How Do You Tell If a Demo Class Was Good?

Four things to watch for

They asked before they taught. Somewhere in the first ten minutes, did anybody find out what your child can already do? A tutor who begins explaining in minute two is teaching a syllabus rather than a student, and they will still be teaching that syllabus in November.

Your child talked and wrote. You do not need to time it precisely; a rough sense is enough. If the tutor did most of the talking and your child produced two answers in an hour, they attended a lecture. In a good demo the student is uncomfortable at least twice, because they were asked to do something in front of somebody.

A mistake was named. Watch what happens at the first wrong answer, because this is the single most revealing moment in the class. 'Not quite, let's look at it again' is politeness. 'You subtracted before you multiplied — read that line again' is teaching. The second one takes nerve, and tutors who will not do it in a demo will not do it in December either.

It ended with something specific. A topic named, a piece of work set, a reason given for starting where they propose to start.

Two impressive things that predict nothing

A beautiful explanation. It is the easiest thing in tutoring to be good at, it is the thing demos are rehearsed around, and it correlates poorly with a student improving. A well-delivered explanation is pleasant to watch and your child will hold it for about a day, because listening to somebody solve a problem is not practice at solving problems.

Your child liked the tutor. This is necessary and it is not sufficient. Rapport keeps a student in the room; it does not move a grade, and a demo optimised for likeability is the oldest sales demo there is. Be especially careful of very heavy praise — 'brilliant, perfect, well done' after every answer devalues the words by minute twenty, and a student who is praised for everything cannot tell when they have actually done something well.

The one question to ask afterwards

Ask your child: show me something you could not do this morning. Not 'was it good' — that answers a different question and usually reports on whether the tutor was nice. Ask for a demonstration.

A child who picks up a pencil and shows you something has been taught. A child who says it was fine and cannot produce anything has watched an hour of television with a nicer presenter. This single test is more reliable than everything else on this page, and it takes thirty seconds.

Different signals for a fifteen-year-old

For an exam-year student the demo should be more specific and less warm. Did the tutor ask which board and which tier? Did they look at an actual past paper rather than a worksheet? Did they ask what the last mock mark was and what the marks were lost on?

And did they say anything the student disagreed with? A teenager who comes out of a demo slightly challenged — told that their working is losing method marks, or that their tier is wrong — has met someone who will be useful. A teenager who comes out flattered has met someone who wanted the booking.

What a group demo can and cannot show you

Our demo class is free and runs as a real class rather than a special performance, which is the point. What a group demo shows you well is the shape of the teaching: how often students are asked to write, how errors are handled, whether the pace fits.

What it shows you poorly is whether this tutor can carry your child in particular, because your child had a quarter of the hour. The way to fill that gap is to ask for the placement notes afterwards — which level we would start them at and which specific gaps we saw. If those notes are generic, that tells you more than the class did.