Two students take an English class at Menglish Academy, an education company that provides tailored coaching services to overseas study applicants in Beijing. (Photo: China Daily/Wang Zhuangfei)
Chinese students eager for good scores on international tests and secure enrollment at quality overseas universities have long turned to tutorial classes for help. Now such services are evolving to offer a more high-end - and costlier - type of tutoring that includes one-on-one coaching.
Conventional classes still teach the skills required for basic tests, such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the Graduate Record Examination and the Graduate Management Admission Test.
Some overseas study training institutes in China, while keeping their traditional large classes, are opening more mini-sized ones to meet the specific needs of some clients who want more attention and better guidance from teachers.
As Chinese students are facing increasingly fierce competition in their applications for study overseas, many are seeking different ways to stand out. Such tailored services are one approach that's attracting the attention of more students and their parents, said Zhao Li, who manages a department offering high-end coaching at Meitong Education, a Beijing company that offers test tutoring.
Zhao, who has provided the service for years, said the whole process of the one-on-one teaching service is like a medical inquiry and treatment.
"The student is given an overall examination to see what his advantages and weaknesses are. Then a targeted study plan is designed for that student to improve his ability," Zhao said.
The plan usually includes details such as which teachers are the most suitable for the student, which books should be read and how many hours the student should spend working on each section of a test. In some cases, there are teaching assistants urging students to finish homework and answering questions, she said.
The effects of the service are usually obvious, said Meng Jiafeng, founder and president of Menglish Academy, an education company established in Beijing in 2012 that has provided the tailored one-on-one coaching service to more than 60 overseas study applicants.
"After being coached in this way for a year or two, some with a very weak base scored dozens of points more and were admitted to good universities that had been out of reach," Meng said.
Meng charges each student 700 to 800 yuan ($107-122) per hour, which means that a student would pay about 40,000 yuan per year for one class each week. But Meng said it's not much compared with the average level in the industry. "Some teachers may ask for hourly pay of 1,500 or even 2,000 yuan," Meng said.
The high price doesn't seem to frighten away parents. Meng said his small company, without much marketing, got more than 20 clients last year.
Meitong's Zhao said many parents cared more about effects than costs. "Not to mention that sometimes parents can be reimbursed if their children get scholarships," she said.
Zhang Dongdong, a Beijing resident whose daughter got tailored coaching for almost two years, said the expense was worth it. Her daughter, formerly a passive learner, was admitted to a liberal arts college in the United States.
"In large classes, teachers are often distracted by diverse needs of students at different levels, so they can only provide some general knowledge. By comparison, the tailored one-on-one service gives exactly what you need, and the teachers focus solely on you," she said.
"Teachers' attention is a precious resource in class, especially for students like my daughter. We are willing to pay for that attention."
