Your child revises hard, but IB questions ask for more than memory

Revision that looks thorough at home can still leave a gap. One reason can be the way IB questions work: a question can hand your child a situation they have never met in class and expect familiar biology to be used inside it. Remembering the content is the start of the job rather than the whole of it.

This step can be difficult to name. In one recent lesson, a student described the move from GCSE as the change from learning material and repeating it to having to apply knowledge in unfamiliar settings. The difficulty they described was not simple recall. The questions were asking them to use familiar knowledge differently, so preparation needed to include application rather than only recall.

Your child knows the topic but their answer does not match the question

In live practice, a tutor may see a describe-and-explain question answered with two descriptions. The observation is stated twice, but the explanation never arrives. The response contains relevant biology, but it does not complete the second instruction.

Wording matters in smaller ways too. In one lesson on evaluating evidence, a student wrote that the hypothesis was correct, and the correction was about the claim rather than the science: evidence supports or refutes a hypothesis, and the answer needs that wording. Longer questions can raise the same issue, because a six-mark answer has several requirements to cover. Planning the response point by point can help keep it tied to the task. When relevant knowledge is present but the response misses the task, more content revision alone may not address the problem.

Unfamiliar data questions can make your child unsure what the question wants

Data questions put a graph, a table or an experiment your child has never seen in front of them and ask a series of short questions about it. The display itself may be perfectly readable. The uncertainty can sit one step later, in what the question expects them to do with the information: state a value, compare two treatments, or suggest a reason using the biology behind the data.

In one recent data lesson, the student’s own verdict at the end was that the questions were not difficult in themselves and that the confusion came from the unfamiliar way the material was presented. That distinction matters for preparation, because it points at practising the question format rather than re-reading the topic another time.

Your child does not know what to practise first across the IB Biology course

The IB Biology course runs across two years and includes many subtopics. A child preparing for a first mock may not have time to practise every covered topic to the same depth. Choosing at random spreads the time thin, and the child may spend more time on a comfortable topic than on an uncertain one.

One reason the choice is hard is that earlier material can become less secure without that being obvious during ordinary revision. A topic met in class months ago can feel finished until a question needs it again. Marked work and school feedback can also show that some covered topics still need attention, while other topics may not yet have been taught.

A useful starting list combines four things: what school feedback keeps pointing at, what marked work shows, how your child performs across more than one practice attempt, and which topics they are least able to use without help. That can produce a shorter starting list than the full syllabus and give the next stage of revision a direction.

You need a way to see whether your child’s revision is working before the mock

You do not have to wait for the mock to review how revision is transferring into timed work. Practice can provide useful evidence when it includes timed questions and is reviewed against the mark scheme rather than judged only by effort.

An IB Biology tutor can see what a finished answer does not show

The finished homework looks fine, so what happened while they were answering? A finished page can show the answer but not every step that produced it. It may not show where your child hesitated, which command word they misread, whether they changed approach halfway through, what they worked out mentally and never wrote down, or how the time was spent. Those things matter in a timed paper and are easier to observe while the answering is happening.

This is one part of mock preparation a tutor can add. In an online lesson on a shared board, a tutor works through real questions with your child and can observe the approach as it happens, not only the final answer. Greenhill Academics matches your child with a tutor. You receive a written report after every lesson, and where homework is set, a reminder goes out before the next lesson.

Inside a live lesson

A maths lesson recorded live on the Greenhill Academics shared board. IB Biology lessons run in the same format, with the question, the student’s working and the tutor’s notes on one screen.

Two IB Biology tutors your child could work with

Two Oxford biologists

Kriszta · Biological Sciences, Oxford

Kriszta earned a First-Class degree in Biological Sciences at Oxford, finishing in the top ten of a cohort of more than 120 students, and won the Moore Prize for the best MBiol research dissertation in her field. She teaches Biology to IB level.

Charlotte · Biological Sciences, Oxford

Charlotte holds a First-Class MBiol in Biological Sciences from Balliol College, Oxford, and has tutored the sciences since 2020, from GCSE through to university admissions. She teaches Biology to IB level.

Questions about support before the first IB Biology mocks

Are you ready to arrange support before your child’s first IB Biology mocks?

Tell us when the mocks are and what support your child needs. Greenhill Academics will match your child with a tutor, and you receive a written report after every lesson.

