Other people's help is indeed one of the most effective ways to learn. My problem with that is simply finding such people - given my extremely introverted disposition it's much harder for me than for normies - and also what you say, ie. finding people who would not quit after three sessions.

Then I thought, why can't I just buy the time of someone competent? There are many students who tutor high school kids, shouldn't students who can teach first/second-year material for pay exist?

I wonder, have anyone tried this? To me, it looks like a perfect solution and I can't think of any downsides. I'm not sure how to approach this exactly - where to find such a tutor in the first place - but it should be possible, right?

I would use such private lessons for getting a summary/overview of the subject first, then after some self-study, I would ask about whatever I couldn't comprehend. It would have minimal impact on my schedule, shouldn't cost that much, and should be quite efficient.

Well, it's just an idea I had some time back, I didn't try it in reality yet, but I think I'll try going this way in the future. I'd like to ask what do you think, is it possible, could that really work out?