Thomas H.

I'm an established teacher of A-level chemistry (AQA). I have taught A-level since I was a trainee teacher and it has always been a passion of mine. I estimate that I have had over 500 students in my care since I started my first teaching job 9 years ago. I am a busy dad of two young kids and I like walking, cycling, running and at the opposite end of the fitness scale making neapolitan pizza and drinking craft beer. 

We have to start with a conversation about what you're struggling with first and foremost. This might be related to attainment in tests or exams, but it might also be about how certain topics make you feel when you're being taught, for example if you start to feel left behind in the more mathematical elements of chemistry, or nomenclature, or whatever it is. 

We then have to have an honest discussion about knowledge - a lot of students underestimate how much work they need to do memorising concepts before they start the complex problem solving tasks and past paper questions. I have this conversation a lot with my students and it often turns out that they're overestimating how much they remember about a GCSE topic or something they were taught at the beginning of Year 12. Knowledge quizzes and memorisation strategies will form a targeted section of tutoring with me. 

We then might move on to more complex practice questions, using past paper questions or similar. We'll discuss potential mistakes that can crop up, hinge points in calculations where things can go wrong but where correct working can still score marks. If you want, I will go back to basics and do an explanation for a concept and incorporate mini-whiteboard work to check for understanding. 

I also think it's really important for resilience to celebrate the positives to the current outcomes!