Find an IB Biology tutor

IB Biology Tutors Meet Our Tutors

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Your child is taking A Level Maths, but you may not know which course or exam board the school follows. The subject name does not settle the question because UK and international qualifications can use different papers and calculator rules. You can share the qualification title and specification code when asking about support from an A Level Maths tutor.

Your child may be using past papers from a different exam board

A past paper can look familiar even when it belongs to a different qualification. UK and international A Level Maths courses can use different structures and calculator rules, so the course code on the cover matters.

The papers can differ in ways that affect revision. Cambridge International 9709 does not permit graphical calculators, and its syllabus requires candidates to show the necessary working because unsupported calculator answers receive no marks. Pearson IAL permits calculators that meet its rules, divides the qualification into units, and offers exam series in January, June and October. These differences are one reason to base exam preparation on the course your child follows.

This does not mean the school has supplied the wrong material. A school may use questions from another board deliberately. Revision for the real exams should still centre on official past papers from the course your child follows.

You are not sure which exam board your child’s school uses

Your child may not know the answer, and a textbook may not settle it because one book can cover more than one board. An official past-paper cover gives you a more reliable place to look.

Your child knows the maths but their exam answers do not show it

If your child can complete familiar methods but their exam answers do not show the same control, the exam board may be only one part of the question. A marked paper alone cannot establish the cause. A tutor can watch how your child works through a question instead of relying only on the finished answer.

In one A Level Maths lesson on exponential modelling, the student completed the logarithm and algebra steps, then paused when the question moved to differentiation. The tutor asked the student to write the derivative before substituting any numbers. This put the method on the page before the arithmetic began.

One question from one lesson cannot explain why another child pauses. It does show a distinction worth checking. Completing a familiar method is not the same as recognising when a particular question requires it. In this modelling question, the rate-of-change wording required a derivative without using the word differentiation.

What a tutor watches while your child works

A finished answer may not show everything that happened while your child was working. In a lesson, the tutor can watch which method your child reaches for, how they set out the notation, whether they use the result of a previous step and where they slow down. Those observations give the tutor something concrete to work on, while the marked answer may show only the result.

A related observation from university-admissions maths teaching is that unfamiliar question wording can affect how a student begins. This does not establish why a particular child paused. It gives the tutor another possibility to check by comparing how the child starts familiar and unfamiliar question forms. Questions from the correct course provide practice with the wording and structure of the papers the child will sit.

How an A Level Maths tutor in Abu Dhabi can match revision to the papers your child will sit

Tell us the course and exam board your child follows so that information can be considered when matching. In lessons, the tutor can use questions from the course your child is studying.

Lessons are online on a shared whiteboard, at times that can be arranged around the school week in Abu Dhabi. If the cover-sheet check leaves you unsure of the qualification, send the enquiry and ask the school to confirm it.

What a lesson looks like

A Greenhill Academics online lesson recorded live on the shared whiteboard. A Level Maths lessons use the same online format.

Holly and Ramsay both teach A Level Maths

Two Oxford mathematicians

Holly · Mathematics, Oxford

Holly is reading for an MMath in Mathematics at Exeter College, Oxford, where she holds Collections Prizes from 2023 and 2024. She achieved two A* grades in Maths and Further Maths at A Level and prepares students for the MAT and maths olympiads.

Ramsay · Mathematics, Oxford

Ramsay is a third-year Mathematics student at Exeter College, Oxford, with a Distinction in Prelims and Distinctions in both rounds of the British Mathematical Olympiad, placing in the top 40 nationally. He achieved five A* grades at A Level, including Maths and Further Maths.

Questions to ask about A Level Maths tutoring in Abu Dhabi

Does your child need A Level Maths revision that matches the papers they will sit?

Tell us the course and exam board your child follows so that information can be considered when matching.

Send an enquiry

A Level Maths Tutors Meet Our Tutors

Worth reading next

A school report may show that your child’s maths grade is below target without making the next step clear. Recent marked work can give you more to review: which questions were difficult, what your child wrote and what the teacher marked. A GCSE maths tutor can look at the same evidence while watching how your child approaches a question.

Your child seems to understand the maths, but the grade says otherwise

A below-target grade does not identify the reason by itself. The next question is whether the marked work points to the method, the written working, an earlier topic or something else. One possible issue is the difference between the method a student understands and the working they put on the page.

