Julian

Gap year student. Academic scholar and captain of a football team at school. Achieved 3A*s and an A at A-Level and 8x9s and 3x8s at GCSE. Discovered I actually enjoyed and was quite good at helping my friends through homework and revising for exams so decided to try and make some money doing it!

Part of what drew me to tutoring was the challenge of finding different explanations for a topic or concept as what might work for one student is incomprehensible to another. I enjoy this challenge and the satisfaction when a topic finally ‘clicks’ for a tutee, and I often find as I enjoy tutoring and look forward to sessions then the tutee enjoys the sessions as well, which is half the battle and makes learning a lot easier.

I also believe being a Gap year student, and thus having recently gone through these exams myself, is a huge advantage as a tutor because I can understand better the frustrations and gaps in knowledge of tutees. Therefore, I can help them more effectively, as I have seen firsthand and informally helped friends struggling with the same topics throughout my school life at the same stages, as well as having two years of formal tutoring experience.

Tutoring Experience

Two years experience of formal tutoring to GCSE and A-Level students while still in 6th form myself.

Tutoring Approach

Typical session length is an hour (room for flexibility), can be online or in person. Able to tutor Maths for students from 11+ through Common Entrance, GCSE and up to A-Level, and History from 11+ up to GCSE.

Maths sessions for GCSE or A-Level students would involve isolating tricky topics or styles of questions and then going over questions of increasing difficulty focused specifically on that topic; usually (depending on the breadth of the topic), within the hour the student is adept at answering most exam-style questions on said topic. For A-level students in particular, we might look at exam markschemes to see how to layout working in an answer to a question to pick up every mark available.
For Common Entrance and 11+ pupils, we might look at topics or styles of questions (eg word problems) if there are any that are particularly tricky but more often the aim would be to create a fun environment where the student enjoys learning maths and looks forward to the challenge of working through a question, while also sharpening up basic fundamental concepts.

For History, I think the key is engagement and enjoyment of the subject. In most History exams up to GCSE one can achieve stellar marks just through a thorough understanding and knowledge of the period being studied, and this is much easier to achieve if you genuinely enjoy the period you are studying. Therefore, in most sessions the aim would be to get the student engaged and immersed in the characters and customs of the era they are studying, as this really helps information to sink in.
For all students, but particularly GCSE pupils, there would also be some focus on exam technique, from time management to essay structure and guidance on writing introductions, main body paragraphs and conclusions.