They revise properly and the Chemistry grade stays put

Your child revises. You have watched them do it. They sit at the desk, work through the questions, and can talk you through a reaction mechanism over dinner. Then the paper comes back and the grade has not improved. Nothing you can see explains it, and neither can they. That is usually when you start wondering whether an A Level Chemistry tutor would help. More of the same revision may not be enough.

Here is the first thing to hold on to. A stuck grade does not automatically mean your child is lazy or bad at Chemistry. One topic may not be secure. It may have been covered quickly at school, forgotten over time, or not fully understood the first time. When that topic appears, your child may guess. On the paper, this can look like weak understanding. The fix for a missing idea and the fix for a shaky one are different.

They revise the topic, but the same questions still go wrong

Guessing can look like weak understanding. A student who has revised everything they were given can still meet an exam question about an idea that is not secure. They recognise the words, pick the answer that looks most likely, and move on. On the mark sheet, that can look just like weak Chemistry.

A tutor will often check what is secure before adding more content. More content may not help until the tutor knows which idea is not secure.

They seem to know the topic, so where are the marks going?

Pick one topic from a recent test where marks went missing. Do not ask your child to answer a question on it. Ask them to explain the idea out loud, as if you knew nothing about it.

Once the tutor knows what needs work, they can teach the theory through a question. Jessica explained this while introducing exponential modelling:

From a real lesson

“

I’ll teach you the theory through a question.

”

Jessica, A Level Chemistry tutor

Jessica said this in a July lesson while introducing exponential modelling. She starts with the question and explains the theory as they work through it.

Working through a question can show the tutor where your child gets stuck. The check at home gives you an earlier clue about which topics need attention.

Every test seems to go wrong for a different reason

Each name below is invented, and each story blends details from more than one student. The problems and the fixes are real.

Dara understood most topics but had missed one definition

Dara could balance equations and explain bonding without notes. On acids and bases, she went quiet. Her tutor asked her to define a conjugate acid. She could not. Her class had moved quickly through the topic, and the definition had not stuck. For two years she had been reading those questions, recognising the words, and picking the answer that looked most likely. Ten minutes on the definition changed it. Most of her Chemistry was secure. One definition was missing.

Femi did the Chemistry right and still lost the marks

Femi’s Chemistry was correct and his answers still came back marked down. His pH answers did not use the precision the question required. His tutor taught him a check that takes three seconds. In the question Femi was answering, a pH of 13 for the acid would have been a warning sign. A pH of 2.5 for the base would also have looked wrong. Femi fits outcome two. He understood the Chemistry but needed better checking habits.

Ines had a Chemistry grade and a maths problem

Ines came to us after a disappointing mock. She expected to relearn strong bases. Her tutor found that she understood the Chemistry well. What she could not do was rearrange the equation to get the value the question wanted. Some Chemistry marks are lost because the algebra underneath is weak. Ines’s tutor worked on rearranging equations inside Chemistry questions, so the maths was taught where she would meet it.

Does the same Chemistry grade mean they are falling behind?

A grade that has not improved does not automatically mean your child is falling behind. It means the reason needs to be identified before they spend more time repeating the same revision.

In the 2025 results, [X]% of A Level Chemistry entries received an A or A*. A total of [Y]% received a C or above. These figures cannot explain why one student’s grade is stuck, but they show that top grades are far from automatic.

The next step is finding what is holding your child back.

Will an A Level Chemistry tutor help if school is already covering the course?

The lessons can still help because they do a different job. One-to-one lessons give the tutor time to look closely at your child’s work. The tutor first checks what your child understands. They may ask your child to talk through a question before answering it.

From there, the work goes where it is needed. If the topic is not secure, the tutor checks what your child understands. They can then explain the missing part or move into exam practice. If algebra is causing the problem, the tutor works on it inside Chemistry questions. The lessons follow your child’s specification and exam board. This keeps the work relevant to their exams.

You receive a written report after every lesson. The report shows what was covered and what still needs work. The tutor adds follow-up practice to the shared board. Homework reminders are sent by email.

Inside a lesson

This clip is from a real Greenhill Academics lesson, recorded live. It shows a maths lesson on the same shared board your child would use in Chemistry, with the question and the working side by side.

Who your child would work with

The Chemistry tutors who check what is secure first

Karol · Chemistry, Cambridge

Karol read Natural Sciences at Cambridge and is completing a PGCE in Chemistry there. His teacher training helps him identify the topics that need clearer explanation or further practice. He teaches Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths.

