Mark

== Online Weekend Slots Available 24/25 (GCSE | A Level) ==

I began tutoring part-time in 2009 whilst studying for my first degree and since then
I have gained extensive experience across a wide range of students both in-person and online. A decade ago, in 2014, I transitioned to full-time tutoring. In that time I have catered to different UK and European academic qualifications; including but not limited to GCSE, A-level, IB and Pre-U. I specialise in preparing students for A-level examinations and have successfully tutored and home-schooled students in this capacity. Since 2015, I have taught classes both in-person in the UK and abroad as well as online.

In 2017 I bought a narrowboat in poor repair to live on. Over the last seven years, in my spare time, I've found satisfaction in its improvement and the natural environs provided by the canals of the south-east of England. In that time I've learnt to repair a diesel engine, build a wet room, fit solar-powered electrics, lay a parquet floor and drive a narrowboat. In many respects the abstract I teach finds contrast in these activities. My knowledge of circuitry for instance has markedly improved simply because the approximations found in physics do not necessarily carry over to the real world.

Tutoring Experience

Whether you are looking for a tutor to help with exam preparation or homeschooling an entire subject, I am the tutor for you. I have completed over 4,000 hours of tutoring across hundreds of students both inside and out of the classroom. I have prepared hundreds of students for A-levels in Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science.

Additionally I have three university degrees completed between 2006 and 2016. My first, a degree in Physics (MPhys) from the University of Manchester, completed in 2010. The second degree, in Photonic Systems Development (MRes) from the University of Cambridge, obtained in 2011, and a third, my PhD, from University College London in the Timing Resolution of Scintillator Detectors, completed in 2016.

Tutoring Approach

Younger students, such as GCSE, are encouraged to notice their mistakes and to learn about their weaker areas of a given topic. Each class focuses upon recent topics a student has covered, a topic the student has expressly requested or a topic determined as difficult for the given qualification by me.

Older students, such as A level, are strongly encouraged to improve study habits and lay out useful work for our sessions. Weaker students will initially be led through this with an intend to build to improve self-study. For most this leads to the student being in charge of their own education. The topics we cover are based upon their needs. In many cases this resolves to misunderstood questions, topics poorly remembered, specifics they would like to revise as well as referencing to further materials as required.

For home-schooled students I typically focus on consistent progress through a chosen book or books with assessment every 3 months or so. Usually there is a stronger focus on homework in these classes to ensure students are spending enough time on a given subject per week.

Online classes take place using Google Meet. Before every class, I'll contact you (the parent or the student directly) with a link to join at the scheduled time. In class, I use a variety of tools, including Bitpaper (a collaborative whiteboard), Etherpad (a collaborative text editor) and Replit (a collaborative coding environment).

In nearly all cases my job as a tutor is to fix one of three issues.

1. 'domain knowledge' : These are cases where the student has forgotten or completely misunderstood the material. Depending on the volume of material to cover, this is generally just a matter of time and is the easiest problem to fix. For most cases material can be taught by example. Following this questions can be attempted in class with further work on the content left as additional training. Future classes will refer back to this content to determine how ingrained material has become with the student. For some, this will mean a short 5 minute review per session, for others this can mean dedicating a third of each class towards building long-term memory. Ideally I would test on new content on a one day, one week, one month and two month basis per topic area. In this way topics are learnt properly, solidifying important concepts for further education.

2. 'Slip ups' : These are the multitude of 'silly mistakes' we all make from time to time. For some students this could be forgetting to write out full methodology or other cases consistently introducing errors into algebra. These slip ups can seem much more frustrating than simply not knowing the material. These issues are harder to identify, but over regular sessions getting to know a student, these slip ups become apparent. Once identified, I can suggest heuristics to counter the issue before the mistake is made. For instance converting all numbers in a physics exercise into SI standard form. Another method might be having a rigid checklist to follow on specific questions.
   Whilst inconvenient at first, this kind of technique works well.

3. 'Exam Technique' : Broadly put this is to understand fully what a question is asking and how to go about answering it. For some this can mean parsing a question in understandable English. For others it can be identifying the intentional pitfalls that many examiners introduce. In nearly all cases improving exam technique is a matter of attention to detail. This is especially important in A level mathematics where a small misunderstanding can cost the student a whole grade boundary. The first step therefore is to build familiarity with the style of questions a student may be asked to answer. Initial efforts begin by seeing how students interpret intentionally vague questions on a subject. Whilst most certainly unfair this is a necessary step in teaching the student to see themes and required topics to bring to bear in a given question. The next (effective) method has a student sit a mock examination and mark the paper themselves according to the official mark scheme. Contrasting this with the examiners report (a document typically describing the successes and failures of the cohort sitting the actual exam) can be very eye opening for the student. This is especially helpful with students for whom the disparity between their knowledge and their exam grades is unclear. Thirdly, exposure to harder questions than those that will be on the exam paper. This has two effects. This helps build mastery in a given topic. Once a student finds that a topic is easy, questions on that material no longer seem as scary or stressful. This is also means more of the exam time is spent on the harder material.