Subjects we tutor
Every subject below has a page explaining what it actually assesses at each level and where students most often lose marks. If a subject is not listed, we do not currently teach it: ask us and we will tell you straight.
- IGCSE
- A Level
- IB
- University
- Online, UK, Gulf and US
Mathematics
Additional Mathematics
A bridging qualification taken alongside IGCSE Maths that introduces calculus, functions and more demanding algebra a year early. Schools use it to prepare students for A Level; students often experience it as the moment maths stopped being easy.
IGCSE
Calculus
Differentiation and integration, the machinery behind most of A Level, IB and first-year university mathematics. It is the single topic that most often separates students who are coping from students who are not.
A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Further Mathematics
A full second A Level in mathematics, covering complex numbers, matrices, differential equations and further mechanics or statistics. It is the standard signal to competitive engineering, mathematics and computing courses that a student can handle the pace.
A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Mathematics
The subject where gaps compound. Every topic rests on an earlier one, so a weakness in algebra from Year 9 quietly becomes a weakness in calculus in Year 12, and the student experiences it as "I am bad at maths" rather than "I missed one thing."
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Statistics
The mathematics of uncertainty, distributions, sampling, hypothesis testing and regression. It appears inside Maths A Level, as a standalone qualification, and as a required module in psychology, economics, business and biology degrees.
A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Sciences
Anatomy and Physiology
Structure and function of the human body, from gross anatomy through to organ systems and homeostatic control. The volume of terminology is the obvious challenge; the real one is reasoning about how systems interact.
A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Biochemistry
The chemistry of living systems: protein structure, enzyme kinetics, metabolism and molecular genetics. It sits on the boundary where students who are comfortable in biology meet chemistry they were not expecting, and vice versa.
A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Biology
Often chosen as the least mathematical science and then found to be the most demanding in written technique. Biology has an enormous factual base, but the marks are awarded for applying it to unfamiliar contexts in precisely worded answers.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Biotechnology
The applied end of molecular biology: genetic engineering, fermentation, bioprocessing and the regulatory and ethical frameworks around them. Assessment usually mixes technical content with evaluation of applications.
A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Chemistry
Three subjects wearing one name: physical chemistry is applied maths, inorganic is largely patterns and recall, and organic is a language with its own grammar. Students are rarely equally strong in all three, and treating them as one subject is why revision underperforms.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Combined Science
Biology, Chemistry and Physics taught as one qualification, usually awarded as a double grade. It covers less depth than the three separate sciences but the same breadth of ideas, and it is the route most students who are not specialising take.
IGCSE
Physics
The most mathematical of the sciences and the one where students most often understand the concept and still lose the marks. Physics rewards precise definitions, correct units and the ability to turn a described situation into an equation.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Computing
Computer Science
The programming-and-theory route: how machines represent and move data, plus writing and tracing algorithms by hand and at a keyboard. The exam tests a narrower, more precise skill than the one most keen programmers have been practising.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
ICT
The applied route: spreadsheets, databases, document production and web authoring to a professional standard, plus understanding how technology is used in organisations. Most of the grade is earned at a computer.
IGCSE A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Business and economics
Accounting
A subject with unusually little ambiguity: the double-entry system either balances or it does not. That makes it very learnable and very unforgiving: one misposting early in a question can cost every mark that follows.
IGCSE A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Business Management and Marketing
Organisational behaviour, strategy, operations and marketing. Assessment is dominated by case analysis, where the mark is earned by using a framework to reach a defensible recommendation rather than by describing the framework.
IB UNIVERSITY
Business Studies
Widely thought of as a subject you can talk your way through, and consistently one where students underperform for exactly that reason. The marks sit in applying theory to the specific business in the case study, not in explaining the theory well.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Commerce
Trade and the services that support it, retail and wholesale, transport, warehousing, insurance, banking and communication. More descriptive than Business Studies, with marks concentrated in accurate explanation of how each element functions.
IGCSE
Economics
Two subjects in one: diagrams that must be drawn precisely and labelled correctly, and essays that must reach an argued judgement. Students are usually comfortable with one half and losing most of their marks in the other.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Finance
The mathematics of money over time, valuation, risk, portfolios and capital structure. Almost everything reduces to discounting future cash flows, and students who genuinely internalise that find the rest far more coherent.
