IGCSE and GCSE · Years 10-11
IGCSE Social Studies tutors
Where it is examined, the assessment is structured questions with a source component. The most valuable work at this stage is building the habit of supporting every claim with evidence.
- USD 20-28 per hour
- One-to-one, online
- Free 1-hour trial class
What IGCSE and GCSE actually demands
The first qualifications that appear on a transcript, and the point at which most families first consider tutoring. Two years, usually eight to ten subjects, and a step up in independence that catches out students who coasted through Year 9.
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.
Where IGCSE Social Studies students lose marks
- Answers written as opinion without evidence, a habit that becomes expensive at IGCSE
- Source and data questions approached without any method
- Topics learned separately with no sense of how economic and social factors interact
- Key terms used loosely, which undermines later subjects that depend on them
Is this the right subject at this level?
Middle-school students, and those who will go on to humanities subjects at IGCSE and want the underlying skills to be solid rather than improvised. The habits it builds (supporting claims with evidence, handling sources, using terms precisely) are assumed by every humanities subject that follows.
What it costs
USD 20-28 per 60-minute one-to-one lesson at IGCSE and GCSE, 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 14-20 per student. Small group lessons (up to 6 students) are USD 10-14 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.
Social Studies: questions parents ask
What is Social Studies preparing students for?
The skills that history, geography and sociology later assume: supporting claims with evidence, handling sources, and using key terms precisely. Building those habits here makes the IGCSE humanities considerably easier.
Why do answers score lower than expected?
Usually because they are written as opinion. The habit of supporting every claim with a piece of evidence is the single most valuable thing to establish at this stage, and it becomes expensive to fix later.
Is it worth tutoring at this level?
It can be, but often the better investment is on the underlying skills rather than the subject content, since those transfer to every humanities subject that follows.