Business tutor, GCSE to undergraduate. Excellent 2025 A and GCSE exam results. Experienced examiner/teacher/teacher trainer. Enhanced DBS clearance, MBA BA Cert Ed + Dyslexic dyscalculia experience.

Freddie is a pleasure to work with, well motivated, clear objectives and he has a clear appraisal of what he needs to do to improve his grades. We worked on the assessment objetives (AOs) and how he can use this to his advantage by writing in a more concise way whilst addressing each of the 4 AOs. In particular we looked at how to analyse, what this entails and how to demonstrate this in an answer. He now understands what is meant by 'developed analysis' and how this will be a key element of any questions 5 marks to 24 marks from now on. He undertook a series of analytical problems and was pushed to develop a more robust response (one where he will get 2 rather than 1 mark). Lastly we looked at a previous paper where he was able to demonstrate his understanding of the prior session input. All resources have been provided and we have worked out suitable spots for future sessions. Lastly we have started to develop evaluative skills - this will continue into the coming weeks - these are the marks that will likely make the biggests difference to his grades - he has good content knowledge, understands how to apply knowledge and has developed develope analysis knowledge during this session. Next week we will work on larger mark questions and embed the evaluative skills. I hope this helps. Regards, Gary

Hi Tara, By way of feedback re:yesterday - I think Eddie found yesterday particularly useful, he did well on the multiple choice BUT needs to include evidence of knowledge for his 4 mk questions - generally his analysis is getting stronger but he omits some basic mark worthy subject information - his response to question 1:1 is a good example of this - the question is about piece rates but he fails to indicate that he knows what a piece rate is and an examiner will look for this - mostly he has good subject knowledge so it's important he uses it - just a brief sentence is normally enough. I discussed in depth some of the answers and pointed out that at times he re phrases his response, repeats himself using a different set of words - once he has gained marks say for a piece of analysis he will not get more by stating the same analysis using different words. He is aware of this now. I strongly suggest that he takes a few minutes simply planning the advantages/strengths - disadvantages/weaknesses of a proposal prior to starting to answer the question. A few minutes developing a plan should ensure he covers more angles - in this way, particularly with 16/25 mark questions, he will gain more marks. We concluded by examining what is meant by an evaluation, an area where he can certainly pick up more marks - I think this is now clearer to him now. Evaluation is the most demanding of skills and certainly challenges many students. If he can develop his evaluation skills he will certainly pick up additional marks for all his larger mark questions. I hope this helps, Eddie is a real pleasure to work with, he picks things up quickly and clearly has the academic ability to get a B. My view is if he can polish up his critical thinking skills in the way I suggest, he may yet move his grade boundary upwards - he is certainly motivated.

Following my discussion with Eve she seems to have adopted my suggestions for improving her analysis i.e a chain of analysis is required to access better marks. We have covered how to deal with an evaluation but this is a more complex, higher order thinking skill, she will develop her ability as we progress. Eve is a very intelligent student, she will gain in confidence I feel as we start to apply the principles to past papers. Eve is a delight to work with, motivated, receptive, challenging and ... she also has a lovely sense of humour! She is making excellent progress.

Enthusiastic, keen to learn and motivated to do so. We focussed upon exam techniques and how to maximise marks through developed analysis and evaluation, skills that were quickly understood. We need to now apply these techniques to past exam papers, practise the skills so they become instinctive. In order to gain B - A* these skills will have to be evidenced. My feeling is that Maia can do this, she quickly applied her understanding through a series of mini cases, her next step will be to do the same thing with an AQA exam question. A good session, a very able student keen to develop. Gary

Todays session examined various topics that need to be addressed and prepared for by Gao. We looked at the process of critical thinking and how to demonstrate understanding, analysis and evaluation, all skills that will be assessed and graded by his university. I also discussed 'citation' what it is and how to use the Harvard citation system, again Gao will be expected to use citation and will be rewarded for doing so so this is in preparation. Lastly I introduced him to the fundamentals of marketing, this is one of his units so he needs to be able to deal with the challenges and understand the component parts and how this all fits together. What is becoming obvious is (a) he is well motivated and has the intellectual ability to do this work but (b) he is challenged by the technical nature of business, it has its own language which is additional to the everyday words - this is an issue for UK students as well but to a lesser extent. He needs to extend his vocabulary to include the specific language used because his future essay arguments will require this - he has the ability I am sure but starting to prepare now will be of benefit later. I will continue to use the terms he needs so I will try to reinforce his understanding but I suggest he does the same thing as he is going to be faced by a lot of new terminology quite soon. Today we looked at Apple products in China and the new competition/marketing - he dealt with the analysis very well, impressive I thought given his starting point.

