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Institute of Advanced Technological and Commercial Studies

Practical guides

Getting the most from the tutor

The tutor is available at any hour, anchored in your course, and moves you forward by questioning. This guide shows how to phrase a request that genuinely unblocks, and what that behaviour brings to your certificate.

What the tutor brings

The tutor rephrases, offers an example, asks the question that moves you forward, and is anchored in the module you are working on: its answers bear on your course, not on a general topic. It leads you to the answer rather than handing it over, and that is precisely what gives value to the resulting certificate: what you submit is what you can do.

  • Availability at any hour, without an appointment
  • Anchoring in the current module and its resources
  • A reformulation when a statement resists
  • A question that unblocks, rather than a ready-made answer

Phrasing a request that unblocks

  1. 01

    Say where you are

    The module, the section, the exercise. Context does half the work and avoids a general answer.

  2. 02

    Show what you have tried

    Your reasoning, even incomplete. That is what the feedback bears on, and it starts from where you are.

  3. 03

    Ask a closed question

    « Why does this step give this result? » rather than « I do not understand ». Precision draws precision.

  4. 04

    Restate the answer received

    Rewrite it in your own words and submit it: having your reformulation confirmed anchors the idea.

  5. 05

    Carry the trace into your notes

    One line in your module page. The same blocker rarely returns once it has been written down.

What the refusal to answer protects

The tutor does not hand over an assessment answer. That behaviour is the condition for the certificate to mean something: a system that gives answers issues worthless credentials, starting for the person holding them. It is also what makes marking feedback credible, since it bears on your genuine output.

  • Publishing teaching content — a named lead approves it and answers for it
  • Settling a certifying mark, after marking and second reading
  • Deciding an admission or an exclusion, by written and reasoned decision
  • Issuing an award, under the signature of the institution

The tutor in figures

a day, available
24 h

Settling a certifying mark is one of them.

acts reserved to people
4

The tutor is one of them.

services included in your fees
12

Questions about the tutor

Does the tutor stand in for a teacher?

It supports daily work, at any hour and inside your course. The acts that commit your path — publishing content, settling a mark, deciding an admission, issuing an award — are reserved to named people, and that list is published in our governance.

Can I ask it to review a piece of work?

Yes for practice work: it questions your choices, flags what deserves sharpening and makes you rephrase. Certifying marking, by contrast, is settled by a person, with named feedback on what was missing.

Does the tutor work offline?

Your questions are written offline and sent when the signal returns, like submissions. Exchanges already received stay readable on the device, which lets you work a whole module without a network.

Getting the most from the tutor — Practical guides | IHETC — IHETC