AS and A Level · Years 12-13
A Level Biochemistry tutors
Appears inside A Level Biology and Chemistry rather than as its own subject, and is consistently the part of both that students find hardest to connect. Respiration and photosynthesis in particular reward understanding what is being transferred over memorising the diagram.
- USD 28-34 per hour
- One-to-one, online
- Free 1-hour trial class
What AS and A Level actually demands
Three or four subjects studied in real depth, and the grades universities actually offer against. The jump from IGCSE is larger than most students expect: questions stop testing one topic at a time and start combining several.
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.
Where A Level Biochemistry students lose marks
- Metabolic pathways memorised as diagrams with no grasp of what is being conserved or transferred
- Enzyme kinetics treated as graph shapes rather than as a mathematical model with assumptions
- Weak organic chemistry undermining any real understanding of protein and lipid structure
- Buffers, pH and equilibria assumed as prior knowledge at university and never actually secure
Is this the right subject at this level?
Undergraduates in biochemistry, biomedical science, pharmacy and medicine, and A Level or IB students taking the biochemistry-heavy sections of Biology and Chemistry. It suits students comfortable holding two disciplines at once, since the subject sits exactly where biology and chemistry meet and neither alone is sufficient.
What it costs
USD 28-34 per 60-minute one-to-one lesson at AS and A Level, the same rate in every city we teach in. Billed monthly against lessons actually taught, with no prepaid blocks and no minimum commitment.
Paired lessons (2 students) are USD 20-24 per student. Small group lessons (up to 6 students) are USD 14-17 per student. What each format is good for is here.
How we teach it
One-to-one, online, with a shared whiteboard. The first thing we establish is the exact syllabus the student is entered for: schools do not always publish the version they actually enter, and preparing for the wrong paper structure wastes a term.
After that the work is diagnostic: a past paper under timed conditions, marked together against the published scheme, to find out where the marks are genuinely going. That is almost always more useful than covering the syllabus again more slowly. The full process is here.
Biochemistry: questions parents ask
Is biochemistry a school subject?
Rarely on its own. It appears inside A Level and IB Biology and Chemistry, and becomes a subject in its own right at university. Support at school level usually means the biochemistry-heavy sections of those two courses.
Why do students find it hard at university?
Because it demands both organic chemistry and quantitative fluency, and most students arrive strong in one and weak in the other. The weaker side shows within the first few weeks and there is no slack in the timetable to repair it.
How should metabolic pathways be learned?
By what is being transferred or conserved at each step, not by memorising the diagram. A student who understands why a step exists can reconstruct it; a student who memorised the picture cannot answer a question framed differently.