Frequently Asked Questions - Tutors

A: WyzAnt is a service that helps students and tutors connect for private lessons.

A: Most tutors work a few hours a week to supplement their income and help out in their community. While there are tutors who work more hours per week, please note that it requires time and a lot of persistence to establish a large client base.

A: With the WyzAnt Rewards program, you can earn points for completing your profile or referring new students and tutors. You can redeem your points for cash or great prizes!

A: It is your responsibility to take whatever steps necessary to make sure that you deliver a great experience for the student. Discuss some of the details with the student in advance of the lesson so you are ready to help make a difference from the very first lesson.

A: This is up to you, but we do have several suggestions. First, talk to the student in advance of the lesson. If time permits, try to obtain a copy of the relevant textbook, course syllabus, etc. Your local library is an excellent resource. Second, try to get repeat business! The hardest tutoring session to prepare for is the first one with a new customer. For follow-up tutoring sessions, you will know exactly what's expected and preparation will be easier.

A: Before a first meeting with a student, it's your responsibility to make sure the student has payment information on file with WyzAnt. You shouldn't have to explain the payment process to students because we explain it to them on the site and in all our email correspondence. Once you verify that the student has payment information on file with WyzAnt, you can work with the student to decide about scheduling, location, lesson duration, lesson plans, etc. Be sure to enter your hours into the WyzAnt system after each lesson so that we can charge the student and distribute the funds to you as soon as possible.

A: Yes, but only after the client has entered valid payment information. You can verify that a student has payment information on file by reading the payment status notification when sending emails to the student.

A: No, students do not have to pay prior to the first lesson. However, before tutoring can begin (or phone numbers can be exchanged), we require that the student has valid payment information on file. No charges will occur until after the lesson takes place. Only if the student wants a discount package should he/she pay in advance.

A: There are two possible reasons why the message is locked. First, the student may have entered incorrect or incomplete information when signing up. Second, we may have placed a temporary hold on correspondence between you and a particular student while we try to resolve a dispute. In both cases, we will attempt to address the situation and put you in contact with the student.

A: Please take a moment to double-check your WyzAnt inbox to make sure you have no unread messages. Please also check your sent mail folder in order to verify that your response was actually sent. If the message was not sent, please try sending it again. If all these things check out, please let us know and we will look into the problem further.

A: Please check your spam folder for the lost message and add info@wyzant.com and no-reply@wyzant.com to your address book. If the problem persists, please let us know.

A: There are two ways you can receive job notices via WyzAnt:

1) WyzAnt will send you an email about a potential job opportunity. At the request of the student, we have notified several other tutors about this same job. To respond, visit the Tutoring Jobs page to apply for the job. You may apply for any job post on this page as long as you have successfully passed the appropriate subject proficiency exam.

2) A student will find your specific profile while searching our site, and the student will email you directly. In this case, you are required to respond to the student within 72 hours. To do so, sign in to your account, follow the link to your WyzAnt email, and begin a dialogue with the interested student.

A: First, please check the sent folder of your email inbox to confirm that your messages were successfully sent. Next, please note that not all student inquiries will result in lessons. While it is unfortunate that a given student did not respond to your email, keep in mind that there are many other opportunities in your area. You may also wish to consult our How It Works page for helpful tips on how optimize your WyzAnt profile.

A: In this case, please send information about your references with their respective contact information in an email attachment.

A: Absolutely! Just be sure that you remove all phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses if you are sending your resume to a student that does not have billing in place.

A: To become approved, you have to either pass a short multiple choice test or submit a written request. You can do either by selecting Subjects under the "Tutor Profile" menu and following the instructions.

A: As we say explicitly on the testing page, you only have one opportunity to pass each subject proficiency test. The exams are well-researched and have proven to be fair assessments.

A: Navigate to the Subjects page under the "Tutor Profile" menu. Click any subject in the "Your Subjects" table to view the approval status. To remove a subject from your profile, select the Opt Out link. A red X will replace the green check mark once you have successfully removed the subject. To offer instruction in additional subjects, simply add subjects to the table.

A: When you first register with WyzAnt, prospective students searching the site will be able to find you for all your subjects, even if you haven't yet been approved. Even though students can find you in these subjects, you must still pass the proficiency test prior to actually giving lessons in that subject. We recommend you complete the tests as soon as possible.

A: In this case, you can negotiate a rate change with the student. Once you have agreed on the new rate, click on the student's name anywhere in your account to view the student's page and request a rate change. Once the student confirms the new rate by email, all subsequent lessons will be billed at this rate. The standard commission structure applies to negotiated group rates.

A: You can always negotiate a reduced rate with the student. Simply request a rate change from the student's page and wait for confirmation from the student. If there is ever a situation when you want to offer a student a higher rate than normal (perhaps if a lot of travel is required), follow the same steps to request a higher hourly rate from the student.

