Andrew

Extremely dedicated full-time tutor for 12 years, over 12,000 1-1 lessons taught. Cambridge graduate, PhD from Newcastle, 2 degrees in Physics (Natural Sciences) & Chemistry from Cambridge and Newcastle, member of the Institute of Physics and Royal Society of Chemistry.

I am completely focused on helping you get the grades you want, and into your university of choice. Everything I teach is 100% specific to your exam board. Together, our goal will be to enable you to answer any exam or past paper questions with confidence, as soon as possible.

I am friendly, patient, have many ways of explaining things and bringing even the driest of topic to life. I genuinely care about my students grades and well-being, always an email/text/WhatsApp away. I’m contactable 7 days a week all year. I do lessons 6 days a week, 7 near exams. You or your children will never feel alone or in the dark, especially near exam time. I am extremely dedicated to my profession, and students love my lessons.

Academic Qualifications in full:
- A full degree and masters in Physics from Cambridge University.
- A further full degree and masters in Chemistry from Newcastle University.
- A PhD in Computational Chemistry/Physics from Newcastle University.
- I’ve been accepted as a full member of the Institute of Physics (IOP), and into the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

Tutoring Experience

I have taught over 12,000 hours of tutorials. I am a full time tutor, it's all I do. I do not have another job or any research to distract me. This makes me ideally suited for one to one tuition and you will be hiring a dedicated professional, who can help with any of your academic goals.

My deep understanding of maths, physics and chemistry allows me to explain each topic clearly, simply and in a number of different ways - I will always be able to find a way of explaining something to you so that you finally 'get it'.

I have vast experience of all the major exam boards. The ones I cover are AQA, OCR (A and B), Edexcel, International Edexcel and IB.

I have studied all the past papers for all major exam boards. I have spent countless hours examining every detail of these and the marking systems. and I will teach you exactly how to answer questions so you don't drop marks. Many marks are lost due to careless mistakes. I have developed techniques to prevent this I will teach you.

I have been an online tutor for pupils based all over the world. I am used to dealing with different time zones, and software and internet limitations of different countries.

As well as A-level and GCSEs, I have helped pupils prepare for competitions and other exams such as:
- 1st year Chemistry exams for medics at university
- British Physics Olympiad
- Cambridge Chemistry Challenge
- Cambridge Natural Sciences Entrance Exams
- Cambridge Engineering Admissions Assessment
- Oxford Physics Aptitude Test (PAT)
- Oxford Maths Admissions Test (MAT)
- 16+ entrance exams
- STEP (Sixth Term Examination Paper) in Mathematics
- UK Intermediate and Senior Maths Challenge

Tutoring Approach

I will explain each part of each topic with lots of examples. I will start out explaining simple questions, then help you answer them, then let you take over more and more until you are doing the whole question unaided. I progress at the speed that is just right for YOU.

For a lot of A-Level topics, and some topics in GCSE, we can switch to developing your understanding. The harder questions, often ones involving muliptle topics, require more than memorising the facts. You need to apply the principles you have learned to unseen situations. I will train you how to do this. This will improve your problem solving in general, an ability that will help you for the rest of your life.

Lesson planning - long term:
It obviously changes with each case. If you have hired me for a different reason, like emergency pre-exam help - this could be very different, and will always be tailored to your exact needs. But for a pupil looking for improvement over several months:
- I quickly establish strengths and areas for improvement.
- If you are struggling with the current topic being taught in school, we start there. This means none of your time is wasted being confused in upcoming school lessons.
- Once that’s done we move onto core understanding of the fundamentals. Then we look again at the topic, but this time bring it all together. This is where the massive difference in ability and confidence starts to grow, where the subject really starts to click.
- We then cover all the topics in the correct order. Some topics require you to understand previous ones. Sometimes you have a test coming up and need instant help.
- Along the way you will learn every mark-scoring and revision techniques, and common places where marks are lost and key phrases in the marking schemes. Their mark scheme will be explained in detail nearer their first real exam. I’ve done the hard work reading them all, so everything can be explained relatively quickly.
- Every so often I revisit old topics, to keep them fresh.

What does a typical 1-hour lesson look like?
- We go through the problems from the work set the previous lesson.
- We progress through the syllabus. I teach, constantly asking mini questions so I know you're keeping up and understanding.
- At the end, together we do at least one full question on what we have covered in the lesson.
- I then set homework, the amount of which takes all academic and personal factors into account.
- I provide access to all the past papers, mark schemes and specification for your exam board, and questions sorted by topic. This helps make work between lessons as friction free as possible. I have many techniques to help with procrastination (a fancy word for not working hard enough). This is normally because you're afraid, not because you are lazy. Getting over this feels great!

Progress updates and monitoring:
- I’m always available for a chat or call, or a quick Zoom/Skype. I love talking to the parents of my pupils about our progress, wins, and what still needs work.
- For every pupil, I constantly track and score their current ability for every topic, and record what we do in every lesson.

My online lessons:
I use the latest technology for a first-rate experience - I have super-fast broadband, and use a writing tablet so I can write on the screen as quickly as paper. I use an online whiteboard so you can write too, and you can save off the slides after each lesson (no cost to you). I also have over 10,000 files of questions ready to drop onto the whiteboard to support our lessons. You will not be disappointed!

Dr Andrew, BA MA CANTAB BSc (Hons) MChem PhD MInstP AMRSC