In one GCSE maths lesson, the tutor paused because he could not follow the student’s written working and asked the student to explain each line aloud. The student explained the method correctly, so the tutor focused on how the working was laid out. In an earlier lesson with the same student, the tutor said the working needed to be set out more clearly so that it could be followed.

Written working makes the method visible to the marker. Depending on the mark scheme, it may allow method marks to be awarded when the final answer is wrong. If important steps are missing from the page, the written answer may not show the full method the student intended.

Your child is struggling with maths they covered earlier

Later GCSE maths questions can depend on skills covered earlier in the course. Algebra, fractions and rearranging may appear within longer questions after the class has moved to another topic. Earlier marked work can be useful alongside the current topic when reviewing a below-target report.

A tutor may revisit topics your child has already covered when recent work suggests that more practice is needed. In one lesson, the tutor began with rearranging, fractions, factorising, expanding and minus signs from the first half of the paper. These are examples of earlier skills a tutor may review, not a fixed checklist for every student.

Your child does not know which part of maths needs attention first

A bad report can leave more than one possible starting point: algebra, earlier topics, written working and the format of exam questions. Marked work and school feedback can help narrow the choice, but neither one question nor one grade can determine the priority on its own.

Tutors can use the work in front of them to decide where to begin. In one lesson, a tutor selected algebra for homework after reviewing the student’s work. A tutor may also introduce a question format that is unfamiliar to the student. In one international-course lesson, the student was shown a completed answer and asked to identify the error. These are possible starting points, not a fixed order for every student.

You want to help at home without turning it into another maths lesson

You do not need to teach the topic yourself to gather a useful clue. You can listen while your child explains how they approached a recent marked question.

How can a GCSE maths tutor in Abu Dhabi help before the next report?

A tutor can review the marked work with your child. In lessons, a GCSE maths tutor can watch your child’s working line by line, revisit earlier topics that may need more work and use the marked work as one source when deciding what deserves attention first.

Schools in Abu Dhabi can follow UK GCSE or international routes, and the papers differ. Tell us the course and exam board your child follows so that information can be considered when matching. In lessons, the tutor can use questions from the course your child is studying.

Lessons take place online on an interactive whiteboard. Evening or weekend times may be available, subject to the tutor match. Progress updates are provided through regular assessments and feedback.

A lesson on the whiteboard

A Greenhill Academics maths lesson recorded live on the shared whiteboard. GCSE maths lessons run in the same online format.

Meet Ejaz and Maisie, who both teach GCSE maths

Two GCSE maths specialists

Ejaz · Mathematics, Imperial College London

Ejaz is a third-year MSci Mathematics student at Imperial College London. He achieved 44 out of 45 in the IB and eight grade 9s at IGCSE, and he specialises in GCSE and A Level Mathematics and Physics.

Maisie · Mathematics and Sciences, Oxford

Maisie is in the final year of an MSci in Molecular Biochemistry at Oxford. She achieved A*A*A*A* at A Level in Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Further Mathematics. She has tutored pupils aged 11 to 16 across KS3 and GCSE Mathematics and English.

What should you know about GCSE maths tutoring in Abu Dhabi?

Tell us what support your child needs after the report

Send an enquiry about your child’s year group and the support they need. That information can be considered when matching, and lessons take place online.

Send your enquiry

GCSE Maths Tutors Meet Our Tutors

Worth reading next

If you are looking for an IGCSE English tutor in Abu Dhabi, a good place to start is the work your child has already done. A recent essay can show whether it answers the question and whether the ideas are clear enough to follow. The exact course matters too, because English Language and English Literature are not the same qualification.

Your child’s English grade does not show what they understand

An English grade is based on the work that was marked. It cannot include an explanation your child gave out loud or an idea they meant to write. This can leave a gap between what a parent hears at home and what ends up on paper.

The useful question is what the essay itself shows. Does it answer the question that was asked? Are the ideas clear enough for the reader to follow? The next two sections look at each one.

The essay may not answer what the question is asking

In an analytical essay, the question asks your child to do more than retell what happens in the text. The answer may need to look closely at a word, an image or the way the text is put together, and explain why it matters. A paragraph that retells the story may show knowledge of the text without doing that job.

Close analysis stays with the writer’s choices. It picks a phrase, names what the writer has done and explains how that backs up the answer. The explanation does not need long words or a list of techniques, but it does need to return to the question.

How Laurie puts close analysis first

“

So the close analysis is always the priority. And if you do make a historical point, try not to make it too vague.”

