’s or Herbert’s (Dune) are not the most appropriate because they may confuse some students with their made up words (character names, places).  Because of these, students with little experience in literature might confuse these made up words with real words or be unable to find good context clues.  For these reasons, works of historical fiction, biography, or simple novels would be better.  They provide normal writing structures, vocabulary, and experience in how English writing should sound (for proofreading skills).

To a recent tutee, I suggested reading “Twilight” after hearing my mother read it to my reluctant little brother.  She had to stop every few minutes to explain a word’s meaning or a metaphor to him.  Although the book does not have the most complex vocabulary, it does have the necessary depth to instill new words into a reader who is paying attention.  I suggested this book to the tutee because she, like many high school juniors, does not have much time to dedicate to reading.  For this reason, “Twilight” is appropriate because it is enjoyable, as well as being not too long or involved.

Although getting a student to read before the test to increase vocabulary skills is a good idea, the problem begins with the student’s education before his or her arrival in the junior year.  The lack of reading experience of good literature is the cause of this problem for students.  While catching up in the months and weeks before the SAT is a necessary object for students, they would be better prepared by reading in the years before the SAT.  Additionally, their vocabulary would be much improved if their parents read to them at a young age.

In summary, flashcards and rote memorization are often neglected by students studying vocabulary.  Reading is a great alternative that can be enjoayble and effective at the same time.

This was also a big change to our business model.  While in the past we charged tutors a monthly fee of $10/month to keep a profile on our site (after trying it for free and getting 3 tutoring job requests), we switched to charging a 15% fee on any online payments and there were no monthly fees for tutors.

So far we’ve gotten mixed reviews on this and we’re considering getting rid of the online payments as a business model.  Overall, it hasn’t been as successful as we hoped.  In this post I’d like to layout some thoughts on it from UniversityTutor’s perspective, and (most importantly) get your feedback on how we can best serve the UniversityTutor community going forward!

Some thoughts on the “new” business model charging a 15% fee on online payments:

Advantages

• No monthly fees for tutors means faster growth (tutors aren’t kicked off the site after their free trial is up – about 1 in 10 tutors chose to pay the monthly fee after their free trial was up)
• It’s more fair that “we only make money if you make money” and there is no up front cost or leap of faith required on the tutors part
• We can now track total number of hours tutored as an indicator of a tutor’s experience
• It can be convenient for a tutor to have funds deposited to their bank account or to send an invoice later if the parent could not come to the session

Disadvantages

• Many tutors do not get paid online to avoid the fee, despite the advantages of getting reviews and experience
• Many students/parents also (understandably) prefer to avoid the fee
• It can take longer in some cases for the tutor to get paid (direct deposit takes 3-5 business days)
• Some students/parents are not comfortable entering credit card information online with an unknown service
• It’s not simple – billing and paying customers (with our fee included) is more confusing for tutors and students and increases overhead in answering support emails, chargebacks, etc.

The online payment system (at least in it’s current state) is not feasible for us going forward in terms of profitability.  Adoption of it has been very slow and many tutors/students prefer to avoid it altogether.  To be clear, we don’t blame them for this.  It can be a major hassle to get paid online if a student/parent is unclear with the process, or if cash or check is right there after the session.  (I’m not sure I would myself want to use an online payment system in some situations.)

Yet, we do need to figure out a way to keep the lights on as a business, and hopefully continue to grow and expand to 20,000 or 50,000 tutors in new cities and countries (and attract new parents and students via marketing).

So I’ve decided to put the question out to YOU, the UniversityTutor community (tutors, parents, and students) :

Would you like to see the online payment system go or stay?  Where is it hurting or helping?

Would you (tutors) be willing to pay a fee to keep your profile on UniversityTutor?  If so, what form should it take and what would be a reasonable amount?

What can we do to make using UniversityTutor more profitable and enjoyable for you?

Please click below to post a comment and thank you for your feedback!  We really appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Brian Armstrong

P.S. I should also mention that if we do decide to eliminate the 15% fee on online payments, it will most likely NOT be possible to keep online payments as an option (just without the fee).  The reason is that we incur about a 5% cost in each transaction (both for billing a credit card and sending a direct deposit, plus monthly fees).  Even if we charged a 5% fee to cover costs, the additional support emails and chargebacks make it a risky business proposition.  As an alternative, if tutors still wanted to accept online payments they could use a service such as Paypal to send invoices (although Paypal caries it’s own fees).  Thanks again for your feedback!