Thanks for the review Margo, I appreciate this. By way of my feedback, It is a pleasure working with you as you are clear about the fact that you want to get the best from yourself and are not afraid to work to achieve this objective - commitment is all. Your style is developing, which I would expect at this stage but it is clear that you have strong academic potenital, grasp ideas quickly and put into effect advice you deem relevant. I think you tend to underestimate your own strength, you are clearly able, have intellectual depth and strong underpinning skills. I would expect, given what I have seen, heard and read, that your development will continue on an upward trajectory: it's a steep learning curve you are on for sure but you have the tenacity and intelligence to get to the top! Be guided by the feedback from your lecturers, ask for clarification when you need it and I am sure your academic journey will be a fruitful one. I think for the future you need to develop further your sequencing skills as a way of reducing unnecessary editing - plan the route before starting the journey :)

I hope you have found my support useful and look forward to working with you again. Go for it!

Rosie is a great student to work with, motivated and wants to develop techniques to help her deal with her exams. I have worked on structure and the assessment objectives and demonstrated how and why marks are awarded which she has now put into practice. I believe her first paper went well so I will be aiming to help her build on this. Gary

A significant change in the way Favour approaches question answering - he has quickly developed his awareness of the process of examining, what examiners are looking for and what will get him marks. He has the skills to analyse and evaluate and clearly demonstrated them during our session. I went through his written work with him and highlighted where he would get marks and why. Immediately he has raised his game - his grades will improve if he follows through with the approach I am coaching him to adopt as I am sure he will. I expect his confidence to increase as he starts to see what he has to do to get A grades - work he produced today was of this calibre and I fed this back to him. There are a few gaps in his knowledge which we can plug but he is a capable, analytical thinker and very receptive to new ideas. Gary

Hi Marc, the session I had with Ariana and Hector was helpful. I went through in detail, the results of the work they sent and explained what they needed to do to improve their marks. In particular they had not been shown how to analyse and this was a weakness. I took them through the process and they quickly understood how to develop their analytical writing and thus receive more credit. I need to do the same thing with their evaluative skills, the most challenging objective. The good news is that they are both keen to learn, applied themselves well to my advice and seem well motivated to improve. Thus we should be able to make fast progress. It was a bit of a 'full on' session, a lot to get through and a lot for them to absorb but my view is that they now have a much clearer understanding of what they should be doing. A pleasure working with them. If you have any queries then I am happy to address them. Kind regards, Gary

OK, as promised my powerpoint presentation. My email gary.hurlstone@gmail.com Please let me have your list of topics when ready. I will download past papers from NCFE and we can use them to ready you for your exams (mock and final) Also I can provide guidance for your assignment which you then can use to develop your ideas - remember the analysis of this is crucial to the grades. We have agreed a baseline of a grade 6, better if we can get the development down faster. Your assignment is worth 60% of this grade so this is a crucial decider in the final grade you get. You have clearly demonstrated your ability to analyse, impressive I thought for your first session. A lot of your issues seem to stem from lack of understanding (knowledge) which I can plug, most marks are awarded for application, analysis and evaluation so tha'ts what we also need to work on. I hope you have enjoyed your first session. Regards, Gary

A fact gathering session to begin with but then we explored the assessment objectives and how they can be met. My intention is to support Matilda to follow a structured response, one that will focus on getting marks and reducing the amount to be written. A lot of what is written by students is often discursive, interesting but sadly does not gain marks. The aim of what I am doing is to provide a clear map for Matilda to follow, one where she knows what needs to be done and sticks to doing this. I will need to have a look at previous marked assignments to get a sense of how she writes and structures her work. In addition many of the concepts can be broken down and explained, this should clear up some of the vagueness she experiences at school. My view overall is that Matilda can and does grasp concepts quickly IF they are explained properly. She is intelligent and seemed to grasp ideas quickly - we can work on getting concepts embedded and addressing the time constraint issues. I found the whole process straightforward in the sense that Matilda is open to suggestions to improve, she is clear about what she needs to do to achieve these improvements, we share the same goals. I hope this helps. I enjoyed the session.

Thank you Shangyu, I hope you enjoy your time at Oxford and very well done!

Diligent, highly motivated student who is passionate about improving the quality of his work and works hard to do so. In a relatively short period of time he has developed both analytical and evaluative skills and his grades have consequently soared. He has been offered a place at his chosen university. Excellent

Thank you, Jade I really appreciate your comments and glad I could help. Gary

Thanks Tayla - always a pleasure working with you and I appreciate your kind words Gary