Which one is better? How does it work? Will it suit you? Let me tell you about my experience and my students' opinions on both local and online maths tuition.

Spoiler alert: The answer is that there's not one best way. Each type of tuition is, simply, different. Not necessarily better or worse.

When I started tutoring maths (14 years ago – I feel OLD now! Update 2020) [I feel even older now, update 2025] {I think I'll stop updating things from now on and stay forever 36...}, well, when I started tutoring maths it was with local students only. That used to be (update 2020 in the post-COVID-19 world =) the most common way of maths tuition, I'd say. At least in those days. But I see online maths tuition is becoming more popular nowadays, or literally necessary (update 2020 in the post-COVID-19 world =)

You can imagine that online tuition might work well when learning foreign languages, right? Just having a conversation, ideally with a native speaker (who most often would live in their homeland anyway, so online tuition might be the only option). But how does it work in terms of maths online tuition? Do you need it? What are the benefits? Which one is better?

Local/Face-to-Face Maths Tuition:

Traditionally, the tutor comes to your place, or you come to theirs; alternatively, you meet each other in a local library, etc. You have your session, see and hear all you need, ask all questions, and ideally get all your answers right away (even though bear in mind tutors are humans too, so if they don't know an answer, they will answer it next time, or later when they get home and do the necessary research).

Seems practically ideal, right? But what about when you don't have any suitable tutor near your place? Do you want to commute quite far? Do you want to pay an extra fee for a tutor's exceptional travel costs? I'm not even talking about the extra time it takes, either for you or the tutor. And there's also one thing which may be a problem when having face-to-face tuition: setting a common time. Do you have a super tutor near you? Awesome. But what if they are already fully booked? Or what if you have free time only when the tutor doesn't? That might be a problem...

So even when face-to-face tuition seems to be the best option, as it's traditional and often convenient, location or time (un)availability might be a problem.

In that case – move to option number two:

Online Tuition:

Here you don't need to have your chosen tutor living near you, and in some cases, you don't even need a common time (Whaat...?! I'll explain later). On the other hand, you need at least a good internet connection and a microphone and headphones (if your computer or laptop doesn't have them already integrated) to be able to run a decent video call (but even this could be avoided, as I'll also explain later). So how does this maths online tuition work?

You set the time with the tutor, preferably using a video call with an online whiteboard where you can both draw and write simultaneously, allowing you to see live what the other person is doing. Sharing a screen is also an option for a one-way presentation. Although this may seem a bit more awkward compared to face-to-face tuition, I have learned to disagree.

From the tutor's perspective: It gives me more time flexibility I can offer to students as I cut off the commuting time, and I also don't have to book students depending on location – I can teach in one day students from different parts of the town, county, or even from a different country. So no more saying, "I can't offer Tuesday to you as I teach in a different area that day, but I have a student nearby to your place on Thursday, would that be okay?"

From the student's perspective: You may probably feel more chilled as there isn't anyone physically next to you watching your every move. I still watch what you write on the whiteboard, but you may prefer to scribble some notes on paper first, perhaps before you present it on a shared screen to me. This is especially useful when the tutor is new to you or when you feel rather weak at maths (which is usually the reason to start tuition in the first place—and, of course, this is what I'm here for, so nothing to be worried about). I feel confident enough to say that most of my students get used to me very quickly and find me friendly enough to be happy with face-to-face tuition, but the online lessons that help create distance seem to break the ice (if there's any at all) way quicker.

So, if you live too far from any tutor who you'd consider the right match, or maybe travel a lot, or simply cannot meet your tutor locally (or simply don't want to be meeting a tutor in person), then online maths tuition is right for you. The biggest problem here might generally be issues with the internet connection or the low quality of the video call. And getting used to doing your maths on the online whiteboard instead of using paper and pen. However, those are things that are easy to overcome, and most of my students who have tried both options and can, therefore, compare the differences, prefer online lessons over face-to-face tuition. (Similarly, students who've done one-to-one and group lessons with me generally stay happily in groups — but that's a story for another time: One-to-one or group tuition?)

