Study Smart Tutors Reviews

SST Started a new program in Prescott, AZ partnered with the YMCA after school program. From the first day, it was unorganized and chaotic. Since the company is not onsite, tutors were left to ourselves, no guidance, no policies, no one to ask questions, no one facilitating. It was only after we sent emails and texts telling them we had no idea what was going on that they someone from Phoenix to talk with us but still it was just talk. The Y after school staff were just as confused and unaware of anything that was going on. It took over 4 weeks to get a list of kids that were part of the program, then tracking them down and scheduling tutor time was even more complicated. Plus there were no resources, no materials, other than a few pdf documents that were available to print at our own expense. Some tutors actually purchased items out of pocket. We were expected to supply our own materials at our own costs. Overall, really bad experience.

Assignments are given for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, eliminating the ability to work onsite anywhere else that day. (This is a solid gig if you already freelance from home!) Management promotes inexperienced, conflict-avoidant employees who tend to ghost on-site tutors rather than address complex or time-sensitive questions. The notably young ages of managers paired with their lack of confidence and professionalism in person raised serious questions about ageism within the company among the educators at my school. While I spoke only positively about the company to outside parties, I couldn’t blame anyone for thinking something was off, based on the immature, less than competent behavior that was witnessed. (For example, a manager asked me to address a teacher who was a few feet away with questions on their behalf, which was obviously awkward. They transcribed everything the teacher said without acknowledging the teacher, then addressed me—not the teacher—to say they’d email the teacher answers to their questions that night. They never contacted either of us, even after we both followed up. This whole situation was par for the course. Tutors at my site felt embarrassed rather than relieved by management visits.) The team I was part of was left with conflicting sets of instructions sometimes for weeks at a time despite continued efforts to reach management.