Whether you are a novice looking to learn the basics of academic debate or a top competitor in contention to champion prestigious tournaments, our track record of helping debaters rapidly improve is unparalleled. DebateDrills Tutors have helped over 150 debaters win countless tournaments, including local, national, and international competitions. We have completed 3500+ hours of 1-on-1 tutoring using proven teaching methods and in-house materials.
“I honestly thought that I improved more in 5 hours of tutoring than I had at all the debate camps I had been to in previous summers (combined).”
- Nirmal Balachundar | B.S. Northwestern University | 9th Place, 2017 Varsity Harvard Invitational
Every DebateDrills Tutor has been trained and checks in quarterly with the company’s founder, Paras Kumar, who is one of the most successful coaches in the history of competitive debate. He has extensively worked 1-on-1 with 300+ students from every background, format, skillset and region.
“I personally found myself making leaps within single sessions.”
- Ishan Timalsena | B.S. University of California, San Diego
Debate education is most effective when it’s iterative and consistent. If you are training to be an Olympic athlete, you don’t train only when it is convenient. Similarly, the benefits from participating in academic debate are most impactful when students and instructors have the time to build strong argumentative bases and develop skill-sets over time. Accordingly, we offer subscription based tutoring to students interested in improving at academic debate.
“I had already had a very successful debate season, but was astounded by how much I learned in 3 short months. I wish I had started working with DebateDrills earlier.”
- Jackson Lallas | B.S. Stanford | 2014 Glenbrooks Finalist, 2015 TOC Quarterfinalist
Debate education too often focuses on content and lectures instead of implementation. Our approach is the opposite. We rarely lecture and prefer free flowing conversations where students feel free to speak their mind and be equal participants in the conversation. This creates trust between student and instructor and ensures students feel comfortable making mistakes in the sessions, allowing faster progress. As trends evolve, so does strategy, and elite coaches must adapt to the game. We pride ourselves on staying ahead of the curve and students consistently approach us because of how effective our teaching techniques are. Read our testimonials to see for yourself.
Our approach to tutoring is uniquely individualized and detailed. We initially assess and determine each students’ weaknesses while onboarding them into our program. We help decide the best tutor, and work with our tutors to create custom lesson plans using our in-house teaching philosophy and methods. We use a professional suite of software to provide seamless and effective online education that allows for flexible learning and scheduling. Click below to view our offering in more detail:
Each student has the option to take an assessment consisting of a written component and a recorded speech to determine their current strengths and weaknesses. If we are uncertain about the assessment results, we continue with a 1:1 phone call to help determine the best plan of attack.
We work with each family to game plan the best tutor for their specific needs and budget ensuring administrative oversight into the design of each students’ learning program.
Based on the results of the ILA and package purchased, each student does intensive, structured 1-on-1 tutoring with our elite instructional staff. We work with tutors and students to create individualized tutoring plans. Plans are flexible and often modified based on progress but the up-front work helps both instructors and students set clear goals.
Our in-house Video Library contains over 500 hours of do-it-yourself resources, spanning Lectures, Round Analyses, Rebuttal Redo Packets, and Tutoring Lesson Plans. All tutoring students get unlimited access to these resources for the duration of their time in our tutoring program.
Given we are industry leaders in Private Academic Debate Education in the United States, we have heavily invested in professional software to provide high quality virtual debate education. This software stack has been revised over the years based on the user feedback of hundreds of previous families, and has helped us deliver over thousands of hours of services since 2016. Our commitment to high-quality service allows us to effectively teach our students virtually and provide seamless user experience for both Parents and Students.
Our tutors have all been trained personally by Paras, the founder and lead tutor of DebateDrills. We also conduct quarterly performance check-ins to ensure the quality of our instruction remains elite.
"As someone who came from a school without extensive competitive debate resources, I really can’t highly recommend enough grabbing ahold of an opportunity to tutor with instructor’s in the DebateDrills Network if you are serious about improving."
"DebateDrills has mastered well-thought out and effective simulations of real debates, creating the perfect storm for improvement. Anyone serious about improving will find an extremely useful setting to analyze, practice, reflect and prepare. I really wish I had found them earlier in my career."
"I would definitely recommend tutoring with the instructors in the DebateDrills network—it’s worth it no matter what skill level you’re at. They are great at building upon skills or helping you develop new ones. Even if you’re like me and no longer have much time for debate, the lessons you learn especially from the fast-paced LD debate help you in all areas of life."
