When to start A Level tuition before the summer exams

Most AS and A Level written exams are sat in May and June. Families usually think about tuition at one of three moments: early in the school year, after mock results, or in the last weeks before the exams. Each is a reasonable time to start, but each can achieve different things, and it helps to be realistic about which one you are in.

Starting in the autumn (September to December)

This is the best time to fix understanding rather than technique.

• There is time to rebuild a topic that never made sense, properly, before moving on.
• A weekly class can run alongside school teaching, so new topics are learnt once, well.
• For a two-year A Level, an autumn start in the first year stops gaps compounding: in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, later topics are built on earlier ones.

Use it for: the topics your child finds hardest, in the order the school teaches them.

Starting after mocks (January to March)

Mock results are the most useful information a family gets all year. They show which topics lose marks and whether the problem is knowledge or exam technique.

• Bring the marked mock to the first class. A teacher can usually tell within one lesson whether marks were lost on content, on the command word, or on method and units.
• There is still time for both: reteaching the weak topics, then timed past-paper practice.

Use it for: a short list of weak topics, each closed off before moving to the next, with past-paper questions on those topics as soon as the content is secure.

Starting in spring (April to the exams)

Late tuition can still help a lot, but it should be focused.

• There is rarely time to relearn a whole unit. The best gains come from exam technique, mark-scheme language and the most heavily weighted topics.
• One-to-one classes usually suit this stage better than joining a group partway through a course, because every minute can go on that student’s weak points.

Use it for: past papers under timed conditions, worked through with a teacher, and the topics that carry the most marks.

Whenever you start: the first two weeks

1. Find the gaps. Use the course’s printable topic checklist to mark each topic secure, shaky or not started. A 10-minute diagnostic shows the same for the subjects that have one.
2. Plan the weeks left. The free revision planner builds a weekly plan from your exam dates and the topics you marked.
3. Learn what the questions ask. The command words guide explains what “explain”, “evaluate” or “deduce” require; many lost marks come from answering a different question.
4. Know the targets. The grade threshold explorer shows the marks needed for each grade in recent Cambridge series, and the exam calendar lists entry deadlines and results days.

Group or one-to-one?

An autumn start suits group classes well: they follow the course steadily, three times a week per subject. After mocks and in spring, one-to-one usually works better. Our guide to group classes or one-to-one tuition compares them, and the free trial class lets your child try either before you pay.

Fees and class times are on the pricing page and the pages for Pakistan, the UK, the UAE, Qatar and Malaysia.