My teaching approach is focused on ensuring the syllabus is fully understood, with no knowledge gaps or misconceptions, before working on exam-style questions and exam technique. This approach improves confidence and avoids the demotivating effect of trying to apply concepts before they are fully understood.

Before tuition commences, I email students a topic checklist and ask them to highlight it according to their level of understanding and confidence in each topic. If the student has recent tests they can scan and email, or recent school reports, these can be useful to help understand how best to support them.

We would start tuition with the problem topics first, covering the theory before solving a range of exam-style problems using the “I do, we do, you do” approach to ensure understanding is secure and the student is able to apply concepts successfully without prompting. I also provide students with booklets of questions from past exams for them to complete independently between lessons, so that we can review any problems in lessons.

For exam preparation, I get students to complete mock papers that I mark and provide feedback on so they can understand from an examiner’s perspective how to improve their answers. This feedback is detailed and will help improve exam technique, avoid common exam mistakes, and give better answers.

For students targeting top grades, my strategy is to stretch understanding with higher-level material and work through the most demanding problems to develop better analytical and problem-solving skills. This helps prepare them for ‘stretch and challenge’ questions that are only accessible to top students.