Get your dream grades with expert GCSE Chemistry Tuition

Structure and bonding is first up.
It is vital to understand the 4 basic structures, why they form and the differences between them.

The reactions of metals, metals oxides, carbonates, and hydroxides with acids produce a lot of reactions to learn.
Knowing about ions, and the most common positive and negative ones really helps here.

Organic chemistry comes up a lot. At GCSE we look at oil, a mixture of different length molecules of carbon and hydrogen.
How we sort them by length in fractional distillation.
Cracking turns the less useful big fractions into smaller ones.
Finally, a series of small changes produces the different functional groups like alcohols and alkenes.
With some teaching and practice, this will be a topic you want to appear in your exam.

Ideally September or October. At the start of the new school year.
This way, you can get as high a grade as you want. Only your effort will limit you. Not your current ability. You should have 1 lesson a week. Maybe 2 a week if you want to FULLY cover 2 or 3 subjects.

If you have left it later than this:

• 3-4 months before an exam.
• The holidays, summer, half terms.
  I can advise you on how many lessons a week and hours of homework you will need to reach your goals.
• Finally, occasional lessons anytime during your course.
  For capable students before interviews, entrance exams, or competitions. Or when hitting a tricky topic.
  

The earlier you realise you need help the better.

Students usually see a good improvement, with most seeing a 2 to 4 grade increase.

I have seen greater improvements than this several times. Most of my students end up getting 7-9s.

With weekly lessons, improvement in the topics we go over will be fast. Usually after the first lesson pupils are feeling much better.
However, there can be a wide variation. Sometimes there are so many gaps, we are going to need a few weeks to a couple of months to fill them all in.

If you come to me in the 2nd year of your GCSEs and most of the first year is a mystery to you, all the topics from the previous year will have to be covered. This is at the same time as keeping up with the new material.

Most tests are done on new material, so it is important both are done in parallel.
*Tests are a priority over previous material*, as teachers use them to build up a picture of you.
Don’t worry though, as this is easily the case with more than half of my clients. It just takes a bit of extra effort.

If a current topic needs previous knowledge you aren’t good at, *I will teach you just the bits you need* as we go. When we have time we can cover the rest in detail.

Weekly lessons throughout the last or both years of the GCSE are my usual advice. I don’t offer fortnightly lessons at a fixed day/time. But you can book ad-hoc lessons any time with my online booking system.

If you a lot of help with 1 subject, but only a bit for 1/2 others, 1 lesson a week is OK. To cover two or more subjects fully, 2 lessons a week are needed.

More than 1 lesson a week is advisable if you really need a decent boost, or if you start tuition later in the year, especially near exams.

Sometimes pupils are so busy during term time, they can only fit lessons in during holidays. Here we do a concentrated block of lessons, usually 2 or more a week. This requires genuine work and dedication between lessons.