When you're stuck on a problem, TutorMate doesn't jump straight to the answer. Instead, hints are delivered in three escalating tiers, each one giving away a bit more.
Tier one is a nudge — usually a question that redirects your attention to the part of the problem that matters. Most students get unstuck here.
Tier two breaks the problem into a smaller, more concrete step — still without solving it for you.
Tier three walks through the reasoning in detail, but leaves the final step for you to complete yourself, so you still finish the problem.
You can request the next hint tier at any time by asking for a hint, or by clicking the hint button in the session toolbar. The tutor tracks how often you use each tier — this feeds into your mastery model, so it's not something to avoid using.