Laurie, English tutor

Laurie used this distinction while discussing how to build an English Literature essay.

Your child has the ideas but struggles to write them clearly

Your child may explain an idea clearly out loud and then struggle to turn it into a sentence. Long sentences, guessed punctuation or a half-remembered term can make the point hard to follow.

In one recent GCSE English lesson, the tutor stopped to explain polysyndeton, the use of several connectives in a row, then went back to the text. In another lesson, the tutor used the student’s own sentences to work through colons and semicolons, and explained that it would take practice over several weeks.

None of this proves why any one grade is lower than expected. It shows how an English lesson can work on the sentence as well as the idea.

You may not know what your child would get from an English lesson

It is fair to ask what an English lesson would give your child. One place to start can be their own writing. A tutor can read a paragraph with your child, ask what the question was looking for, and rebuild the paragraph with them. The tutor can also set homework and go through it in a later lesson, so your child gets feedback on the work.

Lessons at Greenhill Academics run online, in a shared classroom where the tutor and your child write on the same page and talk as they go.

Inside the online classroom

A Greenhill Academics online lesson recorded live on the shared whiteboard. English lessons use the same online format.

Will an IGCSE English tutor in Abu Dhabi know your child’s English course?

IGCSE English is not one course. Your child may follow English Language, English Literature or both, with Pearson Edexcel or Cambridge International. The texts, papers and grading depend on the exact course.

What helps is the name of the course and the exam board. If you can tell us those, we can consider them when matching, and the tutor can use texts and questions from the course your child is studying.

If you are unsure, your child’s school should be able to confirm the course and exam board before tutoring starts.

Francesca and Laurie teach GCSE and IGCSE English

Francesca

Francesca graduated from Oxford with a 2:1 in English and has been tutoring since 2017. She teaches GCSE and IGCSE English Language and Literature, as well as A Level English Literature.

Laurie

Laurie graduated from Oxford with a Double First in English and has more than a decade of tutoring experience. He teaches GCSE, IGCSE, A Level and IB English.

What parents ask before starting IGCSE English tutoring

Get help improving your child’s IGCSE English grade

Tell us which English course your child is studying and what they want to improve. Complete the enquiry form and our team will reply by email.

Enquire about IGCSE English

GCSE & IGCSE English Tutors Meet Our Tutors

Worth reading next

This article is for a parent who wants their child to write better English essays and to understand how a tutor could help. You will see how a GCSE English tutor in Abu Dhabi could work on the essay’s shape, one paragraph and one clear change for the next piece of writing.

What makes a better English essay?

Marking an essay takes training, but you do not need that training to see how it is organised. In an essay that makes an argument, you may be able to point to an opening, the main paragraphs and an ending. If those parts are hard to find, that gives you one useful question to ask about the writing without judging the ideas yourself.

Here is one real example of shape being taught. In one recent GCSE English Literature lesson, before the student wrote a word of a poetry essay, the tutor set out the whole thing: a short introduction, then three paragraphs that would each make a point, show the line from the poem that backs it, and explain what that line adds, then a short conclusion. That was one plan for one task, not a rule for every essay your child will ever write. But it shows the useful idea: the essay had a shape before it had sentences.

Your child may not know how to turn an idea into a paragraph

Having an idea and turning it into a paragraph are different parts of essay writing. In an essay about a text, a paragraph might make one clear point, include a quotation and explain how the quotation supports that point. A tutor can work on those parts separately.

In the same lesson as the essay plan above, the tutor gave the student two small, concrete pieces of guidance. The first was about how a paragraph opens: treat the first sentence as its own small introduction, the big picture before you move into the detail. The second was about quotations: a line from the poem can sit inside your child’s own sentence, and the tutor showed the student how, by dropping the quoted line’s final full stop so the sentence could carry on afterwards. Later in the lesson, when the point was about a whole moment rather than a single word, a longer stretch of the quotation did the work instead.

These were one tutor’s suggestions for one task, not rules for every paragraph. They show how specific the work can be. A tutor can look at how a sentence opens and where a quotation sits, rather than simply telling a child to write more.

What should your child change in the next essay?

It can help to give the next essay one clear focus. Your child might choose one specific thing to practise rather than trying to change every part at once.

That might be opening each paragraph with its main point or fitting quotations into their own sentences. The change needs to be clear enough to remember while writing and easy to check when the essay is finished.

