Andrew

Hello!
I’m Andrew, a Cambridge graduate, and I’ve been a full-time tutor for physics, chemistry and maths for the last 12 years. I’ve done over 12,000 hours of tutoring.

Academic Qualifications:
- 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).

My style:
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 focus on deep understanding of the subjects and topics. Fundamental understanding wins over rote memorisation in every way. As you learn more, everything becomes simpler instead of confusing. The harder, unusual and multiple topic questions become much easier. It’s also quicker to remember facts this way. 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 they are struggling with the current topic being taught in school, we start there. This means none of their time is wasted being confused in upcoming school lessons.
- Once that’s done we move onto deep understanding of the fundamentals. 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 for them. Some topics require you to understand previous ones. I use this, their ability scores in each topic, and any topics in tests coming up to determine this.
- Along the way they 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 they 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 they’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!)

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.

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

Availability: All days I work, I work 9am to 9.30pm. Saturday I finish early at 6pm.

1st July to 30th April:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. I take Friday off.

Exam time, 1st May to 30th June:
7 days a week. You are always a call and a few hours from a lesson.

Willing to travel: Home Only

Experience: 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 don’t cover WJEC or any other boards - sorry! Also I don’t do biology - just physics, maths and chemistry.

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

DBS Check: Yes