Private and semi-private tutoring and editing guidelines – TestMagic

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Planned and agreed-upon curriculum: We would like to have lessons planned in advance. Before a series of lessons begins, we would like to decide on the curriculum for a certain period of time and give the student a binder of materials to bring to each meeting.
Material taught: We will teach the student the material that has been agreed upon. We cannot offer consultation or other services during the lesson. All information exchanged is understood to be for academic purposes only. (Example: A student cannot hire Erin to teach GMAT sentence correction and then use his explanations for publication in a book.)
Essay planning, editing, and feedback: If you hire us to edit and provide you feedback on your writing, whether it's an essay you're writing for your English class or a personal statement for college, we will provide the same kind of help, editing, and feedback you'd receive from a school English teacher or an educated, native-speaker parent. In no case will we write your essay for you or engage in academic dishonesty.
Implied results of admissions consulting, test preparation, and academic tutoring: We will try our best to help you and leverage our decades of experience while working with you. We also expect you to put in the necessary effort. Most of our students find our expertise and guidance helpful and believe that we helped them gain an extra edge in their journey to college. Of course, we cannot guarantee any particular result; specifically, we cannot guarantee a certain score or score increase on a test, a certain grade in a class, or acceptance at a specific university. Note that no mortal being can make this promise, either.
Editing turnaround time: In general, please plan for a 2 business-day turnaround time on editing work. In some cases, we may be able to finish the work faster for an additional charge (see below).
Prep time: If we teach from book that's not part of the TM library we will need to charge for prep time. As noted elsewhere, if you would like us to have a copy of the material, and we do not have a copy, we will need you to provide a copy (returnable to you if requested in advance). Prep time is the same rate as 1-to-1 tutoring. Note that for most subjects, we do not need to charge prep time; however, occasionally, students ask us to work with them through a book that they're assigned in class. Example: Student's HS teacher assigns Great Expectations for summer reading; TM teacher has not read that book, nor does TM have curriculum prepared for this book. In this case, TM teacher would need to spend a significant amount of time reading the book to discuss it.
Additional materials: In some situations, students may want us to use a specific textbook with them in class and want us to have a copy. In this case, if we do not have a copy, we request that you provide the copy to us. If it’s digital or online material, we will need login information. If you would like us to return the material when we’re finished with it, please tell us at the beginning so that we don’t write in it.
Schedule with admin, not with teacher. (Teachers are not in the loop, so to speak, but admin staff are.)
Progress and updates: We are happy to keep parents in the loop on students’ progress, punctuality, homework performance, and more. However, we realize some parents prefer to be notified only when important issues arise. Please let us know whether you prefer more or less communication from TM.
Available meeting times: Many of our teachers have particular schedules. Some are flexible and can work on weekends and on evenings while others cannot. In general, we request that all tutoring or editing be done during TestMagic business hours with at least 24 hours’ notice of work. In other words, if we get a text message on Sunday night at 11pm for a paper that needs to be turned in on Monday morning, we most likely will not be able to accommodate the request.
Meeting requests: Requests for classes, meetings, or editing should occur with at least 24 hours’ notice. Rush charge: We will need to charge a rush fee of 50% for same-day or after-hours requests (for example, if it’s Thursday 1:00 PM and you need a tutor at 4:00 PM for a test on Friday or it’s 9:00 PM and you want a tutor in the morning) and 50% for after-hours rush work (for example, if you ask us to edit your essay at 11:00 PM and it’s due at 12 midnight). So yes, in some cases, the rush fee would be 100%. Remember, if you can plan ahead, you can save money! And it will be more efficient overall for everybody to boot.
Billed time for the session: Time with teacher starts and ends according to schedule; teacher may have other students waiting. Teachers can't stay late, especially after business hours. We are always happy to discuss students' progress, but sometimes we may need to set an appointment to do so.
Cancelling a class: 24 to 48 hours' notice in writing or by telephone needed for cancellation. Please, contacting a teacher (instead of the office) on Facebook, by email, or in class does not work; please contact a TM admin in writing (use our business email address (hello@testmagic.com) for this). Telephone is possible, but only during business hours. Please, leaving a message on voicemail after hours can be unreliable, as we will not receive the message until the next business day.
Missing classes, arriving late, and no-shows: We offer a one-time courtesy for a missed class.
Coming to TM outside of class: Students may use our facilities (rest room, computers, printers, etc.) during business hours before and after their scheduled lessons. At other times, this benefit is available by appointment. In any case, students may not disrupt other classes, students, or staff. (Excessive noise, walking around, etc.)
Friends or others in class: Class is conducted with contracted student/s ONLY; no others permitted--no SO's, siblings, parents, etc., unless by prior agreement and arrangement (for learning differences, for example).
People waiting: Under-18 friends, siblings, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. are permitted to wait for students during class, but please--they must wait in the waiting area (not in the classrooms), must not disturb other students, must not fall asleep, play video games loudly, etc.
Transferring: Lessons are not transferable to other people unless agreed upon in advance. (We do allow siblings to share tutoring packages.)
Semi-private classes: Even if one person misses class, comes late, etc., we cannot prorate the missed time or extend the class--the regular rate is charged for that time; we have no way of changing the rate of a class after the fact.
Recording: No audio or video recording of classes permitted. (For reasons of privacy and intellectual property.)