A: WyzAnt does not have a lesson cancellation policy. You can come up with your own cancellation policy and communicate this to your students before tutoring begins. A reasonable policy might be that cancellations within 24 hours will be billed at half rate. To assess a cancellation fee, visit the Lesson Cancellation page. Cancellation fees cannot be assessed more than 7 days after the date of the scheduled lesson.

A: When composing an email to a student, look at the notice on the top of the email. This notice will tell you the student’s payment status.

A: You must be sure that the student has submitted payment information before you give your first lesson. After this initial submission, we will follow up with the student if any billing issues arise.

A: When you start as a new tutor, WyzAnt takes a 40% commission of your posted hourly rate. Your hourly rate is set by you and may be changed at any time. Of the remaining portion of the fee, WyzAnt gives discounts of up to 15% to students for bulk lesson purchases and invests in marketing and software development.

As you continue to tutor with WyzAnt, the commission will decrease as detailed below:

Hours Worked	WyzAnt %
0 - 20	40
21 - 50	35
51 - 200	30
201 - 400	25
400 +	20

A: No, all payments are processed by WyzAnt. If the customer offers you compensation for travel or you would like to change the hourly rate for any reason, that's fine. Simply visit that student's page in your account to request a rate change.

A: WyzAnt does not offer travel compensation. The hourly rate you charge your customers is designed to cover the time from the beginning to the end of the tutoring lesson, not the travel component. If a student offers you travel compensation, please keep in mind that all payment must go through WyzAnt, so you cannot accept cash/check directly. However, you can adjust your hourly rate for a particular student by sending a rate change request.

A: Please respond to the email and answer any questions the student may have. Let the student know about your availability and see if it would be a good fit. Once you exchange a few emails and the student adds payment information, you will be able to exchange phone numbers and begin lessons.

A: After you give a lesson to a student, you are responsible for reporting your hours to WyzAnt. To do this, click Submit New Lesson under the "Students & Lessons" menu. If your student's name is not automatically populated on this list, please click on the link that says "See More Students" at the bottom of the page. You will then enter in the details of your lesson, including the date, time, and subject covered. Once this information is submitted, we will notify the student, collect payment, and distribute your payment minus WyzAnt's commission.

A: We leave this to your discretion. If you wish to offer a first lesson at no charge, that is fine with us. However, the student will still need to have payment information on file with WyzAnt prior to the first meeting. In order to make sure this first lesson is free for the student, do not enter the lesson into the system.

A: Yes, but only if that tutor is in the WyzAnt network.

A: After you give a lesson to a student, you are responsible for reporting your hours to WyzAnt. To do this, click Submit New Lesson under the "Students & Lessons" menu. If your student's name is not automatically populated on this list, please click on the link that says "See More Students" at the bottom of the page. You will then enter in the details of your lesson, including the date, time, and subject covered. Once this information is submitted, we will notify the student, collect payment, and distribute your payment minus WyzAnt's commission.

A: To "hide" or "unhide" your profile from the active WyzAnt directory, you can adjust your Profile Status under the "Account Settings" menu. When you "hide" your profile, you will still be able to communicate and work with your current students but you will not appear in searches conducted by new students.

A: No, our policy requires that you use your WyzAnt email address for all email correspondence with your student. This also includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networking sites. This is a very important policy since it protects both tutors and students in the event of scheduling misunderstandings, session cancellations, payment disputes, and rate changes.

A: To edit the details of a previously submitted session, go to the Lessons page under the "Students & Lessons" menu. Select "details" next to the lesson you wish to review and click "Edit Lesson."

A: If you have deactivated your profile, WyzAnt has removed your profile from our website. All major search engines keep an index of web pages, however, so your profile may still show up for a few days. As soon as the index is updated your profile will disappear. There is nothing we can do to expedite this process.

A: Unless you have an alternate arrangement with the student, please consider the start time as the time when you start the lesson. If you have to wait for the tutoring to begin, even after the agreed upon start time, you can consider the time at which you arrived to be the start time.

A: Changing your default rate will affect, a) students who contact you after the change is made and, b) students who have not contacted you in over 90 days and who have never received a lesson from you. As an independent tutor, you have the ability to set your own hourly rate. Most tutors in the WyzAnt network charge between $30 and $60 per hour. You can change your default rate at any time. If you reach an agreement with a particular student to adjust your hourly rate, click on the student's name anywhere in your account to view the student's page and request a rate change.

A: These menus only show your current students. To manage your students, go to the Students page under the "Students & Lessons" menu. If you "hide" old or inactive students, their names won't be populated in any of the drop down menus.

A: If you are interested in receiving immediate updates by text message anytime a student emails you or a new job becomes available in your area, sign up for text message alerts. Simply visit the Email Preferences page under the "Account Settings" menu and select "SMS Alerts." Please note that standard text messaging fees set by your carrier will apply.

A: Yes, any tutoring you do through WyzAnt is independent of tutoring opportunities you find through other means. Any lessons you give to students you find through WyzAnt must always be logged in the system, however.