Morgan · Chemistry, Oxford

Morgan is reading Chemistry at Oxford, where he won an academic scholarship after First Class results in his first year. He took A* Chemistry, Biology and Maths at A Level and nine grade 9s at GCSE. He is calm with students who have lost confidence, and he shows them the reasoning rather than the trick.

Jessica · Chemistry and Biology, Cambridge

Jessica is in her fourth year of Medicine at Cambridge, having taken A*A*A*A at A Level in Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Biology. She knows where the maths inside Chemistry catches students out, and she teaches the two together rather than treating them as separate subjects.

Questions parents ask about A Level Chemistry

They are putting the work in. The next step is finding what is holding the grade back.

Tell us which exam board your child sits and what happened in the explain-it-out-loud check. We will match them with a tutor who can start with what you found.

Book a Lesson

A Level Chemistry Tutors GCSE Chemistry Tutoring Meet Our Tutors

Worth reading next

The mock came back and you still do not know what needs to change

A mock result can arrive as a grade or a percentage, but neither is a plan. Your child feels the disappointment, you feel the pressure, but neither of you can point at the thing to fix, because the result on the front does not say which questions went wrong or why.

The paper inside can. Read question by question, a marked mock separates topics that were never secure from questions where the method was right and the marks were still lost. That reading is something a tutor can do with your child in a lesson, working from the actual paper rather than a fresh worksheet, so the next weeks of work come from evidence instead of guesswork.

Your child did well at GCSE Maths and their A Level grade has dropped

The drop is a shock because the subject looks like the same one. It is not quite. A Level questions run longer, hold more steps at once, and leave more of the route for your child to choose, so a student who cruised at GCSE can meet marks they have never lost before. That is a change in what the paper demands, not a change in your child.

So a bad mock at this level does not mean the GCSE grade was false. One reason for the drop can be that A Level asks your child to use familiar habits in longer, less structured problems, and those habits can be strengthened.

Your child understands the maths in class but cannot do it in the test

You hear “I understood it in the lesson”, and that can be true. Following a worked example and producing an answer independently under time are different tasks. In a worked example, the method and the first step may already be visible. In the test, your child has to choose them, and the clock is running.

One reason the gap can open is what happens between those two moments: the practice a student does alone, and whether that practice looks like the test. A tutor can watch how your child approaches a question independently and identify the point where they get stuck.

Your child still loses marks even when the maths looks right

Here is one habit worth looking for on the mock paper itself, because it hides in plain sight. The answer is on the page, a mark or two is there, and the steps that produced it are nowhere. Everything happened in your child’s head.

Written working makes the method visible to the marker and can allow method marks to be awarded even when the final answer is wrong. It also does something quieter: writing the first line forces a choice of method before any numbers get involved. In a lesson on exponential modelling, a tutor had the student write the derivative line down first, before substituting anything, so the method existed on the page before the arithmetic began.

The point, in one line

“

You don’t need M to differentiate. You don’t need a single number to differentiate.

”

Jessica, A Level Maths tutor

The operation comes first and the numbers come second. A student who reaches for the numbers straight away can lose the method before the question has even started.

The redo check you can run at home

The next exam is getting closer and your child’s grade is not improving

After a bad mock the calendar starts to matter. Tutoring cannot promise a result by a fixed date, so we will not pretend otherwise. What a plan can do is spend the remaining weeks deliberately: the topics the mock showed as insecure, the habit of writing the method down, timed practice that looks like the real paper, and the feedback from each attempt feeding the next one.

That approach also gives you something to watch at home: on the next marked paper, you can check whether your child is writing out more of the method.

Can an A Level Maths tutor in Oman help after a bad mock?

Yes, where the mock shows the kind of problems lessons can work on directly: insecure topics, methods chosen late, or working that never reaches the page. A tutor can use the mock itself as the starting point, then teach to your child’s own course and specification rather than a generic one. Whether your child studies at The British School Muscat or another school following A Levels, the lessons match their exact course and exam board.

Lessons are online, on a shared board, at times that fit the school week in Oman. You receive a written report after every lesson, and where homework is set, a reminder goes out before the next lesson.

Inside a lesson

A Greenhill Academics maths lesson on the shared board, with the question, the student’s working and the tutor’s notes on one screen.

The A Level Maths tutors your child could work with

Two tutors who work from the paper

Martin · Mathematics, Oxford and Cambridge

Martin taught A Level Maths and Further Maths in the classroom at The British School of Córdoba, and is now completing a PhD in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge after an MSc at Oxford with Distinction. He teaches A Level Maths and Further Maths.

