Tutor the exam you passed: rates, platforms and what the exam rules let you teach

Which exams people pay tutors for

Demand follows fear and stakes. The exams that support paid tutors tend to have at least one of three features: a low pass rate, a lot of repeat takers, or a result that decides admission or a licence.

The pass rates show where the pressure is. AICPA's cumulative 2025 pass rates were 42.12 percent for FAR and 41.94 percent for BAR, so more than half of candidates fail those sections. In NCSBN's 2025 figures, 52.7 percent of US-educated NCLEX-RN repeat takers passed. Bar exam repeaters in New York passed at 32 percent in July 2025. Each of those numbers is a group of people looking for help.

Common categories:

• Admissions tests: the SAT, ACT, LSAT, GRE, GMAT and MCAT. Parents and applicants pay, and the calendar is predictable.
• Professional licensing exams: CPA sections, the NCLEX, the bar and the EA exam. Candidates are adults paying their own way, often after a fail.
• Language tests: IELTS, TOEFL and PTE, with a large international market online.
• IT certifications: CompTIA, AWS, Azure and Cisco exams, usually by people changing careers.

The best subject for you is the one you passed most recently and most convincingly, because that is the one you can explain best.

Passed, or nearly passed: what you can honestly claim

Your result is your main credential, so describe it exactly.

If you passed, say what you passed and when: "Passed CPA FAR, March 2026" or "LSAT 168, June 2026". Where the exam body issues a verifiable record, such as a digital badge or a licence lookup, link it. Students will check, and a link removes the doubt.

If you nearly passed, you can still tutor, but sell what you did pass. A CPA candidate with two sections passed can tutor those two. A strong section score report or high marks in the prerequisite course are real evidence. Do not describe a near miss as a pass, and do not round up a score. It is dishonest, and in licensed professions it can create problems later.

If you passed some time ago, check what has changed. Exams are revised: the CPA exam now has a core and discipline structure, several states moved to the NextGen bar exam in July 2026, and CompTIA and cloud exams change version every few years. Tutor the current version, which may mean a few weeks of catching up first.

What the exam rules let you teach

Almost every professional exam makes candidates agree not to disclose its content. NCSBN's candidate rules for the NCLEX say disclosure of examination items before, during or after the exam is prohibited. The AICPA requires CPA candidates to accept a conduct and non-disclosure agreement covering the secrecy of exam content. IT certification vendors and admissions test makers have similar terms.

That leaves a lot you can teach:

• The content outline and topic weights the exam body publishes.
• The underlying subject: accounting standards, pharmacology, contract law, subnetting.
• Method: how you planned your weeks, how you used question banks, how you reviewed mistakes.
• Exam technique: timing, triage, handling question formats the body describes publicly.
• Official practice material the exam body releases, and commercial question banks your student has paid for.

What you cannot do is recreate questions you saw, describe specific items, or sell "what came up". Stay well away from brain dumps and recall sites, and turn down any student who asks for them. Your tutoring business is only as safe as your credential.

Platforms or your own students

Marketplaces bring students to you and take a share for it.

• Wyzant: tutors keep 75 percent of their posted hourly rate and Wyzant keeps 25 percent. Students also pay a 9 percent service fee on top. Students you refer to the platform yourself pay you 100 percent of your rate.
• Preply: the platform keeps the whole of each trial lesson with a new student. After that, commission starts at 33 percent for new tutors, drops to 28 percent after 20 hours taught, and falls to 18 percent as your total hours grow.
• Upwork: a freelancer service fee of 0 to 15 percent per contract, shown before you accept. Some adults preparing for professional and IT exams look for tutors there, but it is a hard place for a newcomer, because the work goes to freelancers with reviews. RichTactic's guide to why Upwork and Fiverr stopped working for beginners covers what to do instead.

Finding students yourself means you keep almost everything, less card processing; RichTactic's Stripe fee calculator shows the cost on a typical session. The trade-off is that you do all the finding.

A common pattern is to start on a platform to get the first reviews and sessions, then move repeat students and referrals to direct booking as word spreads. Read each platform's terms first, because some restrict taking students you met there off the platform.

Setting a rate

The BLS counts 175,070 tutors in May 2025, with a median of $20.84 an hour and $43,350 a year. That figure includes tutors employed by schools and learning centres for general subjects, so treat it as a floor, not a target. Exam prep for a professional licence or a competitive admissions test is specialist work, and people charge more for it.

Work out your rate from what you need to keep, not from what others list:

1. Decide your take-home hourly target after tax.
2. Add time you are not paid for: preparing materials, messages, travel.
3. Gross it up for the platform's share. To keep $40 an hour on Wyzant, you would list about $53.34. As a new Preply tutor paying 33 percent, you would need about $59.70.

RichTactic's hourly rate calculator does the arithmetic. Sell packages rather than single hours where you can, for example eight weekly sessions leading to a test date, because students commit and you can plan your week.

Start a little lower while you have no reviews if you need to, then raise your rate for new students after your first good results.

Finding your first students

The first few students are the hardest. Places that work without paid advertising:

• People who sat with you. Classmates, colleagues and study group members who did not pass are the closest audience, and they know you.
• Your school or program. Alumni groups, career offices and student societies, especially for admissions tests and first professional exams.
• Online communities for the exam, where candidates ask for help. Answer questions well and in public for a few weeks before you mention you tutor. Follow each community's rules on self-promotion.
• A free 20-minute diagnostic call. Look at a practice score with the candidate, show them where the marks are leaking, and offer a plan. It is the most persuasive thing you can do.
• LinkedIn, for adult candidates on professional and IT exams: a short post on what you learned passing, with an offer to help two people.

Ask happy students for a review on the platform or a short written comment you can quote with their permission. Never write reviews yourself or invent results.

Growing beyond one-to-one, and the tax side

One-to-one tutoring is capped by your hours. Once you have steady demand, two ways to grow are small group sessions, where a few students share the cost and you earn more per hour, and a short self-paced course on the part of the exam students struggle with most. RichTactic's course creation playbook covers what it costs to build one and how sales usually go.

Tutoring fees are self-employment income in the US. Once your net self-employment earnings reach $400 in a year, you owe self-employment tax at 15.3 percent on top of income tax, and platforms do not withhold it. Set money aside from each payment; RichTactic's side hustle tax calculator estimates how much.

Keep your applications going too. Tutoring the exam is a good way to earn while the job search is slow, and it gives you something real to say in interviews: that you understand the material well enough to teach it.