A tutor can read a recent essay, explain one useful change and practise it with your child during the lesson. This does not promise that one change will improve the whole essay straight away, but it gives your child something specific to work on.

Does your child need help with English Language or English Literature?

These are two different subjects with different exams. English Language is about reading texts your child has not seen before and writing their own pieces. English Literature is about the novels, plays and poetry studied in class. A child can find one hard and the other fine, or need help with both.

It is worth checking which one is behind the essays you are worried about, because the help looks different. If the reports mention both, say both. Whether one tutor can cover both depends on your child’s courses, the support they need and who is available, so tell us the full picture and we will work from there.

How do lessons with a GCSE English tutor in Abu Dhabi work?

Lessons take place live online with the tutor. Your child can bring a recent essay or a text they are studying, and the lesson can focus on one part of the writing at a time.

That might mean building one paragraph or fitting a quotation into a sentence. You can describe what your child finds difficult on the enquiry form, and we can use that information when looking for a tutor.

Inside an online lesson

A Greenhill Academics online lesson recorded live on the shared whiteboard. English lessons use the same online format.

Louis and Naomi teach GCSE English

Louis

Louis has a First from Oxford in Philosophy and French. He teaches English at GCSE, IGCSE and A Level, alongside French and Philosophy.

Naomi

Naomi achieved A*AA at A Level, plus an A in Maths, and studies Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. She teaches English at GCSE, alongside History and Geography.

Five questions about GCSE English tutoring

Ask about support with English essays

Give us your child’s details and what they want to improve. Our team will review the enquiry and email you about how we may be able to help.

Enquire about essay support

GCSE English Tutors Meet Our Tutors

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Your child may have good ideas about the text but struggle to make their argument clear in an A Level English essay. This page shows how an A Level English tutor in Abu Dhabi can work on that, starting with whether each quotation supports the paragraph’s point.

Could a good quotation be in the wrong paragraph?

In an essay about a text, each paragraph makes one point. A quotation supports the paragraph when it backs up that point. A famous line or a personal favourite may still belong somewhere else.

One recent A Level English lesson focused on exactly this. The paragraph had a clear point, and the lesson checked each quotation against it. One quotation was strong on its own, but it supported a different idea, so it was saved for another paragraph. A second quotation supported the point and stayed.

That was one lesson and one task, not a rule for every essay. It shows why the useful question is not “Is this a good quotation?” but “Does it support this paragraph’s point?”

What happens when a tutor works through one paragraph?

In the same lesson, one paragraph from the student’s own essay was the focus for most of the hour. The tutor and student worked on one small part at a time.

Before any analysis, the tutor asked what one difficult quotation literally meant. They worked it out together in plain words first. They then looked at how a character treats a feeling as if it were proof, and used that idea to develop the paragraph.

The work then moved from the paragraph’s main point to a smaller point that took the argument forward. By the end, most of the paragraph was already in the notes on the board. Those notes were joined together instead of starting the paragraph again.

That was one hour, one student and one task. A tutor can start from your child’s writing.

After the lesson, what can your child use for revision?

The lesson also included the start of a revision document. It kept quotations in one place, organised by theme or character, with analysis next to each one.

A document like this can grow between lessons. When it is time to revise, your child can return to quotations they have already worked on, with their analysis beside them, instead of starting from a blank page.

When you enquire, you can ask both what happens during the lesson and what your child could keep afterwards.

Who could help your child with A Level English?

Meet Francesca and Lucy

These are two of the tutors Greenhill Academics may suggest after reading your enquiry.

Francesca

Francesca read English at Christ Church, University of Oxford, graduating with a 2:1 and receiving a scholarship for academic excellence. She has tutored English since 2017 and teaches GCSE, IGCSE and A Level English Literature.

Lucy

Lucy read Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion at Clare College, University of Cambridge, graduating with a 2:1. Her subjects include English at GCSE, A Level and IB, alongside Psychology and Religious Studies.

How do lesson times work between Abu Dhabi and the UK?

Lessons run live online. Abu Dhabi is three hours ahead of the UK while the UK is on British Summer Time, and four hours ahead while the UK is on GMT.

When you enquire, we check each tutor’s availability individually and reply by email. This means you can see which times are available before agreeing to lessons. You can read more about the subject on our A Level English tutors page.

A minute inside a lesson

This short clip shows an online lesson on the shared whiteboard.