But now, what if you do have problems with an internet connection? Or what if you really struggle to find any decent time to meet a fairly flexible but still limited tutor's free time? In case you know that neither face-to-face nor online tuition will work for you, there's an option number three (tadaa!):

Distance Tuition:

What is that? Isn't it just another label for online tuition? Yes and no. I personally distinguish classic online tuition from distance (or, as I call it, "offline") tuition. Here we go even further: students don't need to live near the tutor, don't need to have free time matching the tutor's free time, and don't even need high-tech equipment. Only an internet connection is needed (it doesn't matter if it's slow). That's all. So how does this work? When saying distance maths tuition, that means what I often do as a maths tutor: getting maths questions from students, checking their work, and finishing what they didn't know in my own free time. I write everything on paper with as many notes and steps as needed for the student to understand the method of solving. Students then go through the solved maths work in their own free time. Win-win. The only thing you miss here is the instant interaction with the tutor. But all questions can always be answered later, either in written form again or, when needed and wanted, then set up a classic online session as described above.

Food for thought: I've been using distance tuition as a main way of tuition for some students in the past. Later, I started implementing this option with my regular online (and local) students for rearranged sessions if we couldn't make the rearrangement fit anywhere. This all was mostly before I started doing lesson recordings and prerecorded lessons. You know, technology and everything evolves... I still remember how I did once tuition over the phone. An actual phone with just audio; back then, smartphones were just emerging — which meant I wouldn't have one yet for a very long time... Now, I can easily record a lesson, using fancy online programs, upload it, and bam! Students can watch it almost instantly. But that's, again, a story for another time.

The advantages are definitely these: no restrictions in terms of location and timing. For this form of tuition, you should be a bit more disciplined to be able to read through the notes and learn on your own from them, not being led by the tutor every single minute of the time you dedicate to your learning. But this could be seen as an advantage too, as it will actually encourage you to learn independently (with the option of a little bit of more traditional help from your tutor when setting an optional online session). This works better for older students, but younger ones could also be tutored this way, with some help from parents or older siblings going through the solved maths work with them.

The biggest advantage of distance tuition, despite the fact it's quite an unusual form of tutoring, is that this could be a very quick solution if you have a maths emergency: Very often, I get maths enquiries from students seeking quick help. And no matter where they live and what their time availability is, I can work on their assignment the first minute I have a little bit of free time and don't have to set any suitable timing with the student. The work could fairly often be finished the same day I got the assignment. Of course, I'm also only human, so don't expect me to be ready 24 hours a day all year round, especially during certain busy weeks before exams, when full-time tutors, as I am, barely sleep because they are so busy tutoring everyone who needs them! =) But even during that time, distance tuition is still an option, just bear in mind, if you know in advance that you'll need help with maths, don't leave it for the last minute.

So, what type of maths tuition is the best for you?

 If you don't actually need any, you're the winner! =) But if you do... think about what form of maths tuition you'd prefer and browse my references to find out what my students said about all those options to help you decide which type might be the best for you.

P.S. In this article, as mentioned above, I haven't covered the differences between one-to-one and group tuition, just the general idea of what face-to-face, online, and distance tuition could look like.

P.P.S. (From the future) While updating my article many years after it was first written, I can see where the idea and first shape of my Maths Club emerged from. Some things happen to be a bit buried in time, but I can see now that a bit of what Maths Club represents is how distance tuition works: Prerecorded videos, worked-out solutions (such as past paper walkthrough), nurturing independent learning, and yes, also added live lessons to make sure, the learning is going smoothly. All while giving the students the most flexibility - no location, no time (and even no fancy speedy broadband needed, just a regular one).
Look at how many options we have nowadays to get help and conveniently learn maths? There really is no excuse now not to become the best maths self you can be (even financially, these options are way more affordable than traditional tuition - could this actually be any better?)