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IB Mathematics & Physics · Italy

How to Choose a Tutor: Stop Asking Questions. Start Verifying Claims.

4 min readBy Renzo DiazLast reviewed October 7, 2026

Check what does not depend on the tutor's word before you interview anyone. Four things can be checked: how far back the tutor's public reviews go (Google shows the date each review was published), who issued each qualification, whether the tutor knows the exact course and level your child sits, and whether a stated result comes with its context. Then use a first session to see how the tutor finds the cause of a mistake.

Choosing a tutor is usually run as an interview. Ask about qualifications, the IB, years of experience and past results, then decide whether to believe the answers. Each answer is a claim made by the person being evaluated. It may well be true; it is not yet evidence.

This overview sets out what to check and in what order. Three companion pieces carry the mechanics and their sources, linked from the table of checks below: one on reviews, one on qualifications and results, one on courses and curricula.

Claim, then evidence, then judgment: not claim, then trust.

Key takeaways

A claim is not evidence: ask whether someone who does not know the tutor could check it.
A date set by a platform outranks a date set by the tutor: Google shows when a review was published, or last edited.
A named credential can be traced; an adjective cannot: a named degree from a named university leads to whoever awarded it.
Course knowledge is a separate test: a maths degree does not show that a tutor knows IB Math AA HL or IGCSE 0580.
The interview comes last: after the research, ask how the tutor diagnoses a gap, not whether they are experienced.

What counts as evidence about a tutor

Ask "do you know the IB?" or "are you experienced?" and the answer is predictable. That does not make it false; it makes it a claim by the person being evaluated. This is not about assuming tutors are dishonest. Marketing language and checkable evidence are different kinds of information, and only one of them should carry weight on its own.

One test sorts them: could someone who does not know this tutor check the claim? If not, it may still be true; it just is not evidence yet. The same test changes what is worth asking. Instead of "are you experienced with the IB?", look for evidence of IB-specific work. Instead of "are your students successful?", look for a specific, dated outcome with its context.

A tutor's own website is a legitimate source, just not an independent one. The table orders the usual sources by how much they depend on the tutor's own word.

Where information about a tutor comes from, from least to most independent
Source	Who writes it	What it can show
The tutor's website and social profiles	The tutor	What the tutor says about themselves
A profile on a tutoring platform	The tutor, within the platform's rules	The same, plus whatever the platform itself checks
Public reviews	Reviewers, on a platform that dates and moderates them	Other families' experience, and how far back it goes
A record kept by whoever issued the claim	A university, exam board, school or professional body	That a degree, a role or a membership exists

This article's own framework. Not every claim needs the last row; the claims a decision rests on (experience, qualifications, course knowledge, results) do.

The further a claim travels from the tutor's own word, the more someone else has checked it.

Why online tutoring needs more checking

Online tutoring makes geography almost irrelevant: a family can work with a tutor based anywhere. It also removes the informal checks that used to come built in. There is no other parent at the school gate who has already worked with this tutor, no meeting in person before committing, and the tutor may come from an educational system you have no frame of reference for.

None of that makes online tutoring a worse choice. It moves more of the checking onto public, dated evidence, because the informal kind is not available. The further away a tutor is, the less sensible it is to let reputation stand in for evidence.

What to check before choosing a tutor

No single check settles the choice. Each row below answers one question a decision rests on, and the last column says where the full method and its sources are.

The evidence to check before choosing a tutor, and where each check is explained
What to establish	What to look at	Explained in
How long the tutor has been working	The oldest review on a platform that dates it, not a "since 2010" in a footer	Reviews
Whether the reviews mean what they seem	The platform's own rules: who can review, when, and who chooses whom to invite	Reviews
Whether the review profile is plausible	The spread of ratings and when they arrived, not only the count	Reviews
What the tutor is qualified in	A named degree, institution and year, traced to whoever issued it	Qualifications
Whether they know your child's course	The exact course, level and exam year, tested on one piece of your child's work	Curricula
What a stated result means	Starting grade, course and level, duration, the type of grade and its evidence	Qualifications
How they teach	Published explanations, or a first session that diagnoses rather than sells	Qualifications
Whether their pages agree	Years of experience, review counts and credentials, compared across the tutor's own pages	This page

Agreement across rows carries more weight than any one row. Inconsistent figures across a tutor's own pages are worth a question: they can be a sign of copy written for search engines rather than for accuracy.

