FAQ - Students      Where will the tuition be held? Lessons are normally conducted at the student's home except in a group tuition environment where it can be conducted at the Tutor's home, a public place or another student's home. How do we ensure that the tutor is qualified? We require the tutors to submit a copy of their educational/professional qualifications to us for verification when registering. Our tutors are required to show you their original certificates on the first lesson for your verification even without you asking. We will also email you scanned copies of the tutor's certificates which they have uploaded to our system for our verification. We indicate whether the tutor's qualification or NRIC has been verified with A-Star Tutor using a verified status tag. What happens if we don't find the tutor suitable after the first lesson? We will only recommend our tutors after stringent selection on our part. We also encourage parents to carefully screen tutors before confirming them. If necessary, we can arrange a teleconference between you and the tutor to clarify any doubts you may have about the tutor. While first impression does matter, the tutor should also be given a fair chance to prove himself or herself. The student is therefore required to have at least one month tuition with the tutor before any decision to terminate the tutor's services. Ultimately, the tutor's ability to effectively communicate his or her knowledge to the student remains the most crucial criteria. How is the commission payment like? The 50% commission becomes payable immediately upon the start of the first lesson. Student/parent will then pay the remaining 50% to the tutor upon completion of one month lessons. This is only applicable for the very first month of the tutor's tuition assignment. Subsequently, the agency will no longer collect any fees from the tutor for that assignment. Student will pay the full 100% tuition fees to the tutor for the subsequent months. For avoidance of doubts, one month is calculated as 4 weeks. The mode of payment acceptable by A-Star Tutor is either by cheque, money order or bank draft or cash deposit into its back account via ATM deposit. Cheque and money order or bank draft must be made payable to "A-Star Tutor" and mailed to 10 Anson Road #27-18 International Plaza Singapore 079903.

	FAQ - Tutors      How much commission does A-Star Tutor charge? The tutor needs to pay 50% of the first month's tuition fee to A-Star Tutor upon start of the first lesson. This will normally be paid by the student on behalf of the tutor. In the event the fees are not paid by the Student, the tutor is still liable for the 50% commission payable to A-Star Tutor. What is required of me as a tutor? We require the tutor to demonstrate commitment, dedication, enthusiasm, responsibility and most importantly, professionalism in every subject he or she is assigned to teach. The tutor will be assessed based on the Ten A-Star Tutoring Principles which the tutor is expected to familiarise himself/herself with. What if I am only free during certain days and time? This will be negotiated with the Student via SMS Chat or Web Chat and both parties need to match the tuition details and accept them before the student can place order for the services of the tutor. It has been some time after I registered, but I still haven't been offered any assignments. Our online search system allows the students to choose the tutors and also the tutors to choose the students online! Using our unique SMS Chat/Web Chat features, the tutor can even SMS the student directly to communicate their interest in a particular assignment and even negotiate the rate, time slots, etc. Hence there is no need to wait for us to manually match your needs with that of the students. You can also do it yourself! Tutors can also opt to be sent email newsletters/alerts on new available tuition jobs as and when they are posted.

	FAQ - Use of SMS Chat/Web Chat      Does A-Star Tutor charge the tutor or student for using the SMS Chat/Web Chat? The SMS Chat/Web Chat is free! What are the operating hours for this SMS feature? The SMS Chat operates from 8am till 11pm every day. Outside these times, you can still send SMSes but the messages will be queued and only sent out the following morning 8am. Must I send the SMS in a certain short code format when using the website? No, you need not follow any format when sending SMS to the other party using our website SMS. How do I send SMS to the Tutor or Student using my mobile phone? You need to follow short code formats when sending SMS using your mobile phone:- For Tutors: Send FR {tutor ID} JOB {job no.} {your SMS message to student} to 98131298. For Student: Send JOB {job no.} TO {tutor ID} {your SMS message to tutor} to 98131298. How do I retrieve tuition job assignments details using my mobile if I know the job ID? You can send sms message GJ {job ID} to 98131298 using your mobile phone. How do I retrieve the details of the tutor using my mobile phone if I know the tutor ID? You can send sms message GT {tutor ID} to 98131298 using your mobile phone. I tried calling the number 98131298 but nobody answers the phone. Why? Our SMS centre number 98131298 is connected to a computer to respond to only formatted SMS messages and also for sending messages created using our Web Chat. There is no human behind this number. Hence it cannot answer your voice calls. Please call our tuition coordinators at 63367688,62421230 or SMS to 98171077 if you need urgent attention to your queries. I sent SMS to the SMS centre number 98131298 and it does not respond. Why? There are a few reasons there is no response to your SMS:- a) your SMS is not in any of the recognised short code formats b) your SMS is too long exceeding 150 characters c) you used the reply SMS feature of your mobile to send the SMS. You need to create a New SMS. d) your SMS contained some contact information which our SMS filters and blocks pending our manual verification and release. I find the SMS Chat cumbersome. Can I send my contact details like handphone numbers or email address to the student/tutor? Or request the Student/Tutor to give me his contact numbers/address? No. you are not allowed to send or request contact information to/from the other party. All messages sent will be recorded by our SMS system and any attempt to send contact details will be blocked by our SMS filters. Your tutor/student profile will then be suspended permanently. Please note that any attempts to hack the SMS filters is tantamount to a criminal act under the Computer Misuse Act and is a jailable offence. We expect all our tutors to have highest degree of integrity and honesty so that we can confidently assign them to student's home. Such integrity and honesty can not and will not be compromised as our Student's future and character molding is in our Tutor's hands. We expect students to also not encourage this dishonest behaviour by releasing contact information to them. If they can be dishonest in simple things like dishonoring A-Star Tutor's right to its rightful commission, how can the student/parent trust the tutor with more important things like their child's academic future, moral character building, proper and honest conduct of their child's tuition and even belongings at home? If you find the SMS Chat cumbersome, you can contact any of our tuition coordinators to arrange a teleconference with the other party where you can talk directly to the tutor/student. We will not hesitate to suspend the tutor's account if any attempt to abuse our SMS system is made.