How to run a successful Study Skills Consultation/Trial Lesson

Phase 1 is simple.

Rapport, rapport, rapport. Your biggest priority is to become friends with your student. If they're going to get tutoring from you and pay you for it, they need to like you too.

Introduce yourself and ask the student to tell you a bit about themselves. Just have fun with this, be friendly and have a nice chat. If parents are present, say hi to them as well and explain that "this is a 30 minute study skills consult to get to know the student and set some goals for the year". Make it clear that this is NOT a lesson, and they're not charged for it.

If you have a particularly shy student, a good technique is to share a little about yourself first! Your one and only goal is to be on good terms with each other by the end.

Once you're ready and have spent some time getting to know the student, give them a quick one-sentence outline of the 30 minute session. Let the student know what to expect:

Okay, let's kick things off. I'm just going to ask a few questions and find out 
your strengths and weaknesses to determine where you need help in this subject, 
then we'll move on to talk about what your goals are and set you up with a strong 
tutoring plan.

Phase 2 is where the magic happens.

We’ve created a Trial Lesson Feedback Form for you to use during the session.

You can find it linked here, or on KIS-App after you enter a trial date for the pairing.

This form will help structure your conversation and provide an important snapshot of your student’s starting point. You should fill it in as you go.

It has 3 main sections:

1. Current Subject Skills
2. Future Goals
3. Logistics of Tutoring

In Section 1, you’ll be prompted to chat to the student about their current grades, confidence and thoughts about the subject. You’ll also chat about tutoring - why they want a tutor and how they feel about tutoring in general.

In Section 2, you’ll transition to discussing their goals for the subject, a timeline for achieving them, and what you’re going to do to facilitate this improvement.

Finally, in Section 3, it’s your time to shine! Based on the formative assessment you’ve completed, discuss how a typical lesson could look to target their weaker areas. You should also finalise details like when they want lessons, and how often.

Make sure you’ve filled in all the sections on the feedback form, then submit once the trial is over!

Phase 3 wraps things up while preparing for the first lesson.

At this point the session is pretty much done - you just need to do a final few concluding things.

As a KIS Academics student, your client will get a bunch of free resources that they can use to supplement their studies. Send the student the following link to kick things off while still with them (ie. via a Zoom message): https://kisacademics.com/w/courses

All students can get instant access to:

• The KIS Academics Mindset Module
• The KIS Exam Preparation Module

Click on these links just so you know what they each are^

They will get access to ALL our online resources via KIS Plus after their first paid lesson. Please make sure you explain this to them very carefully.

Once you're done with the session, just shoot your student a quick text message:

Hi <student_name>, it was great meeting up for our consultation today. Here's a 
link to all the resources you can access online: 
https://kisacademics.com/w/courses#studyskills. 
I've booked you in for your first full lesson on <first_lesson_time> , see you then