In what order to run the checks

The interview has not disappeared. It has moved to the end of the process, after the research. Once you know a tutor has real IB experience, the useful question stops being "do you know IB Mathematics?" and becomes one a slogan cannot answer.

Checking a tutor, step by step

Write down the claims that matter
Experience, qualifications, course knowledge and results: the four a decision usually rests on. Note where each one is stated.
Find the oldest dated evidence
On Google, the date on a review is the date it was published, or of its last edit. The oldest one sets a floor under the tutor's public history.
Read the platform's review rules
What unlocks a review, and whether the business may choose whom to ask. Google's policy bars businesses from selectively soliciting positive reviews.
Trace named credentials
Ask who issued each one: a university, a professional body, a school. A claim that names nobody cannot be traced.
Test course knowledge on real work
Give the tutor one piece of your child's work, with its course and exam session, and ask what it would earn and where it first goes wrong.
Read results with their context
A result without its starting grade, course, level, duration and evidence is an anecdote, however good it sounds.
Then talk
Ask how the tutor tells whether a student is stuck on the mathematics, the calculator, exam technique or the wording of the question. A tutor who does this work answers with specifics.

Fake reviews are now against the law

Unchecked experience claims and manufactured reviews are not unique to tutoring, and regulators have moved against them. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission announced a final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials on 14 August 2024, with civil penalties for knowing violators. In the United Kingdom, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 added fake reviews to its list of banned practices, in force since April 2025. The rules, and what each one covers, are set out in the reviews guide.

The law changes what a business risks by faking reviews. It does not check any particular tutor for you.

What no check can promise

None of this guarantees a good outcome; no credential, review or article can. It changes the starting point, from "this tutor says they are good" to "here is what they claim, here is what I could check, and here is where the evidence is strong, where it is thin, and what is still uncertain."

The checks are also a matter of fit, not only of truth. A tutor can be exactly who they say they are and still be wrong for this student, this course or this year. The first working session is where that shows.

The signals that keep their value are the ones that are hard to fake: a dated review, a multi-year record, and claims that stay the same wherever you check them.

Terms used in this article

Self-description: What a tutor writes about themselves, on their own website, social profiles or a platform profile. Legitimate, but not independent.
Primary record: A record kept by whoever issued or recorded a claim: the university for a degree, the platform for the date of a review.
Triangulation: Checking one claim against several independent sources. Agreement among them carries more weight than any single source.
Observational claim: A result stated as what happened during the lessons ("went from a 4 to a 6 while we worked together"), as opposed to a causal claim ("I raised the grade").
Selective solicitation: Seeking positive reviews from chosen customers rather than inviting all of them. Google's policy bars businesses from it.

Questions about choosing a tutor

How do I choose a good IB tutor?

Check what does not depend on the tutor's word first, then talk to them. Look at the oldest dated review, the qualifications by name, knowledge of your child's exact course and level, and how results are stated; then use a first session to see how the tutor finds the cause of a mistake.

What should I ask a tutor before hiring them?

Ask how they find the cause of a mistake, not whether they are experienced. For example: how do you tell whether a student is stuck on the mathematics, the calculator, exam technique or the wording of the question? A tutor who does this work answers at once, with specifics.

How can I tell whether a tutor's reviews are genuine?

Read the platform's rules and the pattern, not only the stars. Check the dates, who may review and who is invited, the spread of ratings and when they arrived; the reviews guide covers each.

Is a maths degree enough to tutor IB Maths?

A maths degree shows subject knowledge, not knowledge of the current IB course. Analysis and Approaches or Applications and Interpretation, Standard or Higher Level, and how each is assessed are a separate test, best run on a piece of your child's own work.

Is an online tutor harder to check than a local one?

It takes more checking, because the informal evidence is missing. There is no other parent at the school gate who has worked with the tutor, so more of the decision rests on public, dated evidence.

Should we try a session before committing?

Yes, if the session shows how the tutor works rather than sells. A short working session with the student shows the method; a sales call only describes it.

Written by

Renzo Diaz

Teaching IB since 2016. Seven years of IB reviews you can check on Google — and named results with the documents behind them.

Last reviewed October 7, 2026

Sources

The review mechanics come from Google's own help and policy pages, and the legal context from the US Federal Trade Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority, all read on 7 October 2026. The two tables and the order of checks are this article's own framework, not a regulator's. The companion pieces carry the full sources for reviews, qualifications and courses.

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