Joe

I am a professional full-time tutor and examiner specialising in Philosophy and Religious Studies.

I have a Batchelor’s degree from the University of York and a Master’s degree from King's College London, both in Philosophy.

I also created a very popular revision website with learning materials for my two subjects.

Tutoring Experience

I have tutored both Philosophy & Religious studies A Level full time for 9 years.

I am an examiner for OCR Religious Studies which gives me special insight into exactly what students need to do to gain marks.

Tutoring Approach

Essay practice focused. I devote a lot of time to essay skills. Not understanding how to do essays can really let students down. The truth is, if essay technique is bad, it's possible to know all of the information in the textbook perfectly and yet still only get a C grade.

A great advantage of tutoring over school teaching is the opportunity to give students much more feedback on essays and guide their improvement over time.

Staying on track. I know how well a student needs to be doing at each point over the A level course to be on track for their target grade. I make sure they are either on track or know what they have to do to get on track.

Organisation: integrating teaching & revision. I find that many students benefit from help with organization. During lessons, I break a topic down into an essay and revision orientated form. Once I’m finished teaching a topic to student, they will have a clear understanding of how it divides into parts/paragraphs. They will see how to arrange them in an essay to suit all potential exam questions and it makes revising the topics much easier too. I’ve seen astounding results with this method. It takes hard work and dedication, but it really works.

I love philosophy, but I also love figuring out how to efficiently organise the A level content in a way which enables structured revision and prepares students for the exam. This method is also the focus of the revision notes on my website.

I have a very flexible and relaxed timetable. I don't charge students for cancelling or even missing lessons unless it becomes a repeat issue, and you can arrange as many or as few lessons with me as you like. This approach feels more positive and relaxed to me.

Although I’m very focused on my student’s grades and improvement, I am also friendly, relaxed, have infinite patience and I am even moderately entertaining!