AS and A Level · Years 12-13
A Level ICT tutors
Alternating theory and practical papers, with the practicals carrying more marks. Adds data analysis and visualisation, project management, animation and programming for the web, and the theory papers ask for reasoned judgement rather than description.
- 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 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.
Where A Level ICT students lose marks
- Practical tasks that are technically correct but lose marks on formatting and evidence requirements
- Spreadsheet functions learned by rote rather than as tools for a stated problem
- Running out of time in the practical papers because tasks are done in an inefficient order
- Underestimating the theory paper because the practical work feels like the real subject
Is this the right subject at this level?
Students who want a technology qualification that rewards precision and process rather than programming, and who will be assessed largely on practical work produced under time pressure.
The syllabuses we teach at this level
Each of these has been checked against the awarding body's own published specification, with a full paper-by-paper breakdown:
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.
ICT: questions parents ask
Is ICT easier than Computer Science?
No, it is a different kind of difficult. Most of the IGCSE is assessed at a computer under strict time pressure, and the practical papers are marked on evidence rather than intention: correct work saved or named wrongly scores nothing.
How is practical work taught online?
The student works on their own machine while sharing their screen, which is closer to exam conditions than watching a demonstration. Timed past papers marked together against the published scheme is what changes results here.
Does it matter that our computer is a Mac and school uses Windows?
It can, particularly for spreadsheet function differences and file format requirements. Preparation should be done in the environment the student will actually sit the exam in, with the differences flagged explicitly rather than discovered on the day.