Kevin

Hi! my name is Kevin and I have been tutoring Chemistry to A-Level students for around 15 years.

I work as a full-time Chemistry tutor in Surrey and London, covering the AQA, Edexcel, OCR A and B plus iGCSE syllabuses.

I spent over 8 years at University being trained in Chemistry. My qualifications:

1st class honours Chemistry degree and a Ph.D in Organic Chemistry (both Edinburgh University) and a Masters in Biochemistry (Imperial College, London).

It is important for a tutor to know the subject and syllabus inside out. By only tutoring in Chemistry, it allows me to do this. I can confidently answer any questions that students have plus give them a bit extra as I know the past papers very well, the structure of the exams and the types of question that are likely.

I also love to help students with their study skills and exam technique.

Schools do not help with this enough and almost every student needs help with it. In my opinion it is possibly even more important than the subject material. I have had many students that get for example a C grade and they believe they are bad at Chemistry. But their Chemistry is often good, it is their study methods and exam technique that was costing them marks.

Tutoring Experience

Tutored at University during PhD for 3 years.

Tutored A-Level and GCSE for 15 years.

Worked in a top London school for 3 months.

Tutoring Approach

My approach: to be friendly and encouraging. It is important for the student to be comfortable with the tutor so that they can feel comfortable enough to open up and ask any questions they want.

What we work on:

1. The Chemistry!…..My aim is to explain the concepts as simply as possible to give the understanding required. Students often come for tutoring after being confused at school. We will also look at questions and examples to demonstrate the points and to show the student the standard that is required.

2. Study Skills and Exam Technique:……How to study effectively and efficiently, how to interpret the question, how to stop making silly mistakes, how to revise properly, how to use past papers properly, how to write good answers and ensure all the marks for that question, how to challenge yourself, add variety to your study sessions etc.

3. Mindset:…..I have put this at number 3 but it is by far the most important. Some students struggle for confidence in a subject and this needs to be addressed asap. A lot of students fear exams, panic in exams or are so nervous that their performance suffers. This has to be fixed otherwise the chemistry is almost irrelevant. This takes time but over a few months the students can start to see it's not that bad and that they are more than capable of doing well.

First session: I assess what the student will respond to best and tailor the sessions accordingly. Some students need encouragement, others need challenged, some work best from examples while others need detailed explanantions….it just depends on each individual.

Resources: I have gathered a huge amount of material on my laptop over the past few years that the students are welcome to have, including past papers going back to 2002.

I have my own website dedicated to A-level Chemistry with my own tutorials, I have written revision guides for each unit at AS and A2 for each syllabus that every student is also welcome to have.