Policarpa wrote:
Hi,
When you say a teacher adds value, do you mean private tutoring or just a live teacher in a course, I have the Kaplan on-demand and my time zone does not allow for a live class, I have considered a tutor but I think it is too soon since I have not gone through ALL of the resources that I have so far, as far as books, videos, etc.
Both do. Generally speaking, when people read a concept from a book, they do not understand it and its applications fully. They need to practice questions, then go through the concept again to fine tune their understanding and then practice questions again. On the other hand, a teacher explains the concept to you in simple words, explains its applications and makes you run through some examples to show you the concept in action. That one hour does a more thorough job than people themselves do in days. It leads to better understanding and retention in a shorter span of time. But then these are generalizations and there are people who do well on their own too. What works best for you depends on how you study best and the cost benefit analysis.
If someone is at the 700 level, there would be few concepts in which he/she would face problems so value added by a classroom course is limited. When someone is at 200-300 level, again, he/she would need to come up to 450 level to gain maximum benefit out of a classroom course because he/she would probably have a hard time following the lecture (because he/she may not be able to deal with very basic things such as working with fractions etc). A level of 450 - 500 is perfect to join a classroom course - lots of gaps to patch up, enough basics to follow in the class.
Private tutors add tons of value at every level since they personalize the course according to individual requirement. Of course, they are more expensive than a classroom course.