A-level Chemistry

A-level Chemistry rewards a very particular kind of thinking. You have to hold a mechanism in your head, follow the electrons, then switch to a calculation with units and significant figures, then write four lines of explanation that earn four marks because each line says something the examiner is looking for. Most sixth formers who come to us are not weak at chemistry. They are usually decent at one of those three and lose marks on the other two. One-to-one tuition is how we find out which.

We teach A-level Chemistry online, one student to one tutor, for Year 12 and Year 13 pupils. Every tutor in our team holds a chemistry or closely related degree, and the science side of the team is overseen by our head of sciences, who was a head of sciences in a school before building this service. Lessons run in the evening after college or on Saturday mornings, which suits families across Greater Manchester and further afield. Everything is recorded in written lesson notes that you and your child can read back afterwards, and we send parents a detailed progress report so you are not guessing how it is going.

What A-level Chemistry tuition actually covers

Our lessons follow the exam board specification your child is sitting, whether that is AQA, OCR, Edexcel or WJEC. That matters more in chemistry than in most subjects, because the phrasing of a physical chemistry question and the required practicals listed for each board differ in ways that catch students out.

A typical block of lessons covers:

• Physical chemistry — moles and stoichiometry, titration calculations, enthalpy and entropy, equilibria including Kc and Kp, rates and the Arrhenius equation, electrode potentials and cells.
• Inorganic chemistry — periodicity, group 2 and group 7 trends, transition metal complexes, ligand substitution, colours and redox behaviour.
• Organic chemistry — nomenclature, isomerism including optical isomerism, the reaction pathways map, mechanisms with curly arrows, and the analysis topics: NMR, infrared and mass spectrometry.
• Practical and synoptic questions — required practical techniques, error and uncertainty, and the long structured questions that pull two or three topics together.

If your child is sitting the practical endorsement alongside the written papers, we talk through the written-up practicals too, because the same knowledge shows up in Paper 3.

Who this suits, and who it does not

This course fits a Year 12 student who sailed through GCSE and has hit a wall somewhere in the second term, or a Year 13 student revising for the summer who needs every mark squeezed out of the organic paper. It also fits the student who is quietly capable but has lost confidence after a mock, and the one aiming for a high grade because a university offer depends on it.

It is not the right fit if your child will not do any work between lessons. Chemistry is a doing subject. We can explain a mechanism beautifully on a Tuesday evening, but if it is never written out from memory on a Wednesday, it will not stick. Nor is it a replacement for school attendance, and we do not write coursework or complete assessed work for a student. If your child is in Year 11 and choosing A-levels, our GCSE Science and GCSE Exam Preparation pages are the better starting point.

How the lessons work, step by step

We start with a short conversation with you and your child, then a diagnostic session. The tutor will typically ask the student to attempt a handful of questions live, chosen to test calculation, explanation and mechanism work, and reads the answers as much as the marks. A student who gets the right number with no units has told us something useful.

1. Diagnosis. One session mapping strengths against the specification, and a written summary of where the marks are leaking.
2. A plan. We agree a sequence of topics with your child, in the order that makes sense for their exams rather than the order the textbook uses. Equilibria and acids can wait until the organic map is secure if that is what the mock exposed.
3. Weekly lessons. Each session has one clear objective, worked examples on screen, and then the student does the talking. We use a shared whiteboard, so mechanisms are drawn rather than described.
4. Between lessons. A short set of past paper questions on the topic just covered. Not a mountain of them. Twenty minutes of focused questions beats an hour of highlighting.
5. Review. Every few weeks we revisit an older topic without warning, because that is how the real paper behaves.
6. Past paper phase. From roughly February for Year 13, lessons shift to timed questions under exam conditions, followed by a line-by-line look at the mark scheme.

What makes the online format work

Chemistry is visual and online teaching suits it. A tutor can draw a curly arrow mechanism on a shared board, annotate a mass spectrum, and drop in a past paper question in the same minute. Every lesson produces written notes the student keeps, so a topic taught in November is still readable in May. Recording the notes rather than the video keeps the student's own reasoning at the centre of the page.

What your child needs to bring

Not much, but the small things matter. Before the first lesson, send us the exam board, the tier of entry if there is one, and the most recent set of mock or end-of-topic results. A copy of the specification from the board's website helps. If the school provides a practical handbook, keep it to hand.

For each lesson, your child needs a device with a working microphone, paper and a pen for calculations and mechanisms, and a calculator. A graphical calculator is not required. Headphones help if the house is busy. We ask for the school exercise book to be nearby in the early weeks, so the tutor can see how topics were taught.

What affects the timing and the price

We do not publish a rate card, because the honest answer depends on the plan. Fees are quoted on request once we know the year group, how many subjects are involved and how close the exams are.

Three things move the total. The first is how many lessons a week your child needs: one weekly lesson is the usual arrangement, and two is common in the final term before A-levels. The second is when you start. A student beginning in September of Year 12 has room to build understanding slowly; a student starting in April of Year 13 is paying for triage, and the sessions look quite different. The third is whether you book chemistry alone or alongside one of our other A-level sciences, because families booking more than one subject with us pay less than they would buying each separately. Ask about that when you get in touch.

Lessons are confirmed at a time that suits your family, and we will tell you which slots are open when you book.

Questions parents ask

Is online tuition as good as sitting in the same room?

For chemistry, in most cases yes. The whiteboard, the past paper on screen and the written notes work at least as well as a paper session, and your child avoids a journey after a long college day. The one thing we cannot do remotely is hand them a physical piece of equipment, so practical technique is taught through the written questions and the required practical record rather than by demonstration.

How do you know my child is improving?

We track performance against the specification topics and against past paper questions, and the progress report you receive sets out what has been covered, what is now secure and what still needs work. We also tell you when a topic has been revisited and held up under timed conditions, since that is the point at which it usually becomes reliable.

Can you help if the school has already predicted a grade?

Yes, and the predicted grade is useful information. We use it to set a realistic target and to decide where the next few marks are most cheaply won. A student on a C who needs a B is often closer than they think, because the gap is usually a handful of repeatable errors rather than a missing topic.

Are your tutors DBS-checked?

Every tutor is DBS-checked, and every tutor holds a degree in their subject. If you would like to know more about the tutor matched to your child before the first lesson, ask us and we will talk you through their background.

What if we need to change the lesson time?

Tell us as early as you can and we will look at what is available. Sixth form life is busy, and a moved lesson is a normal request rather than a problem. Contact us on +44 161 6306222 or at [email protected] and we will sort out the details.