CIS tutor said I was difficult

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One time I recall during college. I was longing to be top of my department during class for overall grades. When I asked the professor clearly on online automated functions I didnt understand, she suggested I turned to the class tutor for help. I started going in Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to see this guy. This guy was clearly critical of anyone who tried asking him for help. He was known to make inappropriate comments and easily got mad whenever you asked a question or didn’t understand what was going on. He got confused and when sidetracked by a different thought changed his mind about answers or material he taught. He didn’t get easily off track but did randomly share personal stories. I happened to be asking him for help every time I couldn’t understand basic computer function equations and he got annoyed every time due to my lack of common sense and my inexperience in a state college. Whenever I assumed something was right he be like “No! For G*ds sakes,” or “do this not that.” He was pretty critical. The most hard part of it was the hardest functions of Computer Information Systems mathematics. I had so much trouble understanding it and it continued this way and with him getting the better of me for three weeks until I snapped at him to not tell me what to do. Afterward for my sophomore year in college I thought to transfer to a different program for how unhelpful he was cause the professor said my grade in her class was not that great and suggested I transfer. Well this goes to be a pretty good idea cause I would’ve reported him to the head of the department saying that he told me “you are difficult!” for the amount of questions I kept asking about significant formulas without giving it my best effort and looking dubious to how to do it. Of course he later apologized for his actions but this goes to show you that you shouldn’t trust certain people in college to help you to understand material you don’t get and that you’re better off doing things on your own in a program you like. I’ll never forget that day since it was like 4 years ago and I’m just posting for younger collegiate folk to keep an eye out for these kind of people. I went on to graduate three years later with a BA in history and social science education and a minor in hospitality and tourism. I now live a happy post collegiate life trying to fit into the world in some way.

P.S. Never trust anyone and don’t have certain expectations in college unless you know what you’re going for cause people will walk all over you if you expect them to help you with everything and will only help you if you show effort.

Any chance the tutor said you were difficult because you ARE difficult?

And secondly, it's quite a stretch from one unsatisfying relationship with one tutor, to "never trust anybody."

He said I was difficult because I was needy and kept asking him questions on how to do computerized equation functions and he's like "do THIS and NOT that." He was constantly changing his mind about answers and rambling off on untold stories. Felt like this: I needed to learn how to do this stuff myself and college wasn't easy. Being in a state college was totally different from being in a community one. The one I went to was basically for inner city and out of state folk who took the opportunity to learn themselves to come a long way in order to earn a college degree. The guy was a student not just a tutor but he was fifty one years older than I was and basically I felt like I didn't want to keep learning from somebody who got easily frustrated and snapped at you whenever you weren't on the level with him. Felt like he had some anger management issues to sort out because I never dealt with any one like that before outside of class. After a talk with the head of the department I decided to change my major because half the people there weren't helpful at all. A Computer Information Systems program is more for like people out of tech school and who want to transfer to a 4 or 6 year institute thats more up there in algebraic functions and methods. He went to one after about a year at my state college. Those functions I mentioned were hard to understand and that's why I kept asking for help.

If he couldn’t handle answering questions without getting impatient, he shouldn’t have been teaching people in the first place. Hopefully he wasn’t getting paid for that position. It’s a shame that it affected your education but it’s good that you reported him. Maybe the professor didn’t know about how he was acting.

My college has a great tutor program and if any of the tutors acted that way towards a student, they’d be fired. I would go to the tutors for help all the time and they were always nice no matter how annoying my questions were. They receive tutor training because some of the students have disabilities and they have to be patient and understanding.

Right because they would have to be compassionate and understanding. The tutors who helped me with the math department at the community college I went to before state college were helpful and understanding because that criteria was less difficult. Like what he said to me I think people who teach like that shouldn’t be allowed to teach. He may have apologized after for his actions but IMO he shouldn’t be allowed to tutor at all. He used to be a psychology professor who once had a grade system set up to get grades that didn’t work. You could’ve done a whole lotta studying but it seemed better to take your class from a real teacher. He did randomly share personal stories though.