GCSE tutoring
Online GCSE tutoring
Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics for Years 9 to 11, resit students and private candidates. Taught by medical and dental students who sat these papers within the last few years.
The subjects we teach
- GCSE Maths. Foundation and Higher, all four major boards. The subject most often blocking a science A-Level.
- GCSE Biology. Combined Science or separate Biology. Extended response and required practicals, where most of the lost marks are.
- GCSE Chemistry. Combined or separate. We teach the calculation half of the course properly.
- GCSE Physics. Combined or separate. Equations, rearranging and unit handling.
- GCSE resits. November and summer series, for school students and private candidates.
What the grades actually mean
GCSEs in England are graded 9 to 1 rather than A* to G. The Government calls grade 4 a standard pass and grade 5 a strong pass, and AQA describes grade 5 as sitting around a high C or low B on the old scale. Grade 7 is broadly where an old A sat, and roughly a fifth of grades at 7 or above are grade 9.
That matters for two reasons. A student who needs a 4 in Maths to move on is solving a different problem from one who needs a 7 to take Chemistry at A-Level, and the two need different teaching. And for medicine, where some schools score GCSE profiles numerically before they look at anything else, the difference between a 7 and a 9 is not cosmetic.
Why GCSEs matter if the plan is medicine
Medical schools do not treat GCSEs as warm-up exams. Several rank applicants on their GCSE profile and use that ranking to decide who gets any further consideration, and a profile cannot be improved later the way an A-Level prediction can. Years 9 to 11 are the only chance at that part of the application. The route from here to an offer is set out on the medicine pathway page.
Boards and specifications
We cover AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas. Tell us the board at the diagnostic and we match the past papers, mark schemes and required practicals to it, rather than teaching a generic version of the subject and hoping the differences do not come up.
How lessons run
- Small group, £20 an hour. Maximum five students, one subject, the same group each week. For a student who is close to the grade they want, this works about as well as one-to-one and costs less than half.
- One-to-one, from £100 a month. Four 60-minute sessions, from £25 an hour, with the same tutor each week, work set and marked between lessons, and a full paper under exam conditions every four weeks.
- Everyone starts with a free diagnostic. One hour, one-to-one, a real past paper under exam conditions, marked against the official mark scheme, and a written summary you keep whether or not you carry on.
Full rates, including what moves the monthly figure, are on the pricing page.
After GCSE
For students carrying on to A-Level, we teach Maths, Biology and Chemistry, which between them open almost every medical and dental school. The handover matters more than most families expect: the step from GCSE to A-Level Chemistry in particular catches out students who coasted to a 9.
How we teach it
- Timed questions from the first lesson. 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.
- A full paper under exam conditions every four weeks. Same timing, same silence, no notes. The score is recorded so progress is a number.
- Written progress to parents every month. 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 where the marks are going and what we would do about it. It costs nothing, and the assessment is yours to keep whether or not you carry on.