GCSE Exam Preparation

What GCSE exam preparation here actually involves

Revision only works when it is specific. A pupil can spend three evenings highlighting a revision guide and still walk into the exam hall unable to answer question 4(b), because nobody has shown them what the examiner rewards in that part of the paper. Our GCSE exam preparation starts with the mark scheme, a stack of past papers and the pupil's own mock script, and builds the next few weeks around the gaps those three things show.

Lessons are one-to-one, at home or online, for pupils aged 7 to 18, across maths, English and science. Most families begin in Year 10, or in the autumn term of Year 11 once the first set of mocks has landed. Every tutor is qualified and DBS-checked, and every pupil has a written learning plan that the lead tutor reads and signs off before teaching starts. Progress reports go to parents at agreed points in the plan, written in plain English: what we covered, what the script shows now, what comes next.

Who it suits

• Pupils whose mock grade sits below what their classwork suggests, usually because of exam technique rather than missing knowledge.
• Pupils in Year 10 or Year 11 who want a steady weekly slot rather than a panic block in April.
• Pupils who find long written questions hard to unpick and need the wording broken into smaller steps.
• Families who want to see the plan in writing before they pay for a block of lessons.

Who it does not suit

If you are after a two-hour cram the night before Paper 1, we are not that. We cannot plan a sequence of lessons around a script we have never seen, and a rush of last-minute sessions tends to raise a pupil's anxiety rather than settle it. Nor do we write coursework or complete set texts for anybody. The point is that your child can do it themselves in May. Families looking for a large group revision class will find cheaper options elsewhere, and we would rather say so on the phone than take a booking that disappoints.

How it works, step by step

1. The first conversation and the diagnostic

We ask for the mock script, the exam board and the specification. Before teaching starts we set a short diagnostic: usually a past paper under timed conditions, or a handful of questions pulled from two or three papers if a full paper would be too much on a first attempt. Sometimes we simply mark a completed paper the school has already returned. The diagnostic tells us whether the problem is knowledge, timing, reading the question or showing working. Those are four different problems with four different fixes, and guessing at them wastes the weeks that matter.

2. The plan, shared before lessons begin

You receive a personal learning plan: topics in priority order, the paper skills we will practise, and roughly how many weeks each block should take. Parents see it before the first lesson, and we rewrite it after every mock cycle. This is the part of our work that comes from years in classrooms and from the founder's SENCo training, where the plan has to be clear enough for a tired parent to follow at 9pm.

3. Weekly lessons

Each lesson is built around a small set of questions rather than a page of a textbook. In maths, that might mean five questions on simultaneous equations and then two that mix them with ratio, because the paper rarely asks for one skill on its own. In English, we work through the assessment objectives and compare what a middle-band answer does differently from a top-band answer on the same poem. In science, we spend time on required practicals and on the command words that decide how many marks a six-mark question can earn.

4. Mocks, and re-planning after them

When the school returns a mock, we go through it line by line. It is often the most useful lesson of the year. A pupil who scored 34 out of 80 may discover that 12 of the lost marks went because they ran out of time on the final question, not because they could not do the maths. That single finding changes the plan more than any revision guide will.

5. The run-in to May and June

From the Easter holidays we change emphasis: full papers under timed conditions, then a review of timing and the habit of checking. Study leave is when routine matters most, so we keep the same weekly slot in the same week. A steady pattern holds up better in June than a burst of sessions in April.

What to have ready before the first lesson

• The mock paper and the examiner's mark, plus the actual script if the school returns it.
• The exam board and specification: AQA, Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas or WJEC, or National 5 where a school follows the Scottish qualifications.
• The exercise book, any topic lists the school has issued, and the revision calendar for the year.
• Subject kit: calculator and formula sheet for maths, the anthology or set text copy for English.

For home lessons, a table and a bit of quiet is enough. For online lessons, a laptop rather than a phone, the paper saved somewhere your child can annotate it, and a shared screen we can both draw on. If the school has put access arrangements in place, such as extra time or a reader, tell us at booking. It changes how we practise, and it is better planned early than discovered in a mock.

What shapes the timetable and the fee

Fees are quoted on request. The honest answer depends on four things: the year group, the subject, the exam board, and whether lessons happen at home or online. A weekly home lesson in Clarkston or Newton Mearns is a different arrangement from an online lesson at 7pm on a Tuesday in Shawlands, where travel time drops out of the equation. We do not publish one flat rate, because a Year 9 pupil starting early needs a very different pattern of lessons from a Year 11 pupil carrying two sciences and a mock in three weeks.

Timing matters just as much. September and October are the calmest months to begin; the weeks after the January mocks are the busiest. Separate sciences need more slots than combined science, and if the school has two papers in the same week we plan around that week rather than through it. Fees, availability in your postcode and the times we can offer are confirmed when you book. Ring +44 141 3770911 or email [email protected] and we will talk through the specifics.

Questions parents ask

Do you guarantee a grade?

No. Grades are decided by the exam board. What we can do is show you in the progress report what the mark scheme demands, where the marks went in the last paper, and what we have changed since. That is a more useful thing to hold than a promise.

My child's first mock is in three weeks. Is it too late?

Not always. In three weeks we can usually fit one diagnostic, two or three lessons on the highest-value topics, and a timed paper with a review. That is not a full year of support, but it is more than a cram session. Ask when you call and we will tell you plainly whether the timing works.

Which exam boards do you cover?

AQA, Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas and WJEC for GCSE, and National 5 for families whose schools follow the Scottish qualifications. Tell us the board at booking so the tutor arrives with the right papers rather than a generic pack.

Can I sit in on the lesson?

At home, yes, and plenty of parents do for the first session. Online, you are welcome to be in the room. Some pupils work better with a parent nearby and some do not; we will say what we notice and you can decide.

Is Year 9 too early to start?

No. Year 9 is when options are chosen, and a term of groundwork on algebra or extended writing often saves a scramble later. Starting early also means we can keep lessons short and weekly instead of long and frequent.