tutor

Alchemy Tuition

First off, I’m extremely disappointed. It had been a while since I babysat/tutored and I was excited to start again but also nervous. I chose Alchemy Tuition because their ad kept popping up on indeed and I saw the high rate of employee satisfaction. I didn’t worry about the pay too much as I have a part-time job but I was looking to do some tutoring on my days off to earn a stable side income. Even though the pay rates were a bit low ($30 for online, $35 for in person), I thought it was okay because they would be getting students for me and I would only be spending a bit of time preparing for the tutoring. This could not be further from the truth. 

First, it took me a while to choose a student as I was so nervous seeing the high expectations of the parents - some expected their kids to pass an exam with a week’s worth of tutoring with high marks, some wanted two kids taught at the same time for THE SAME AMOUNT PER HOUR. Some requested subjects that clearly required quite a bit of background knowledge and not just the memories you had from year 10-12 (ancient history for example). 

I finally found a student I thought I could help and all went well even though I realised immediately that it would be A LOT more work than anticipated. I needed to prepare what to study with the student and have an hour’s worth of material in case it went well and they got through it fast.  The resources offered by alchemy are basic worksheets that my student did not enjoy at all so I soon switched to a different worksheet provider (paid ofc but I thought it would be okay since I would get more students and use the same service). Staff communication was a bit poor and repetitive but they were responsive and tried their best to help when I had issues so I appreciated it and was happy to keep going more than anything for my new student’s sake. 

Disaster stroke when I tried to choose a second student - the parent kept switching times, contacting alchemy tuition staff to get background information on me and then contacting me as well. The parent switched times 4 times and then proceeded to ask Alchemy Tuition staff to contact me regarding what time our tutoring was. A little frustrated as I was getting messages from both parent and AT staff while at work, I tried to share my frustration with a staff member. Instead of empathising a little, she defended the parent and I guess thought I was criticising the way she did her job? Next thing I know, I get a long message from the manager scolding me and letting me know that I should not get frustrated at AT staff and to please be mindful of how I address them right after I get a message from the AT member saying the parent no longer wishes to work with me simply because I asked that she contact me personally instead of contacting staff and me repeatedly. 

I was appalled. I responded that I was never disrespectful and I did not say ANYTHING mean to the AT staff member or to the parent and that, given this experience, I would keep my contact with AT staff to the minimum as I would not want to cause any more issues. The manager disapproved and said they wanted bonds to form between AT staff and tutors. I did not respond. Next thing I know, I was banned from even seeing other jobs let alone contacting other students. Soon, the contact live chat for staff was also removed from my account.
I contacted my student’s parent and advised her that I would no longer be able to tutor her child and contacted Alchemy via email to ask them to remove my profile to which the manager simply responded “understandable, best of luck in a more suitable role”. I guess I’m not “suited” to being a tutor even though I tutored the student I had for 10 sessions spanning over 3-4 months. Honestly left an awful feeling in my gut, like they were saying “serves you right, good riddance” and all because of a small little argument. 

Extremely disappointed. I hope my student can find another, more “suitable” tutor. 

Oh also, agree with other reviews - you can’t really pick the times, you have to accomodate the student’s parents’ wishes 100% or they’ll find someone else. 

Alchemy is the only tutoring company that I have worked for that pays acceptable wages, and trust me, I have worked for so many. You start on 35 an hour, which is well above the sub 30 offered by basically every other company. With travel bonuses, that often gets close, or to 40, and if you have recurring lessons with a student for weeks, or months, or years, they will keep upping your wage. 

Top that off with a super easy interview process, and a super professional support team that is willing to help their tutors should they not know what to say or do when a difficult situation arises with a client. 

Alchemy has always had my back as a tutor, and I have many happy clients, and a great paycheck in return. 

Tutoring is such a rewarding job, as you get to see yourself making a difference to someone else's life, and future. You can also choose your own hours and arrange lesson times with the client, or with the help of Alchemy should a compromise be needed. 

Many companies slap this love of the job out of you with abysmal wages that see you running off to a retail job when doing uni to keep paying the bills. 

All in all, I recommend this company for anyone looking to get into tutoring, whether it be taking on a student or two whilst they do uni, or taking on 10-20 students and working every afternoon and every weekend during their gap year or as a profession before they get into full time teaching.  

Tutors are required to make their lesson plans, alchemy simply acts as a middleman between students and tutors but takes 2/3 of what the student pays. This would be viable if they created their resources, however, tutors take on most of the work of lesson planning and finding valuable materials despite their mostly outdated resources, textbooks that the student likely already studies at school, uncompleted or from some random textbook or worksheet that doesn't complement the skills needed for the HSC.  Moreover, there are so many tutors who are still struggling to find their first student even after being employed for a month or two. On the bright side, the environment is very stress-free, tutors enjoy a lot of autonomy and can choose any availabilities they like (works well if you have other commitments such as part-time work or uni). Tutors are also not required to submit their marks when applying for this position, which doesn't sit right with me since they are supposed to be academic tutors.