Jessica · Medicine, Cambridge

Jessica is in her fourth year of Medicine at Cambridge, after a BA in Psychology, and achieved A*A*A*A* at A Level in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology. She has hundreds of hours of tutoring experience at GCSE and A Level.

What parents in Oman ask about A Level Maths tutoring

You have your child’s A Level Maths mock result and need a clear plan for what comes next

Tell us which course your child is studying and what the latest feedback says. We will match them with an A Level Maths tutor, and you receive a written report after every lesson.

Book a first lesson

A Level Maths Tutors Meet Our Tutors

Worth reading next

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

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.

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A Level English Tutors Meet Our Tutors

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’s university offer requires an A in Maths but their recent assessed work is below that, it can be hard to know what to focus on next. An A Level Maths tutor can go through the marked work with your child and help turn what it shows into practice from the course your child’s school follows.

The offer asks for an A and the recent work is below it

An A in the offer gives your child a clear target, but it does not tell them what to practise next. Recent assessed work gives a tutor something specific to discuss with them: the questions they attempted, the working they wrote and any feedback from the teacher.

Keep the offer requirement, the assessment result and the school’s predicted grade distinct when discussing support. If the school’s prediction and the recent results seem difficult to reconcile, ask the teacher to explain the difference. The tutoring question is what your child needs to work on next.

What can recent assessed work and teacher feedback tell you?

A marked assessment gives you more to discuss than the total alone. You and your child can look at the questions they attempted, the working they wrote and any comments beside it. If a comment is unclear, your child can ask the teacher what it refers to.

A tutor can ask your child to explain how they approached a question and what happened when they stopped or changed direction. That conversation can help identify something to revisit. A blank answer or a crossed-out line is a starting point for a question, not an explanation on its own.

What an A Level Maths tutor in Doha can do with the marked work

In an online lesson on the shared whiteboard, a tutor can put the marked paper up and go through the working with your child. They can ask your child to explain a step, try part of the question again or show where they became unsure. This gives the tutor more to work from than the mark alone.

The tutor and your child can then discuss what to practise first. That might involve revisiting an explanation or trying another question with support. Any priorities can be reconsidered as your child attempts more work, rather than treating the first paper as a complete account of what they need.

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

Turning priorities into practice from your child’s own course

A tutor can turn a priority into a practice task using questions from your child’s course. They can work through an example together, then ask your child to try another question and explain their approach. Your child can bring the school’s revision materials so the tutor can see what they have been asked to practise.

There is more than one course behind the name A Level Maths. If you know which one your child’s school follows, mention it when you enquire. Our Abu Dhabi article, How an A Level Maths tutor in Abu Dhabi helps your child revise for their exam board, is about choosing revision material for the course your child follows.

How do you know whether the practice is working?

In a later lesson, your child and the tutor can compare attempts at similar questions. They can discuss which steps your child completed independently, where help was needed and whether an explanation needs another look. That gives them a basis for deciding whether to continue with similar practice or change the task.

A stronger attempt is useful evidence to discuss, but it does not settle the final grade. An unsuccessful attempt can also give the tutor something to work with. Keep the A as the goal while reviewing the actual working and your child’s explanation, rather than treating each new score as a verdict on the university offer.

Hugh and Ejaz, two of our maths tutors

Hugh

Hugh completed a DPhil in Surgical Sciences at the University of Oxford and holds a First-Class MSci in Theoretical Physics from Imperial College London. He has over a decade of tutoring experience and teaches Maths, Further Maths, IB Maths and Physics at all levels, from GCSE through to university entrance.

Ejaz

Ejaz has over three years of tutoring experience. He specialises in GCSE and A Level Mathematics and Physics, and took the International Baccalaureate himself, with a 7 in Higher Level Mathematics.

What parents ask when the offer says an A

Does your child need help working towards the A in their offer?

Tell us what your child is finding difficult in Maths. A tutor can review their assessed work with them and help turn the next priority into practice from their course.

Make an enquiry

A Level Maths Tutoring Meet the Tutors

Worth reading next

Your child sat an A Level maths test, worked hard, and lost more marks than you both expected. You may not know why. A wrong answer can come from many places, and the score on its own does not tell you which. An A Level maths tutor in Bahrain starts with your child’s marked work, finds where the marks were lost, and works on those parts. This page shows how that starts. It does not promise a grade.

What can your child’s last marked maths paper tell you?

