During an initial session, a tutor will assess your student's current understanding of key concepts, identify specific areas where they're struggling, and learn about their learning style and what motivates them. This might involve working through a few problems together, asking questions about how they approach math, and understanding whether challenges are conceptual (not grasping why something works) or procedural (difficulty with steps). From there, the tutor creates a personalized plan that addresses your student's unique needs and builds on their strengths.

Showing work helps teachers—and tutors—understand how a student is thinking, not just whether they got the right answer. It reveals whether a student truly understands the concept or just memorized a procedure, and it makes it easier to catch and correct mistakes. When students explain their thinking through written steps, they also reinforce their own understanding and develop stronger problem-solving habits. A tutor can use shown work to guide students toward more efficient strategies and help them see patterns they might otherwise miss.

Elementary schools in Miami use various math programs and teaching approaches, and experienced tutors understand these differences. Whether your student's school uses traditional algorithms, Singapore Math, Eureka Math, or another approach, a tutor can work within that framework while also reinforcing conceptual understanding. Tutors are skilled at translating between different methods and helping students see how various strategies connect to the same mathematical ideas, which deepens their overall understanding.

Absolutely. Math anxiety often stems from negative past experiences or feeling lost in a classroom setting, but personalized tutoring creates a low-pressure environment where students can ask questions, make mistakes, and learn at their own pace. When students experience success on problems they once found impossible, their confidence grows naturally. Tutors also teach problem-solving strategies and help students recognize patterns, which gives them concrete tools to approach math with more confidence and less frustration.

One-on-one instruction allows tutors to slow down and help students notice the relationships between concepts—like how multiplication is repeated addition, or how fractions and decimals represent the same ideas in different ways. By working through multiple examples and asking guiding questions, tutors help students recognize patterns that make math feel less like isolated rules and more like a connected system. This deeper understanding makes learning new topics easier and helps students retain what they've learned.

Strong word problem solvers use a consistent strategy: read carefully to understand what's being asked, identify the important information, decide which operation or steps are needed, solve, and check that the answer makes sense. Many students skip the reading and planning steps and jump straight to calculating, which leads to mistakes. Tutors teach students to slow down, use visualization or drawing to represent the problem, and talk through their thinking before they calculate—skills that transform word problems from frustrating to manageable.

Tutoring rates vary based on factors like the tutor's experience and qualifications, the frequency and length of sessions, and your specific needs. Varsity Tutors connects you with tutors across different price points, so you can find an option that works for your budget. Many families find that investing in tutoring early—especially in elementary grades—prevents bigger struggles later and often leads to improved grades and confidence. We're happy to discuss pricing options when you get started.