GCSE Maths
Online GCSE Maths tutoring
One-to-one and small-group GCSE Maths for Years 9 to 11, resit students and private candidates. Foundation and Higher, AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas. Every student starts with a free hour under exam conditions.
What the exam actually asks for
On AQA (8300) and Edexcel, GCSE Maths is three written papers of 1 hour 30 minutes, 80 marks each, weighted equally. Paper 1 is non-calculator; Papers 2 and 3 allow one. There is no coursework and nothing to bank in advance, so the entire grade is decided in four and a half hours across about three weeks.
That shapes how it has to be prepared for. A student can understand every topic and still drop a grade to pace, because the paper does not wait while they remember how to start. Fluency under time pressure is a separate skill from knowing the maths, and it is the one school has least room to drill.
The tier decision is the biggest call you will make
Foundation tier is graded 1 to 5. Higher tier is graded 4 to 9, with an allowed 3 for a student who narrowly misses the 4. The decision is usually made in school, often in Year 10, and it sets a ceiling before any revision happens.
Both directions cost something. A student entered for Higher who is not ready sits two papers they cannot access and comes out with a 3 or a U, when a secure 5 was available to them on Foundation. A student capable of a 6 or 7 who is entered for Foundation has had the top of their grade removed before they walk in. Neither outcome is recoverable in the summer.
We will tell you plainly which side of that line we think your child is on, based on their diagnostic and their mock scores rather than on optimism, and we will say it early enough for the school to still change the entry.
Where the marks actually are
At Higher, roughly 30% of the marks are algebra, 20% ratio, proportion and rates of change, 20% geometry and measures, 15% number, and 15% probability and statistics. At Foundation the weighting shifts: number and ratio are about 25% each, algebra about 20%.
Most students revise in the order their textbook is printed in. The marks are not distributed in that order. A Higher student who is unsteady on algebra is unsteady on roughly a third of every paper, and no amount of confident work on topics they already like will compensate. The first thing a diagnostic does is tell you which of those blocks is actually costing the grade.
The formula sheet, and what it does not do
For the 2027 exams, a formulae sheet is provided with every GCSE Maths paper at both tiers, issued as an insert with the question paper, with the same content as 2026. Students hear this and reasonably conclude the formulas no longer need learning.
The sheet does not tell you which formula the question wants, and it does not rearrange it for you. A student who has not met a formula before the exam has to recognise the situation, find the right line on the sheet, and manipulate it correctly, all against the clock. In practice, the students who benefit from the sheet are the ones who did not need it.
Method marks are the cheapest marks on the paper
Mark schemes award marks for correct method even when the final answer is wrong. A student who writes three lines of working and slips on the arithmetic still scores most of the question. A student who writes the answer alone and gets it wrong scores nothing at all.
This is one of the few places where a few hours of deliberate practice reliably moves a grade boundary, and it is almost entirely a habit rather than an ability. We mark to the real scheme from the start so students can see where the marks were sitting in the questions they got wrong.
How we teach it
- Timed questions from the first lesson. Not at the end of the course, when there is no time left to fix what they reveal. Students who only ever work untimed are practising a different skill from the one being examined.
- Work set between lessons, and marked. An hour a week changes very little on its own. The work in between is where the grade moves, so it is set, submitted and comes back with feedback.
- A full paper under exam conditions every four weeks. Same timing, same silence, no notes. The score is recorded so progress is a number, not an impression.
- Written progress to parents every fortnight. What was covered, what the scores were, what we are working on next.
- Groups capped at five, or one-to-one if that suits better.
Start with the free diagnostic
Every student begins the same way: one full hour under exam conditions, marked against the real mark scheme, followed by a written summary of exactly where the marks are going and what we would do about it. It costs nothing, and you keep the assessment whether or not you carry on with us.
Other subjects we teach
GCSE Biology · GCSE Chemistry · GCSE Physics · GCSE resits · Programmes and pricing