If you know your child's attitude towards his/her current Chinese tuition is not positive, why not try one lesson here?
You may have found out that your child does not treats his/her work lightly such that the teacher or tutor often complains of him/her not handing in work (if he/she do so the work is all copied from peers), not paying attention during classes and failing 听写 all the time. What could be the root cause? Other than the 10 reasons i have posted below, your child could just simply have a lack of interest towards Chinese along with a weak foundation that is not built properly from young.
Tests/Exam scenarios
Paper 1)
Pri Sch: Composition's word count too low, did not capture the main points the 6 pictures is trying to depict, sentences are incomplete and the final picture is often left undescribed or barely touched due to a lack of time.
Sec sch: Situational composition/newspaper article review
Common problems include illogical content, recurrent "ill" sentences which are often plagued with basic language errors. Essay also often lacks coherence and the required main points (worse still runs out of point).
Paper 2)
Pri Sch: The student may be unfamiliar with the words from the syllabus. This will impedes them to score even for MCQ questions which are meant to pull up a student's overall score. Many students who possesses a "heck-care" attitude towards Chinese will guess and write anyhow. This is especially so for the last comprehension question which will require a certain level of analysis.
Sec sch: Similarly students may not be familiar and proficient in the usage of textbook vocabulary, affecting their performance in close passages and comprehension segments. Top schools' exam papers often habour a higher level of difficulty causing students to just give up because they know they just can't finish.
Paper 3)
Pri Sch: In the oral component, passage reading is often the Achilles' heel. For those students with weak foundation, they will have to skip across many words because their teacher said so to skip if you are unable to read. This can lead to as much as half of the message not being read. Picture description often is simpler. Normally students are able to describe the picture in plain details. However they may not be accurate in the jargon, with speech that is not coherent and complete in sentences. Likewise, students are also unable to elaborate their answers to the examiner in the conversation segment.
Sec Sch: Students with a weak foundation will also find passage reading challenging. Recently there has been a change in syllabus, where picture description is introduced. Still, many are not able to go beyond the "surface" to express how they feel about the behaviour of a person. Picture in this case is a photo which depicts a real-life scenario. Students are required to possess some kind of current affairs knowledge to be able to apply to the photo in order to score the maximum marks. Speech with frequent stutters and slow pacing will result in the loss of marks. In the conversation segment, answers given have to be on the spot and natural (like you are indeed having a lively conversation with a friend). Students that keep hesitating and repeating their words awkwardly will be penalized. This could be due to their not being equipped with current affairs knowledge or they may have the knowledge but being more proficient in English, they are unable to translate their thoughts to proper Chinese.
Paper 4) Listening comprehension (LC)
Pri Sch: Usually the standard is relatively easy. Most of the students will find it rather easy.
Sec Sch: Similarly based on what I have consolidated from the annual broadcasts of the LC recording, I find that it has become easier over the years. Last year I let a P6 kid try the exam, and surprisingly he is able to answer some questions.This segment may prove to be a challenge to foreign students who not too long ago started learning Chinese from scratch.
