The ability to work with a tutor from home, either regularly or occasionally, removes the stress factors of travelling to lessons and gives students extra flexibility in their learning schedule. Maths is very well suited to online learning because revision involves working through questions and papers, which can easily be uploaded onto a student’s online library. In addition, all sessions can be recorded and played back, so that lesson materials are never lost. These resources can be used as revision notes and can be searched within seconds, which makes the online maths tutoring model very powerful.

Online maths tutoring also encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning, a valuable life skill. A student can’t simply fade into the background or fake their way through a lesson, but must ask for help in order to progress. This is a great opportunity for shyer children to develop their confidence and learn to be more proactive about their studies.

Many digital tutoring companies, including Thinkster and Wyzant, offer a free consultation session to ensure that the tutor is the right fit for a student. In some cases, this includes parents in the consultation, which helps to build trust. Other digital maths tutoring services, such as Chegg’s study pack subscription, allow students to post a question in their forum and receive a written step-by-step solution from a different tutor every time. This is much less effective than active discussions with a qualified tutor and doesn’t really meet the needs of students who require regular maths help.