Unlike in the past, when online tutor were hired to assist laggard students, today even high-achieving students seek private tutoring in order to achieve the 85-95 percent cut-off averages required by the best colleges.

As a student, it can be difficult to know where the line is drawn in terms of tutoring prices in your area, and how much you should pay for a good service. The following are the most important factors to consider:

Qualifications and skills of a tutor

Professional experience of a tutor

The teaching ability of a tutor

Is the personality of a tutor creative? Enthusiastic? Constructive?

Complementary availability and adaptability

With India's education system becoming more competitive and examination-oriented, and the quality of teaching in schools and colleges deteriorating, the demand for private tuition and tutors is increasing. Private tutoring has become a highly lucrative vocation in India, with growth rates of 40-45 percent over the last five years, according to a recent Assocham study. If you are academically gifted, performed well in school, college, and university, enjoy interacting with young people, and have the discipline and passion to teach, a career as a private tutor, either full-time or part-time, could be ideal for you.

The majority of India's 40 million middle-class households are willing and able to spend up to one-third of their monthly income on private tuition for their children in the hope that it will improve their final school board examination results and allow them to enter the small minority of best arts, science, commerce, and professional education colleges. Currently, an estimated 3 million children in India's five metros have signed up with private tutors, particularly those providing coaching in math, chemistry, and physics, whose average monthly earnings are comparable to those of senior business executives. Private tutors across the country are making a lot of money, charging between Rs.300-800 per hour per student for one-on-one tuition and Rs.500-1,500 per capita for group tuition.

Unlike in the past, when private tutors were hired to assist laggard students, today even high-achieving students seek private tutoring in order to achieve the 85-95 percent cut-off averages required by the best colleges. Regrettably, the vast majority of school leavers spend their early mornings, evenings, and vacations adhering to punishing private tuition schedules in the hope of admission to India's all-too-few best colleges.

Over 3,000-4,000 private tutors are currently active in Mumbai, and with competition for admission into the near-static number of best colleges intensifying, demand for private tuition is rising steadily. As a result, many of the best teachers from reputable schools have left their jobs to become private tutors, for the simple reason that the monthly income of good tutors is equal to the annual salaries of school teachers, according to a qualified engineer who left a blue-chip corporate job in 2001 to set up shop as a private tutor.

Private tutoring is a lucrative career path. We are a breed of overachievers who work around the clock, 365 days a year, to help our students average 90 percent or higher, which is now required by top colleges."