Worth reading next

What parents ask us about A Level English tutoring

When you are ready, we are easy to reach

The form asks who the tutoring is for, the level, the subject and anything specific. You should receive an email from us shortly.

Make an enquiry

A Level English Tutors Meet Our Tutors

Your child may know the chemistry content but struggle when an exam question asks them to use it in an unfamiliar way. They sit with the notes, they revise, and the paper still catches them out. The useful question is where the answer starts to break down. An A Level Chemistry tutor can help identify that point, and this page gives you one thing to try at home this week.

Why does a familiar topic feel impossible in the exam?

At home, the topic name sits at the top of the page. Your child knows they are practising acids or bonding before they read a single question. In the exam, that label is gone. The question shows a setup they have not seen and leaves them to work out which topic it is testing.

These moments come from one real online chemistry lesson. We have left out anything that could identify the student. In that lesson, one question asked the student to compare phenol and ethanoic acid. The pairing looked unfamiliar. The way through was not new content. It was old content: what the student already knew about benzene, connected to a question that had never asked for it before.

The useful distinction is between knowing the content and recognising which familiar idea the question is testing. The second part can be practised.

What would a tutor actually check with your child first?

The first step is not more content or a full retest. It is checking how your child sets up an answer they believe they already know.

In the same lesson, the tutor stopped before any numbers went in. Together they checked the assumptions behind a weak-acid calculation and talked through why each approximation was allowed. Working out why a step is allowed is different from copying it. That explanation helps a tutor see whether the method is understood.

That check is difficult to run from the outside. A tutor can start with your child’s own work and examine where the method stopped making sense.

Your child revises more and still makes the same mistakes

When the same error survives weeks of revision, the problem is unlikely to be effort. Something specific is being chosen wrongly each time, and revision alone does not show your child which choice it is.

The lesson above had a clean example. The same relationship in chemistry can have two written forms that do different jobs. One is the full version you write out when a question says explain or state. The other is a simplified version built for calculating. In the lesson, tutor and student separated the two, because mixing them up is the kind of small mistake that repeats until someone points straight at it.

The mock was below target. Is there time to put it right?

A below-target mock feels like a verdict. Treated calmly, it is information. Question by question, the paper shows which marks went missing and what kind of miss each one was: knowledge, method or reading.

A tutor would start with the mock paper rather than a fresh course plan. The right plan depends on your child’s exam date and the exact gaps the mock exposed.

Two tutors we would suggest for A Level Chemistry

Meet Jessica and Charlotte

These are two of the tutors Greenhill Academics may suggest after reading your enquiry.

Jessica

Jessica is completing Medicine at the University of Cambridge, after a degree in Psychology. She tutors Biology and Chemistry at GCSE and A Level.

Charlotte

Charlotte completed a First Class degree in Biological Sciences at Balliol College, Oxford. She has tutored since 2020, and her profile lists Chemistry among the subjects she teaches.

A look inside a lesson

A short clip from one of our online whiteboard lessons.

Losing marks on past papers? What should you read next?

Answers to the questions parents ask us most

What keeps going wrong in the exam?

It asks who the tutoring is for, the level, the subject and anything you want to add. You should receive an email from us shortly.

Enquire about chemistry lessons

A Level Chemistry Tutors Meet Our Tutors

After a disappointing English report, it can be hard to know what your child should work on first. If the comment leaves you unsure what to change, put it beside a recent marked answer. An IGCSE English tutor can work from both when discussing what to practise next.

What is the English report telling you?

A comment might ask for more explanation of the writer’s choices, evidence from the text or closer attention to the question. A recent marked answer may help you understand what the teacher means.

For Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Literature, one assessed skill is analysing how a writer uses language, form and structure to create meanings and effects. This may help explain a comment about a writer’s choices. Ask the teacher if you are unsure which skill the feedback concerns.

Our page on English Language exam mistakes is written for GCSE rather than IGCSE.

Is the problem English Language, English Literature or both?

English Language and English Literature are separate qualifications. Check which course the report concerns before interpreting the feedback. On Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Language A, the non-fiction reading assessment uses an anthology text and an unseen extract. Cambridge IGCSE First Language English uses unseen reading texts. Literature courses involve studying set texts, with unseen work included on some routes.

If the report does not name the course, ask the school to confirm it. A comment about structure could concern the organisation of your child’s own writing or the way an author has arranged a text. Ask which task the teacher is referring to.

