This cross-national analysis examines participation in after-school tutoring, which is very common among students in Taiwan. The study presents cross-national differences in the prevalence and the duration of participation in mathematics and science tutorials after school among eighth-graders. Family socioeconomic status and academic performance are analyzed for correlations with participation in after school tutoring. In the case of Taiwan, this study analyzes gender differences, urban-rural gap, and over-time changes in tutorial participation after school. Cross-nationally, Taiwan showed a very high percentage of long-term tutorial participation (over eight months during the last 12 months). Among Taiwanese eighth-graders, the distribution of tutorial participation was bimodal and M-shaped. That is, the two extremes, those who did not participate and those who participated long-term, gave rise to two modes. Notably, compared to other countries, a remarkably high proportion of socioeconomically disadvantaged families in Taiwan are willing to bear the financial burden of sustained cram schooling, particularly for concurrent long-term tutoring in both mathematics and the natural sciences. For Taiwanese eighth-graders, tutorial participation and its duration were heavily influenced by family socioeconomic status and school location. The influence of family socioeconomic status on tutorial participation was larger in Taiwan than in most other countries. In Taiwan, the rural-urban gap in long-term tutorial participation was significant, especially in science. The proportion of Taiwanese students participating in after-school tutorials increased from 2015 to 2019. Therefore, the "examination-free admission program" and associated high-school entrance examination reforms, which reduced the scale of test performance for each subject to merely seven levels, did not reduce participation in after-school tutorials for Taiwanese students.