Nices the Fusspot: September 2015

Some people are naturally curious as to what one does after graduation.

Well, besides travelling, there is of course, work.

So what am I working as? Well, I have been super busy lately, working as a full-time private tutor. When I am not busy teaching (I rather say this, then 'work'), I have training. That's pretty much what my life is about currently. I train and teach and these take up practically everyday of the week. So when are my rest days? None. I am superwoman.

Haha, just kidding.

I rest and/or run my errands in the mornings, of course!

A lot of people have asked if I was going to continue doing this 'profession'. To be frank, I'm not too sure. True enough, the money that you earned is relatively reasonable, there is no CPF (unless you choose to put a sum in yourself) and you get to arrange your own timings according to your fancy. Isnt that more awesome as compared to having to do a 9-5 job with unpaid OT?

W R O N G.

While being a private tutor does have its perks, there are down sides to it as well. For example, if your student decides to cancel on you last minute due to he/she feeling unwell, family problems etc etc. I am actually OK with my students if they inform me earlier on in the day, but there is this one student of mine that is completely unreliable and undependable. She's a private candidate going to take her A levels and her phone is constantly disconnected. She doesn't reply my messages or answer my calls, and only updates me at the last minute if she decides to cancel tuition (which is pretty often, by the way). Everyone's been advising me to drop her, but I decided to keep her because I have (very cleverly) planned her to be my last student of the day, so if she cancelled out on me, I simply finish my day earlier. And I have decided I shan't have too much expectations of her because if a student does not bother to be serious about her studies, there's only so much a teacher can do. So future private full-time tutors-to-be, be wary of such students and manage your expectations accordingly!

Also, I usually have my students pay at the end of every 4 lessons because its a great feeling to have a huge lump sum of money at the end of a month, rather than a small sum every week. I know this may sound ~~weird~~, but I see them as sorta helping me to hold onto my money so I will be less likely to spend as compared to if I receive money every week. HOWEVER, for untrustworthy students like the aforementioned example, I have indicated that I would rather receive my pay every lesson because you just never know when the student decides to cancel on you FOREVER. I had a student 2 years back whose mother refused to pay me after we discontinued the tuition, citing family reasons as the root of her financial problems. After much pestering and finally giving me my pay, the parent still had the nerve to ask if I could continue teaching her child. Frankly, the student was awesome. She was hardworking and initiative. But the mom.... I told her off and said if she really wanted her child to improve and yet, was unable to afford private tuition, she could try public tuition where fees are relatively cheaper. Anyways, that was such a bad experience, and I stopped giving private tuition until now.

Another downside is that if you do not have the necessary contacts, you need to go through agencies to recommend you students. Some agencies take up 50%, while a few can go up to 60% of your first monthly pay. So, although you may feel like you work like a dog for the first month, giving tuition to 8-9 students and travelling around, you only earn half of what you are supposed to earn. But if you are willing to wait it out, the next month will get better.

Lastly, your students may request additional tuition classes as their exams are fast approaching. Many times, I have been requested by parents to have extra classes last minute, or to extend lessons from 1.5hrs to 2hrs. Although this means more money, it also means that, contrary to popular belief, your schedule is not entirely up to you to decide. You can learn to say NO and say you arent free, but more often than not, as a private tutor, you will tell yourself that your students' welfare is important and making your clients (in this case, the parents) happy is of priority. Well, that's the work aspect for you, I guess.

So what made me take up full-time tutoring? I guess the primary reason is I like to teach and guide students. When I see them understand or get the concepts right, it makes me happy. And I guess I shun schools because being a teacher under the mainstream education system means you are subjected to the curriculum that is given to you. I cant plan what I want to do with my students. Also, I will have to attend to other school-related issues such as CCAs, meetings and other whatnot activities. Its too tiring and highly unfocused. And I guess its great to have alone time in the mornings to do what you like. Although private tutoring also means the weekends are taken up by trainings and classes and one does not have a social life because when your friends are free, you arent, I guess there's nothing much I can complain about my current job. No office politics (I really am terribly inadept at handling such stuff) and no unpaid OT to whine about when I cant finish my alloted workload.

Will I continue to do this in the long run? As I mentioned earlier, I'm not too sure... If I can build up a reasonably good portfolio with good grades coming from my students, then I guess its feasible to continue. But if not, maybe I will do something else. But thats all in the future, I am happy now with this :DDDD

I am also currently coaching NTU HALL 3! Not a lot of people, as you can see :( I am afraid we wouldn't even be able to meet the bare minimum of making a team to compete for next year inter-hall cheerleading competition. *HUGE SIGH*

On a less serious and more random note, I have just started using SNAPCHAT! Hahahaa, its really amusing to see what your friends are up to on a day-to-day basis. Also, I have been using it to gossip with my friends because snap chats auto-deletes after a period of time. My friend says that its the perfect tool for cheating. Hahahaha.

Add me on Snapchat if you havent! LETS STALK EACH OTHER! Yay :D Okay stahp, I'm going cray-cray.