What should your child fix first?

One way to choose a possible priority is to look for feedback that appears on more than one marked answer. Repeated comments may be worth discussing with the teacher, but they do not establish the main priority. If the comments differ, compare the tasks before deciding what to practise.

Choose a task small enough to practise this week. You could work on explaining a writer’s choice in one paragraph or answering one question more directly. Use the teacher’s feedback to decide which task to try.

Our GCSE article considers whether it is too late for a child who is behind. Use your child’s IGCSE exam date and specification when considering the time left.

What would an IGCSE English tutor in Doha do with the report?

A tutor can start with the report and a recent marked answer. Lessons are online, on a shared whiteboard, so the comment and the answer can sit on the screen together and your child can talk through what they were trying to do. Being online also means a family in Doha does not need a tutor in the city.

From there, the tutor and your child can agree what the next piece of writing should try to show. That might be the one small thing your child picked to practise, or something the tutor and your child spot together in the answer. When the next piece is done, it can be looked at in a later lesson against the same comment.

A tutor can work from your child’s own specification, set texts and school work rather than a general worksheet, which keeps the lessons close to what the school is marking.

Inside the online classroom

This clip shows a maths lesson recorded in Pencil Spaces, the online classroom used by Greenhill Academics.

Laurie teaches IGCSE English

Laurie

Laurie studied English at the University of Oxford, where he took a double first with a focus on Shakespeare. He has tutored for more than ten years and teaches English at IGCSE, GCSE, A Level and International Baccalaureate.

Parents’ questions once the report is home

Ready to explain what has worried you?

Give us your child’s details and describe your concern in the form. You should receive an email from us shortly.

Complete the enquiry form

GCSE English Literature Tutors GCSE English Language Tutors Meet the Tutors

Worth reading next

If your child works hard at A Level English and wants an A, but the grade is not improving, it can be difficult to know what to change. An A Level English tutor can look at recent work and feedback with your child to help decide what to practise next.

What kind of work is your child doing for English?

It is easy to know how many hours go on English and hard to know what fills them, because English work does not all look the same. Three kinds are easy to spot. There is reading the texts and making notes on them. There is learning quotations, facts or context by heart. And there is writing a full answer to a question, from the first line to the last.

The mix alone cannot tell you whether it suits your child’s course or the work their teacher has set. What a parent can do is see the mix. That is all the check below asks for, and it needs no knowledge of the texts.

What did the teacher say on the last marked piece?

Find the most recent piece of English work that came back with a mark and a comment, and note the date. If several weeks have passed, ask your child what feedback they have had since then, including anything discussed in class.

Then read the comment for what it asks the next piece to do, rather than for what it says went wrong. A comment might ask for closer attention to the question, or for the writer’s choices to be explained rather than listed. If you cannot tell which part of the answer the comment refers to, ask the teacher to point to it. That is a fair question, and the answer is useful to a tutor as well.

The same worry comes up in other subjects. Our physics page, Studying hard at A Level Physics but the marks aren’t improving? Here’s why, starts from the same place.

What should your child practise next?

Put the list of last week’s work beside a recent marked answer and the teacher’s comments. These give your child something concrete to discuss with the teacher or a tutor. The question is what to practise next, rather than simply how to fit in more revision.

If a comment asks for closer attention to the question, a tutor can read the answer with your child and discuss where it moves away from what was asked. If the feedback asks for more explanation, they can look at a passage together and discuss what needs explaining. The next task should follow from that discussion, rather than from the comment alone.

Timed practice can be useful when the aim is to work within a time limit. Practice without a time limit leaves more room to pause and revise an answer. Neither tells the whole story about your child’s English. Ask the teacher which kind of practice fits the current work.

For a wider picture of the subject, our general guide, How to Get an A in A Level English?, covers A Level English as a whole.

What would an A Level English tutor in Doha add to all that work?

An A is the goal, but a tutor needs to look at the work before suggesting what to change. In an online lesson, your child and the tutor can look at a marked answer together on the shared whiteboard. They can discuss the teacher’s feedback and work through a part of the answer that needs attention. A later piece gives them another opportunity to see how your child has used that discussion.

The tutor works from your child’s own course, whether that is English Literature, English Language or a combined course, using the relevant texts and school work. The list from the three-piles check adds context about the preparation already being done. Together, these give the tutor a basis for discussing the next practice task with your child.

