Do you tutor for my child's exact exam board?
I (George Chantry) voice dictated every one of these articles to give my honest, transparent view on economics A-Level tutoring to answer parent questions, having worked in the tutoring industry for nine years. Please WhatsApp me if you want to discuss anything in the articles further or have any further questions.
The question is: do you tutor for my child's exact exam board? This is a question I often get from parents who are interested in economics tutoring. The answer is yes — I do tutor every exam board.
I've tutored 145 one-to-one A-Level Economics students, and across them I've tutored every exam board: Edexcel, AQA, Cambridge International (CAIE), Edexcel International and OCR. Because I've taught so many economics students, I've encountered every exam board. I also taught economics full time at an international school, where I taught predominantly Edexcel, but over time I've tutored many AQA students.
The overlap between the exam boards, in terms of syllabus content and exam technique, is overwhelming. All of the exam boards require depth-based essay questions, which are exactly the questions my tutoring methods are ideal for solving.
"He finds that George knows the exam board syllabus and the notes he receives after each lesson help in his revision. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending him."
Simon, parent
How the exam boards differ
Edexcel have evaluation in every single question, from the 8-marker to the 12, the 15 and the 25, so Edexcel are slightly more weighted towards evaluation. AQA have two 25-mark questions, which involve evaluation — that is, counter-arguments — and require students to discuss a model in detail, evaluate it, discuss another model in detail, evaluate it, and then conclude. OCR have extremely similar mark schemes to Edexcel, except OCR require a little bit more application, which means a little bit more facts and own knowledge.
What every exam board requires
The exam boards all insist that top grades require strong chains of reasoning, so I often help students with model answers showing exactly what a good chain of reasoning looks like, and that works across all of the exam boards.
Similarly, with evaluation: all of the exam boards require significant evaluation, and I have prepared evaluation for every single topic area, to help students make sure they secure those evaluation marks.
"George is an incredibly motivated economics tutor and has helped me so much with writing evaluations and understanding the more complicated parts of the a level economics specification."
Agee, student
Additionally, the styles of questions and the topic areas are extremely similar. The 25-markers are extremely similar across all the exam boards. My strategies and methods for making sure students know what topic area they're on, and then linking the topic area to the right model, work equally well across all of the exam boards. So if a student is liable to write something irrelevant, the solution to that is not exam-board dependent. I've developed very effective solutions, which I worked on at Oxford to help get the three prizes and the first in economics.
Have a question about your child’s A-Level Economics? Message me — I reply to every one personally.
WhatsApp George — free initial call