Math Tutoring for Struggling Students

Let’s roll up our sleeves and dive into the foundation. Because math tutoring for struggling students begins here. Without a firm foundation, everything else will feel like walking on sand. Let’s look at the essential blocks and how to reinforce them.

Understanding Numbers and Operations: The Bedrock of Mathematics

Remember when you first learnt tens, hundreds, thousands (or you watched your child struggle with it)? That’s not just a childhood memory. Place value is the unsung hero of all math. It tells you the ‘2’ in 20 is very different from the ‘2’ in 200. Without that clarity, every calculation becomes shaky and full of little errors.

Try this 10-minute challenge:
Write down 4,372. Ask: “What’s the value of the ‘4’?” Then change it to 4,072 and ask: “How did the number change?” Replace a digit with 0 and ask again. This builds number sense. In math tutoring sessions, I’ve seen this kind of number-sense work pay off big time—students who previously guessed now can reason.

Also, the four operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division—are mastered only when students know when and why to apply them, not just execute steps. In math tutoring, I focus on why a method works, so that students begin to own the process rather than rely on memorization.

How Positive and Negative Numbers Work in Real Life

Negative numbers don’t just live in textbooks. They show up as debts, temperatures below zero, and floors in basements. I remember a 14-year-old saying, “Why is negative times negative positive?”. I used a metaphor: moving backward twice can move you forward. Or think of a debt canceled out by another debt. Seeing meaning makes the rule stop being weird.

In my tutoring sessions, we use number lines, real-life scenarios (bank account with –£50 then +£30,) and reasons behind the rules. A frequent stumbling block is sign errors like treating 5 − (-3) as something else. Once students visualize, it stops being spooky.

Mastering the Four Operations: Beyond Memorization

Yes, you memorized the times tables or did long division. But mastery means being able to flexibly apply them: estimate, judge reasonableness, do mental math, and reduce reliance on the calculator. For many students, the over-dependence on calculators builds a silent math problem: they know the button, not the idea.

Try this 5-minute warm-up: Without a calculator, estimate 39×4. Then compute exactly. Ask: “Is the result plausible if I estimated 40×4=160?” This builds fluency. In math tutoring, I aim to reduce the number of times a child reaches for a calculator for simple tasks.

BODMAS / PEMDAS: The Easy Guide to Order of Operations

Ever seen 2 + 3×4 and thought “Add or multiply first?” That confusion happens when the order of operations is unclear. That one mistake can ruin otherwise correct calculation skills. In tutoring, I frame it like a recipe: you don’t add the icing before the cake is baked.

We practice layered expressions like 5 + (2×3)−,4, then add brackets and exponents. The idea is: the student steps through what happens first and why. In my experience, when students understand the logic of order, their mistakes drop dramatically.