This clip shows a maths lesson recorded in Pencil Spaces, the online classroom used by Greenhill Academics.

George and Lucy, two of our English tutors

George

George holds a first-class BA in English Literature and a master’s in Linguistics from Cambridge with a high distinction. He also completed a philosophy conversion at the University of St Andrews. He tutors English Literature, History and Religious Studies at A Level.

Lucy

Lucy read Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion at Clare College, Cambridge, where she was awarded the Don Stebbings Prize. She has tutored since 2015 and teaches Religious Studies, Psychology and English at GCSE, A Level and IB.

Questions from parents whose child is working hard for an A

Is your child aiming for an A in English and unsure what to do next?

Tell us the current grade, the recent feedback and what your child has tried so far. You can also include anything specific you would like help with.

Make an enquiry

A Level English Tutors Meet the Tutors

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If your child has GCSE English mocks coming up, you may be wondering what they should practise and how a tutor could help. A GCSE English tutor can help with the practice, but the first step is finding out what the school has put in the mock.

What is in your child’s English mock?

GCSE English is two subjects, English Language and English Literature. A mock might be for one of them or for both, and it might be a whole paper, part of a paper or something the school has put together itself. Until you know which, it is hard to say what your child should be practising, so the questions below come first.

If your child’s school calls the course IGCSE or International GCSE, our page IGCSE English tutor in Doha: what to do after a disappointing English report is the better fit.

What should your child practise before the mock?

Three things decide the practice: what the school has said is in the mock, your child’s recent work, and the teacher’s comments on it. A general revision list sees none of those. Rereading the set texts or the class notes is not wasted, but on its own it does not show your child what a question will ask of them.

Once your child knows what the mock includes, they can choose a practice question from the work the teacher has provided. Before writing, they can read the question and plan what their answer needs to cover. Afterwards, they can compare their attempt with relevant feedback on an earlier piece and note one point to discuss with their teacher or tutor. This is a suggested way to begin, not a test of readiness.

Which question to choose depends on the mock. For a Literature mock on a set text, pick a question on that text. For a Language mock, pick the kind of reading or writing task the school has described. One attempt is enough to begin with.

Whether to practise against the clock is a separate question. Early on, an untimed attempt gives your child time to think and to look back over the answer. Nearer the mock, a timed attempt can show how well the plan holds up when the minutes matter.

Our page GCSE English Language: The Most Common Exam Mistakes lists the mistakes that lose students marks in the Language papers.

What a GCSE English tutor in Doha can do before the mock

In an online lesson, your child and the tutor share a whiteboard. The tutor can look at the school’s instructions with your child and choose one question of the kind the mock will include. They work through it together, and the tutor can ask what your child was trying to do at each step, so the conversation is about the plan as well as the finished answer.

A tutor can also read recent marked work and the teacher’s comments with your child, and put the two side by side: what the comment asked for, and what the next answer did about it. If the school has not yet said what the mock includes, that marked work is where the lessons can start.

A tutor can use the school’s instructions to keep the practice focused on what the mock includes. In a later lesson, your child can bring another piece of work and discuss how they used the earlier feedback.

This clip shows a maths lesson recorded in Pencil Spaces, the online classroom used by Greenhill Academics.

Once the mock is marked, use it to choose the next practice

Read the marked mock with your child, looking at the grade alongside the teacher’s comments. Note which paper or section each comment refers to. If a comment is unclear, your child can ask the teacher to point to an example in their answer and explain what to try differently.

A tutor can work through that feedback with your child and help them choose a related practice task. Keep the marked mock alongside the next attempt so they can discuss how they have used the feedback. The next task should follow what the comments identify, rather than a fixed list of changes for every child.

Francesca and Naomi, two of our English tutors

Francesca

Francesca studied English at Christ Church, University of Oxford, where she was awarded a scholarship for academic excellence. She has tutored English since 2017 and teaches GCSE and IGCSE English Language and Literature, and A Level English Literature. Alongside tutoring, she has been a professional writer and editor since 2017.

Naomi

Naomi studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford, where she was awarded the Sir Arthur Benson Memorial Prize. She tutors English, Mathematics, History, Geography and French, including English at GCSE.

Questions parents ask before an English mock

Has the mock come back marked and left you unsure what comes next?

Tell us the English subject, what the mock covered and what the teacher said. A tutor can look at the marked papers with your child and talk about what to practise before the next one.

Make an enquiry

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