A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Humanities and social sciences
Geography
Physical and human systems plus a substantial skills component, maps, graphs, statistics and fieldwork. The case study is the currency: specific, named, with real figures.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Government and Politics
Political institutions, ideologies and processes, usually comparing systems. It rewards current, specific examples, which means the subject has to be revised continuously rather than only at the end.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
History
Not a memory subject. The marks are for argument supported by precise evidence and for handling sources critically: students who know the narrative thoroughly and cannot argue from it routinely underperform.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Law
A subject with its own method: identify the issue, state the rule with authority, apply it to the facts, conclude. Students who know the law well and cannot apply it in that structure lose marks consistently.
A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Psychology
Chosen by many students expecting a discussion subject and found to be a science with a heavy research-methods and statistics component. The marks sit in evaluating studies, not in recounting them.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Religious Studies
Philosophy of religion, ethics and the study of religious traditions. Assessment rewards balanced argument with named scholars and accurate use of scripture: personal conviction, however sincere, earns nothing on its own.
IGCSE A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Social Studies
An integrated look at society, citizenship, economics and geography, usually taught in middle school. It builds the vocabulary and source-handling habits that history, geography and sociology later assume.
IGCSE
Sociology
The study of social structures, institutions and inequality through competing theoretical perspectives. Marks come from deploying named theorists and evidence in a structured argument rather than from expressing a considered personal view.
IGCSE A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Theory of Knowledge
The IB's compulsory course on how knowledge is produced and justified. Assessed by an exhibition and a prescribed-title essay, and marked on the quality of the knowledge argument rather than on subject content.
IB
Languages and literature
Arabic
Taught as a first language, a second language or a foreign language, and the three are genuinely different qualifications. Modern Standard Arabic is what is examined, which is not the dialect most students in the Gulf speak at home.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB
Classical Greek
More inflected than Latin and with a new alphabet to absorb first. The reward is direct access to Homer, tragedy and Plato; the cost is a heavier upfront investment in morphology.
IGCSE A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
English Language
Reading comprehension, directed writing and composition. The marks are technical (for structure, register and controlled accuracy) which is why a student who reads widely and writes fluently can still sit at a grade 6.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB
English Literature
Close reading and argument. The marks are for a sustained interpretation anchored in specific textual detail, not for knowing the plot, and not for a general appreciation of the writing.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
French
Four skills assessed separately (listening, reading, writing and speaking) which means a student can be genuinely good at French and still have one skill dragging the grade down.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
German
A highly systematic language, which cuts both ways: the grammar is learnable as a system, but cases and word order are unforgiving and cannot be approximated.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Italian
Regular and phonetic, which makes early progress fast. The difficulty arrives with compound past tenses, pronoun combinations and the subjunctive in formal registers.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB
Japanese
Three scripts, a grammar that inverts English word order, and a politeness system woven through every sentence. The grammar is highly regular, which makes it very learnable with structure and slow without it.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB
Latin
Assessed almost entirely through translation and literary analysis. It is a precision subject: the grammar is a closed system, and a single misread ending changes the meaning of a sentence.
IGCSE A LEVEL UNIVERSITY
Mandarin Chinese
Two largely separate learning problems: a tonal spoken language and a character-based writing system. Progress in one does not carry over to the other, and students are usually much stronger in one than the other.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB
Quran and Islamic Studies
Quranic recitation and memorisation alongside the academic study of Islamic belief, history and jurisprudence. Most Gulf schools teach both strands, and they need different kinds of support.
IGCSE A LEVEL
Spanish
Approachable early and deceptively demanding later. Pronunciation and basic structures come quickly; the subjunctive, the past tenses and the ser/estar distinction are where grades are actually decided.
IGCSE A LEVEL IB UNIVERSITY
Urdu
Offered as a first or second language, with a Perso-Arabic script and a formal literary register that differs considerably from everyday spoken Urdu.
IGCSE A LEVEL
Admissions and English tests
GRE
A graduate admissions test covering verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and analytical writing. The quantitative content is not advanced; the difficulty is in the framing of the questions and the time pressure.
UNIVERSITY
IELTS
A four-skill English proficiency test scored in bands, where the marking criteria are published in full. That last point matters more than anything else: IELTS is a test you can prepare for precisely, because the examiner's rubric is not a secret.
UNIVERSITY
SAT
A digital, adaptive admissions test covering Reading and Writing and Mathematics. Because it is adaptive, pacing and accuracy in the first module matter more than they did on the old paper test.
UNIVERSITY
Not sure which subject is the problem?
That is a common and reasonable position. A grade can fall for reasons that have little to do with the subject named on the report: a timetable that does not work, an exam technique nobody taught, or a gap two years further back than anyone has looked. The free trial class exists to work out which of those it is before you spend anything.