How to tell if your IB Economics Tutor Is the Right Fit

Locating a dependable tutor with a teaching style that suits your child can be challenging. It often involves some trial and error, and you may need to try out a few IB Economics tutors before finding the ideal match.

Look for these clues as you go through this process: 

  • Is the Tutor Honest and Transparent? A good tutor needs to maintain constant line of communication with you and the student, sharing both accomplishments and areas of concern. Studying economics is like a marathon, and even the brightest students have areas to improve. Experienced tutors should be able to identify these and provide helpful advice.
  • Are You Seeing a Noticeable Improvement in Your Child's Performance Over Time? No tutor can guarantee a 7 in IB Economics. However, as long both the tutor is helping the student tackle recent past papers and understand the IB grading rubric, you should see measurable improvement in school test scores over time. School teacher's positive feedback on the IB Economics Commentaries/Essays are another great way to know whether your IB Economics tutor is up to the challenge.
  • Is Your child Comfortable Asking Questions? Tutoring requires a very different skillset than teaching, and not all economics teachers are great tutors. A great tutor has the personality to make your child feel very comfortable with asking questions, while identifying conceptual issues that the student didn't even know they had. They also have the emotional intelligence to identify situations where your child says they understand something but they don't!

Schedule a Zero-Expectation Video Call With Me

As a parent, choosing the right tutor for your child can  be a stressful process. While I can talk about why I may be a good fit, and wave around my fancy degrees, experience and testimonials, at the end of the day what matters is that you have the right gut feeling about this.

Join me on a zero-expectation Zoom call to talk about the challenges your child is facing with IB Economics. Perhaps they are struggling with their commentaries, or they are not sure how to prepare for school exam. No matter the challenge, I expect I should be able to share some advice and insights.

There will be no expectation of a tutoring lesson, nor will there be a sales pitch.

Students are welcome to book a call as well!

Book a Free 15 Mins Consultation Call Now

My Education and Teaching Credentials

Harvard University

MPA/ID 2020, Harvard Kennedy School

University of British Columbia

B.A in Economics Honours (2010)
M.A in Economics (2012)

10+ Years of Economics Teaching Experience

Including 4+ years of AP Economics Tutoring and as a Teaching Assistant for Harvard University's introductory economics course, Ec-10.

How Will I Prepare Your Child for IB Economics at School and the Official Exams?

IB commentaries are worth 20% or 30% of the final IB grade for Economics, for the HL and SL program respectively. The performance of students in commentaries is in some ways even more important, particularly when you consider that many teachers disproportionately use the commentary grades to provide predicted grades for university applications.

As someone deeply familiar with the IB grading rubric, I have guided many students to 7s in IB Economics essays. This has the added benefit of helping my student head into the final exams with nearly full marks in 20-30% portion of the final IB grade, making it easier to score a 7 overall.

Given that it takes about 70-75% to get a 7 in IB Economics, this can be a massive advantage for your child!

IB® Economics students often struggle to locate topic-specific questions for Paper 1, 2, and 3. This leads to poor preparation for exams due to unfamiliarity with question patterns. 

Complicating matters further, some schools still use outdated question formats. In 2023, the school economics teacher of a student of mine was assigning multiple-choice questions (MCQs) for IB Economics class tests.  While MCQs are a good way to learn economics, it's worth noting that MCQs were last employed in IB Economics exams almost two decades ago in 2004! It is great to be clear with concepts, but it is equally important to be familiar with the exam format.

One (unfair!) advantage of practicing recent past papers is that some IB Economics teachers frequently use questions directly from them when creating school exams. This makes it even more important that your child is familiar with past paper questions, if they aim to improve both their school grades and predicted IB grades. Predicted IB grades are often awarded on a curve (i.e. in relation to results of peers), and your child's peers are likely taking this advantage already.

The grading schemes in IB Economics past papers offer brief and teacher-focused correct answers. Consequently, your child may struggle with structuring and articulating 10 or 15-mark questions, even when using the answer key.

In addition to selecting relevant practice questions, I'll assist your child in grasping how to craft answers to past paper questions according to the correct IB rubric, guiding them towards better school grades and predicted IB grades.

Words From a Past Student

Yuqi

Student, 2022-2023 batch, 7 in IB Economics HL

"Such a FABULOUS tutor! If you take IB Economics, he is the tutor you NEED.

I initially suffered doing IB Econ because my teacher in school literally does not teach anything, but with his help, I gained a strong understanding of the concepts and boosted my confidence.

He is very familiar with the IB systems, and he has strategies to help you get a 7 (in IB)! He is very patient and very organized. And, no doubt, he has a solid economics background, so just ask him all your questions and he will definitely be able to help you out. With his guidance, I was able to score 7s in all my Econ HL commentaries!

Aside from being your econ tutor, he can also help with university applications. He helped me with many of my uni applications and I got into ALL the top business schools in Canada! Highly recommended that you try out his lessons, for real, you won’t regret it."

How Much Does IB Economics Online Tutoring Cost?

Payment Method: Zelle Pay (USA), Interac (Canada), Bank Deposit or Credit Card (Europe/Asia/Oceania/Middle East)

Special Rate for First Lesson!

USD $37.5 or CAD $50 for the first hour (after 50% discount)!

Regular Rate for Subsequent Lessons

USD $75 or CAD $100 per hour (pro-rated for shorter or longer duration).

More Information on IB Economics Tuition

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Tutoring Policy and FAQs

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