University · Undergraduate
University French tutors
Degree-level French moves into literature, linguistics and translation, usually with a compulsory year abroad. The volume of reading in the first term is the main shock for students who arrived with strong exam technique but limited unedited exposure.
- USD 34-40 per hour
- One-to-one, online
- Free 1-hour trial class
What University actually demands
First-year modules move at several times school pace and assume prerequisites that are often shakier than students realise. Support here is usually about closing a specific gap quickly rather than working through a syllabus.
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.
Where University French students lose marks
- Speaking under-practised because it is the least comfortable skill, despite being very trainable
- Vocabulary learned as isolated words rather than in the phrases that make it usable under pressure
- Verb tenses recognised in reading but not produced accurately in writing
- Listening treated as untrainable, when it improves quickly with the right structured practice
Is this the right subject at this level?
Students taking French at any level, and particularly those whose written work is solid but who freeze in the speaking exam, which is the most common single-skill weakness.
What it costs
USD 34-40 per 60-minute one-to-one lesson at University, 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 24-28 per student. Small group lessons (up to 6 students) are USD 17-20 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.
French: questions parents ask
Which skill usually holds the grade back?
Speaking, for most students, because it is the least comfortable to practise and the easiest to postpone. It is also highly trainable: structured practice with unpredictable follow-up questions improves it faster than almost any other intervention.
How should vocabulary be learned?
In phrases, not as isolated words. A student who has learned chunks they can deploy produces accurate French under pressure; one who has learned word lists has to assemble sentences from scratch, which is slow and error-prone in an exam.
Is listening practice actually useful?
Yes, and students often assume otherwise because progress feels invisible. Regular short sessions with authentic material at a slightly uncomfortable speed improve it reliably, where occasional long sessions do not.