The best place to start is work your child has already done: marked papers, class tests, homework and the teacher’s written comments. It does not need to be tidy, and even part of a paper helps.

A Level maths is a popular subject. It is the most popular A Level subject in England, where 107,300 students got a result in it in summer 2026.

It also helps to know which course your child is on, because that sets which papers or units they sit. The British School of Bahrain and Capital School Bahrain offer maths through the Pearson International A Level. St Christopher’s School offers A Level maths and the International Baccalaureate. The IB is its own qualification, not an A Level, so the tutor works from whichever one your child’s school follows.

A tutor reads the marked work with your child on a shared screen. Not to mark it again, but to see the pattern in it: which questions lost marks, and what the working shows about how each answer was reached.

If you are still choosing subjects, schools or tutoring in general, our guide A Level Tutoring in Bahrain: A Parent’s Guide covers the wider picture for families in Bahrain.

What a marked paper can show, and what it cannot

A marked paper is a good start, but it is easy to read too much into it. The score tells you how many marks were lost. It does not, on its own, tell you why they were lost, and the why is what a tutor needs.

The same wrong answer can come from very different places. Your child may know the method well but make one slip. They may have the wrong method. They may have run out of time and rushed the last part. They may have read the question wrong. A finished script cannot always tell these apart, so a tutor does not guess. They read the working line by line, and where the working runs out, they find out more before deciding anything.

This matters because the fix is different each time. A slip and a shaky method look the same on the page, one lost mark, but they need different work. So the tutor is careful not to treat a low score as one single problem.

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

How an A Level maths tutor in Bahrain works through a question

Because a script cannot tell the whole story, the tutor asks your child to work through a question again, out loud, on the shared whiteboard. Watching the attempt shows things a finished answer hides.

You can see where your child slows down, which step they are unsure about, and whether they reach for the right method quickly or search for one. A child who says the first line with confidence and then slips on the arithmetic needs different help from a child who is not sure where to begin. Neither of those shows up in the mark alone. So the lesson is not only about getting the right answer. It is about seeing how your child gets there, because that is what tells the tutor what to work on.

The tutor does not decide the cause from one question. They look at a few, from different topics, so the pattern is real and not a one-off.

Why might your child have lost marks?

Here are some of the reasons a grade can come back lower than a child’s ability. These are simple illustrations, not real students and not real exam questions.

A real grade can have more than one of these behind it. That is why the tutor looks before deciding, rather than assuming every low grade has the same cause.

Try this with one marked question at home

You can try this at home in about ten minutes. You only need one question your child has already had marked, and a pen.

1. Pick one question (1 minute). Choose a single question on a marked paper where your child lost marks. Just one, not the whole paper.
2. Ask them to do it again (4 minutes). Cover the marked answer. Ask your child to work through that one question again on a fresh sheet, out loud if they can.
3. Watch how they work (3 minutes). Notice where they slow down, which method they reach for, and the step where they get stuck or change their mind.
4. Note what you saw (2 minutes). Write down the step that caused trouble. That is the part worth looking at, not the final answer.

What should you look for?

You are looking for the moment the question becomes hard, not whether the final answer is right. One question cannot tell you your child’s overall maths level or predict a grade. It only shows one place to start.

A tutor can take that same question, work through the step your child got stuck on, and check whether the same thing happens on similar questions.

How can tutoring help with the mistakes in your child’s maths work?

Once the tutor can see where the marks are going, the lessons work on those parts and leave alone the parts that are already fine. If it is a topic, they go back over it until it is solid. If it is a method, they practise choosing the right one. If it is careless slips, they work on setting the maths out clearly so the slips have fewer places to hide. If it is time, they practise sections against the clock.

None of this is a fixed script, and it is not a promise of a certain grade. It is ordinary, careful work on the parts that need it, checked against fresh questions so both of you can see what has changed.

If your child has just come up from GCSE and that jump is where the trouble began, our article The step up from GCSE to A Level maths looks at that step in maths.

Karol and Martin teach maths at A Level

Karol

Karol studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He teaches Maths and Further Maths at A Level, and also Chemistry, and works with students from GCSE up to A Level.

Martin

Martin is reading for a PhD in Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, after a Master’s with distinction at the University of Oxford and a first-class degree from the University of Bath. He teaches A Level Maths, Further Maths and IB Maths.

Questions parents ask about a disappointing maths grade

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If your child has just started A Level English Literature and the first set texts have come home, you may be wondering how to help them get to know those books. An A Level English tutor can read the texts with your child, a scene or a chapter at a time, and help them build notes they can write from when the first essay questions arrive. This page is about English Literature. If your child takes English Language, or a combined Language and Literature course, a tutor works from what that course sets instead.

