Tobias

PhD English graduate (specialising in Shakespeare). I have tutored across age ranges and across levels of study for over a decade. I have extensive online tuition experience, having tutored through the Covid lockdowns.
I graduated from Durham University with a first-class English Literature degree and completed an MA in theatre writing at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. I have been tutoring for over a decade, teaching students from primary school level right through to university. Last year, I graduated with a PhD in the field of Shakespeare studies, awarded by the University of Cambridge.
I have worked for a number years as a freelancer in the UK theatre industry.

Tutoring Experience

I have tutored students of every year group from year 7 - university undergraduates. Previous highlight successes include many 11+ candidates achieving entry to their first choice schools, GCSE students gaining (A*s, 8s, and 9s), an AS retake student improving from a D grade to an A grade, and an A2 student achieving a scholarship (and unconditional offer) to their first-choice university.

As well as offering specific tuition to pupils undertaking English Language and English Literature courses, I tutor pupils preparing for 11+ entrance examinations, and offer essay-writing tuition to pupils studying humanities.

My specialist area is Shakespeare (the field of my PhD), and drama more generally (the field of my MA study at Central).

Given the depth of my BA degree, I can offer extensive revision of the theory behind the texts being studied. Areas of previous focus include: the Brontës, Shakespeare, the Renaissance (e.g. Marlowe, Raleigh), Romanticism (e.g. Keats, Blake), Jane Austen, Modernism (e.g. Woolf, Joyce), Metaphysicals (e.g. Marvell, Milton), American Literature (e.g. Hemingway, Hawthorne), approaches in Literary Criticism (e.g. Feminism, Postmodernism), American Poetry (e.g. Dickinson, Whitman), War Poetry (e.g. Sassoon, Owen), the Short Story (e.g. Poe, Carver), Contemporary Fiction (e.g. Haddon,Hosseini), Contemporary Poetry (e.g. Duffy, Armitage), and Drama (a full range, from Sophocles to Pinter and current playwrights).

Tutoring Approach

I offer focused and relaxed one-to-one tuition.

I specialise in exam preparation, tailoring sessions to focus on a pupil's particular exam mark scheme.

Many tutees initially ask for tuition as an additional support to their in-school teaching. Crucially, I can also offer an in-depth revision of the theory of specific texts being studied, as well as offering continued feedback on essays.