Chloe Brown | Columbia University, Class of 2022
"Tutoring with DebateDrills was incredibly helpful because they are perfectionists in a lot of ways. The instructors want to see speeches that leave no doors open for opponents but also are as efficient as possible. At first that standard was frustratingly hard to meet but eventually I began to expect it of myself when I debated too."
Matthew Chen | 2018 Texas State Debate Champion | University of Chicago, Class of 2022
"I would 10/10 recommend tutoring with DebateDrills to any debater no matter the skill level. They are able to teach extremely well no matter what your current debate level is and will contextualize instruction to suit your needs. They are world class debaters and coaches, and being able to pick their brains for ideas, arguments, and strategy for 4 years made me the debater I am. There’s nothing quite like it."
Anthony Ma | 2017 California State Champion | Colombia University, Class of 2022
"Paras changed my debate career. We tutored together the summer leading into my senior year, and the results speak for themselves."
Brennan Caruthers
Northeastern University | Class of 2017
Cal Round Robin Champion, 5th Place, 2013 UC Berkeley Invitaitonal
I strongly recommend tutoring with the DebateDrills instructors. They all have tremendous knowledge in the areas that they specialize in, which allows for higher quality tutoring than any other instructors I had worked with in the past. The fact that they devote a majority of time to intensive drills and very little time towards lecturing, and instead choose to teach by drilling, makes for a much more efficient learning experience and has helped me improve leaps and bounds in a very short period of time.
Arnav Garg | Saratoga High School, Class of 2023
We use a subscription tier model to ensure students are getting the most impactful debate education.
*Applications open in March of every year for the following season.
All our instructors go through training and we regularly track instructor performance and growth. Accordingly, we tier our instructors based on 3 levels of experience to inform pricing:
*Due to high volume and demand, expert tutors do not offer discounts.
DebateDrills Instructors are classified into tiers of experience which informs their rates.
Click on any of the profiles below to learn in depth about each Instructors debate resume!
We do not offer pay-as-you-go tutoring sessions. After providing thousands of hours of tutoring, we have found that a subscription model ensures our students receive more impactful debate education.
Due to high demand and volume, we do not offer trials. We encourage you to explore our testimonials & results to get more insight into our teaching record. We also offer free resources that you can view to get a better sense of the types of material we teach.
You can cancel a booked session up until 24 hours before the beginning of the session and receive credit for the session.
This has never happened before and we are confident you will be satisfied and impressed by the quality of our work. Please reach out to us and we will discuss your concerns to find an agreeable solution.
We prefer using Zoom for calls, though we will occasionally opt to use phone calls or Google Hangouts/Skype/FaceTime if there is poor wireless signal.
Please email us directly if you would like to discuss in-person tutoring arrangements.
We have helped students as young as 1st grade and routinely help students in 6th-8th grade. We are happy to discuss any concerns you have regarding the age of your child!
Absolutely! Please contact us directly if you’d like to schedule group-classes.
Yes! We have helped students who live all over the world, including Japan, Taiwan, China, India and the UK. As long as you have a strong internet connection, we can work with you from anywhere. Please contact us to discuss further if you are an international student.
Absolutely! In fact, many of our students are “traditional”debaters who compete only on their traditional circuits. As competitors, we were incredibly successful at “traditional” debate as well, and we have worked closely with students who have won some of the most prestigious and difficult traditional tournaments in the United States, such as the California State Championships.
We use the results of your Individual Learning Assessment to create a lesson plan, and accommodate your requests on topics you are struggling with.
We do not view private debate education as a replacement for school teams. Families must get permission from their school programs to tutor with us - this has historically not been an issue. We've regularly tutored with students from long-established Speech and Debate Programs such as Strake Jesuit Preparatory School (TX), Loyola High School (CA), and Lake Highland Preparatory School (FL). We are happy to sit and talk with your school administrators about their concerns with private debate education.
We field requests and subject to mutual scheduling availability, we strive to pair students’ with their preferred instructors.
This depends on your Individual Learning Assessment and mutual scheduling availability. We will pair you with instructors best suited to your growth and unique needs which could result in working with multiple instructors. All instructors you work with will be at the same experience level and will not affect your pricing.
Still have questions?
Getting started is simple. Fill out the application and pick the instructor you are most interested in working with! We will get in touch with you shortly with our decision and to discuss any questions you may have.
If you still have questions that you would like answered prior to beginning, please contact us using this link!