A typical day as a tutor involves preparing lesson plans, meeting students for one-on-one or group sessions, and adapting teaching methods to their learning styles. The day often includes explaining concepts, answering questions, and helping students tackle challenging topics. Additionally, there’s time spent reviewing progress and tailoring future sessions to individual needs. Tutoring teaches valuable skills like patience, communication, and creative problem-solving. I’ve learned to break down complex ideas into understandable pieces and how to foster a positive learning environment. Management often sets the tone with clear expectations and support, ensuring tutors have the resources and feedback to succeed. Workplace culture tends to be collaborative and student-focused, fostering a shared sense of purpose. The hardest part is helping students overcome frustration with complex topics, but it’s also the most rewarding when they finally understand and grow confident. Seeing their progress and enthusiasm is the most enjoyable part of the job.

I tutor students online from my own room, and you have the option to accept students whose availability works with your own, so I can always fit work in with my schedule.

The students I've had are lovely and easy to work with, and their parents have always been responsive and clear communicators about changes to session times or what their kids want to do in a lesson.

Any questions I had for Alchemy were responded to quickly and clearly.

Hardest part of the job might just be planning out lessons and writing good feedback for your students, but even that isn't very hard, more just time consuming.

The most enjoyable part of being a tutor is probably the fun you can have with a student (I got to beatbox while teaching one student his timestables), and the reward of seeing them learn :)

Although the organisation is very well managed and clearly systematised, the pay is very underwhelming if you take highschool students and more so, senior students.
The pay for the first 10 lessons online is $30.
For a  Year 11 or 12 student, you end up using an extra thirty minutes to an hour a week outside of class to either prepare your lesson, brush up on your content knowledge, mark/provide feedback for their work or answer questions they have leading up to an assessment task.
If you spend an extra thirty minutes for a student, that's essentially 90 minutes of work for $30. This is under minimum wage in Australia which should be $23.23 per hour. 

Although the solution feels simple - only take junior students, the reality is, unless you are really quick to respond to messages they aren't that easy to come by. 
For those with other commitments who cannot respond to messages immediately, you are really only left with senior students to choose from.

The only thing I don't like about Alchemy is that they are not very organized in keeping their notes. Tutor hub is not very useful while preparing the lessons as it is all very mixed and I cannot find topic specific notes, practice questions etc. In addition, the notes also are very condensed and cannot be used while explaining during the lessons and there are barely any practice tests or questions to give your student and I think it is all very disorganized. But the management at Alchemy is wonderful! I also think the rate per hour is not fair as we spend more time preparing for one lesson and also provide feedback or answer any questions that the student may have and thus it is a lot more work and mental stress no matter what grade the student is in according to the pay rate. I feel if we are travelling some distance to give the student tutoring the travel time and cost should be compensated, another thing that is not fair on us.

Not ideal if you wish to work full-time. It’s hard to get students that are close to you, and the company does not pay for your kms. Not worth it to drive over 40 minutes for a session. 

It’s also rare to get online students. Parents also cancel last minute sometimes. 

Overall, it’s a good concept but I feel like as tutors we are under-paid. Planning lessons takes time, and we have to do it in our own time in advance. We don’t get paid for that. I applied in hopes of making extra income, however the money made isn’t even enough to cover a trip to the grocery store. 

Personally, I’m happy to do it but it feels partially like volunteer work. I spend more time planning than I do in an actual session. 

In addition to this, I worked overtime in my first session and logged the time, only to find that it was edited and cut to 15 minutes less. My time is valuable and I deserve to be paid for the amount of time in the session. 

The parents payments also sometimes fail, and we don’t get paid for over a week. 



They say that your pay goes up each 10 sessions, the increase is about 1.50 every 10 sessions. You aren't payed for any prep done, parents expect you to work around their schedule. Because you're a subcontractor you lose all benifits of running your own business (ie when a parent tells you 15 minutes before a session that they won't come you can't charge them a late notice fee). 

I've had to deal with rude teenagers, for 35 (they charge parents 100 for this, even though you're doing a the work, you'll only see 35) an hour (home visit) it's not worth it. 

On top of that because you're a subcontractor, you don't get payed super. And when you leave alchemy, you can't take any students with you, even if they ask due to their business model. 

The only pro to working for them is not having a boss, the management are unresponsive. Most of the kids you tutor don't even need it. 

I have worked as an Alchemy tutor for a few months now and have already started building great relationships with my students.  In just a short time my students have grown comfortable working with me, and I can see an improvement in their understanding and confidence towards their school work.  Alchemy is a great place to work because I get to choose my own hours and the type of lessons I feel comfortable teaching.  So far, all of my students have a long-term tutoring goal so I feel confident about the income each week.  I get to talk directly with parents regarding scheduled lessons and any changes that there may be with dates/times.  Alchemy is very easy to get in contact with regarding assistance/training/questions.

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