Which texts is your child studying this year?

The place to start is your child’s own text list. The school gives it out at the start of the course, and it names the plays, novels and poems on your child’s course. A tutor can read that list with your child and ask which text the class has begun with.

The list depends on the course. On the A Level English Literature courses regulated in England, students study at least eight texts, including at least three published before 1900, one of them a play by Shakespeare, and at least one first published or performed after 2000. Pearson’s International A Level and Cambridge International’s A Level each publish their own text lists.

In Bahrain, St Christopher’s School and the British School of Bahrain both list A Level English Literature among their sixth form subjects, and Capital School Bahrain offers the Pearson International A Level in English Literature.

If you are still choosing subjects or schools, our article A Level Tutoring in Bahrain: A Parent’s Guide covers the options for families in Bahrain.

How an A Level English tutor in Bahrain reads a set text with your child

Lessons are online on a shared whiteboard, so the tutor and your child can have the same page of the text open. They read a scene or a chapter together, and the tutor asks your child to say what happened and what they noticed before either of them writes anything down. Lines worth coming back to are marked as they go.

The tutor does not read the whole book to your child. They choose the parts that are worth reading slowly, such as an opening scene, a turning point or a poem the class has been set, and leave the rest for your child to read between lessons.

Try this with your child in 10 minutes

You do not need to teach English to help your child get started. Try this short exercise using a scene, poem or page from one of their set texts.

1. Read together (3 minutes). Ask your child to choose a short passage and read it. Then ask, “What is happening here?”
2. Choose one line (2 minutes). Ask them to pick a line they think is important. It might reveal something about a character, introduce an idea or change the mood.
3. Explain the choice (3 minutes). Ask, “What makes you think that?” Encourage them to point to a specific word or phrase.
4. Write one note (2 minutes). Ask them to write down the line, what they noticed and why it might matter.

What should you look for?

Can your child explain their choice and support it with words from the text? If they find this difficult, note which part caused trouble. One short exercise cannot establish their overall English ability or predict an exam grade.

A tutor can use the passage and your child’s explanation as a starting point for discussing the text and developing useful notes.

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

Notes that fit the way the course examines the text

Whether the book goes into the exam room depends on the course. On Pearson’s International A Level in English Literature the exams are open book. On Cambridge International’s A Level Literature in English, set texts are not allowed in the exam room. Pearson Edexcel’s A Level English Literature is open book with clean copies of the texts, and OCR’s A Level English Literature is closed text.

So the two kinds of notes are not the same. For an open-book course, the tutor helps your child build notes and mark up a study copy of the text, so they learn their way around it: which scene, which page, what it shows. Some courses only allow a clean copy in the exam room, with nothing written in it, so the marking up is for learning the text, not for taking into the room, and a tutor can check that rule for your child’s course. For a closed-text course the notes are for remembering, so they are shorter, and the tutor and your child pick a small number of lines from each part of the text and go back over them in later lessons. The school can say which course your child is on.

Reading ahead between lessons

A lot of the reading happens between lessons, at your child’s own pace. The tutor and your child agree how far to read before the next lesson, and your child notes the places they found hard, or found interesting, as they go. Those notes set the next lesson’s starting point.

You do not need to check the reading or mark anything. If your child says a text is slow going, that is worth passing on to the tutor, because it changes which part they read together next.

If your child is further into the course and the essays are what you are thinking about, our article How an A Level English Tutor in Doha helps your child work towards an A looks at the work the child is doing and what the teacher has said about it.

Laurie and George teach English at A Level

Laurie

Laurie is a double first-class English graduate from the University of Oxford, where he studied with a focus on Shakespeare, and he has over a decade of tutoring experience in English, History and Humanities. He has worked with students from early years through to university level, including GCSE, IGCSE, A Level and International Baccalaureate, and he is a professional journalist and communications specialist.

George

George specialises in English Literature and Philosophy. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a high distinction in his Linguistics master’s and won the Johnston Prize for academic excellence, after a philosophy conversion at the University of St Andrews and a first-class BA in English Literature. He tutors English Literature, History and Religious Studies at A Level and also prepares students for 11+ and 13+ exams.

Parents’ questions about the set texts

Would you like help with the first A Level English texts?

Tell us which course your child is on and which text they are reading now. A tutor can read the next part with them online and start the notes.

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