The major goal you have in working with a tutor for school is to raise test scores, such as the SATs or ACT, to improve your performance in a specific area, or, for students in the UK, to improve grades on the GCSE and to successfully complete A-levels. Almost any student can benefit from targeted and personalized tutoring, regardless of their current level of understanding and performance. The following are what you should look for in a college tutor or university tutoring program:

1. Small Class Size: If you decide to go the group route, make sure it will be interactive, and where most of the participants are at the same level. The last thing you need is to be kept back in your SAT, ACT, or GCSE tutoring class by people who don't know as much as you do, or lost in a class of people who are far ahead.

2. Personal Instruction: You should feel like you are treated like the only student in the world, and that the instruction is specifically tailored to your needs and the admissions requirements of the colleges or universities you are trying to get into. That usually starts with the instructor fully assessing your needs and skills.

3. The tutor or instructor should push you: You should feel that the instructors are teaching just ahead of what you know, gently pushing you but not going too fast. You should feel the exhilaration of learning something new each time.

4. Materials should be varied: There should be diagrams, verbal instruction, reading, and writing. We learn better and retain what we've learned to a greater degree when we learn in several mediums.

5. Homework: There should be thoughtful and useful homework after each lesson, and this homework should help you learn the material better. In addition the tutor instructors should help you go over your homework so you learn from your mistakes and know the weaknesses you can overcome.

6. Measurable results: Not only should the college tutors have references, they should also be able to give you a measurable result of their past teaching, such as the average degree that their students SAT or ACT scores rose, the grades they got on the GCSE, or the level of college they got into.

After your tutoring you will be uniquely suited to go to the university or college that fully meets your potential, and this will make the learning experience truly worth it.