Alvin

I’ve been working as a private tutor since 2015 with over 4000 hours of tutoring experience. I achieved 10 A* grades at GCSE, AAAA at AS, and AAA in A2 (English, Spanish, Maths and Physics). Afterwards, I attended the University of Oxford to study English Language and Literature, where I specialised in computational sociolinguistics and Medieval Literature achieving a first in my dissertation and a high 2:1 overall.

I have a broad range of interests aside from academia. In my spare time I practice photography, participate in Blitz chess tournaments, and write fiction.

Tutoring Experience

I have 9 years experience tutoring English and Maths at 7+, 9+, 11+, GCSE, A Level and Undergraduate levels, with 4000+ hours of one-to-one tutoring in the time.
I also spent 2 years providing my services to the Escape Charity, where I taught English GCSE group classes at state comprehensive schools in the Haringey borough through the Pupil Premium scheme. I have worked as a mock examiner for Oxbridge Applications, where I have conducted over 100 mock interviews. I am a top tutor at a number of London’s major agencies, including Athena tuition, and Bright Young Things.

I have further experience in:

• 11+ English and Maths 

• (I)GCSE English (Cambridge, AQA, OCR)

• A-level English Literature and Language (OCR, AQA)

• IB English Language and Literature (SL and HL)

• Oxbridge preparation

I have a very strong track record of taking students up by at least 2 grade boundaries for their exams.

TESTIMONIALS:

Alvin is a very impressive tutor. We took him on with three weeks to go before Sandy’s GCSE English exam. In 3 weeks, Alvin moved our son up 4 grades - from a 2 to a 6.

Rosario (GCSE English)

Thanks to Alvin’s patience and skills, Felix gained a greater appreciation of literature as well as a sound technical understanding of literary analysis. When exam time came, Felix seemed confident in tackling exam papers. Alvin was always very punctual and didn’t hesitate to stretch his time in order to accommodate Felix’s needs. Felix felt very well prepare when he went to retake his exam. Alvin is a charming, patient, and well-educated young man. It was a pleasure having him around twice a week for 2 months. We are very grateful for his dedication.

Aurelie (mother, GCSE English)

Alvin has been so wonderful to Katie. She looks forward to every lesson, and has even started reading poetry after dinner. I could never have imagined her interested in literature before.

Cordelia (mother, IB English)

Thank you so much for all your help, I definitely wouldn’t have got this far without you!
Rosie (English, Oxbridge applicant)

I can’t tell you how grateful we are for your commitment and the very evident improvement T has displayed as much in terms of confidence as in capability. This is very much down to your patience, encouragement and good nature! 
Beatrice (mother, A-Level English)

Alvin is a wonderful tutor. He has taught our son Matthew for 4 years and he’s gone from struggling to read to one of the top students in his class. He looks forward to taking higher IB English next year

Tutoring Approach

The core of my approach is targeted and specific. I work to identify core weaknesses and strengths in a student's skillset, ensuring that I praise strengths of the students, and finding practical solutions to work on their weaknesses. My focus with tutoring is to fill in the gaps that school teachers generally leave behind - in a hands-on and practical way.

One important part of my approach is that I build skills, alongside content. I don’t believe speaking at children for an hour is very helpful - the goal of my lessons is for my students to be ‘active’ as opposed to ‘passive’.

I teach these skills throughout our lessons through a series of exercises that encourage independence of thought. Discrete exercises are the core of my teaching practice - simple, chunked, fun puzzles, exercises that help practical application of the subject.

I also encourage web/or internet based learning, for example using gamification to memorise large chunks of information, developing quizzes to aid learning vocabulary.

ENGLISH

In English, for example, skills would involve:
- basic analytical skills: how to explain the effectiveness of a metaphor
- vocabulary and prose
- structure and
- memorisation
- exam technique

On the writing side, I help students fine-tune their prose through writing exercises. This might be improving their technical vocabulary and removing colloquialisms, helping their sentence-by-sentence construction, or for the more advanced students, helping them understand argument threading and signposting.

On the analytical side, this involves laterally examining something like a metaphor, and being able to offer or explain its effectiveness. For example, we might spend ten minutes of every lesson looking at objects like ‘a can of coke’ and writing down as many things coca-cola could symbolise, to help their analytical, creative skills. We would work towards making these exercises practical as soon as possible by weaving this generative lateral thinking into essay writing.

MATHS

My approach in Maths is fairly straightforward. I will find 5 core areas of weaknesses - let’s say - angles, geometry, fractions, algebra and ratio. I will sit down each week and unpack the one area of weakness, doing targeted exercises, from the ground up. I will use a variety of different methods to try and explain a topic like, say, fractions - using bean counters, or a deck of cards, and try to apply this as much as possible to real-life problems. Once I have taught this topic confidently, my priority is the retention of information.

I will consistently thread in the previous subject, to ensure that their knowledge is sufficiently ingrained. I am a firm believer in spaced repetition and content threading. Spaced repetition is an evidence-based learning technique where new introduced and more difficult flashcards are shown more frequently, while older and less difficult flashcards are shown less frequently in order to exploit the psychological spacing effect.

PASTORAL

From the first lesson, I try and always establish what the goals of our sessions are, so there is an immediate concrete target (exam/coursework etc). I will try and lay out as clearly as possible and to try and explain what the process of achieving that goal is - and what skills the exercises we are doing will give them. This helps the lessons become practical and useful.

I try to build an atmosphere of communal activity, treating all children as they are my equal. I will try to use positive and encouraging language as much as possible, making sure to praise strengths as much as I can. When I do give criticism, I emphasise what they have done well, and how they can make their work even better. I generally say ‘we’ when speaking, because I believe the tutor and the child are a team, with a common, shared goal.

OVERALL

In essence, my tutoring is about breaking down skills into discrete chunks, and then working on said weaknesses (without discouraging the pupil - despite this rigor of preparation - I have a very relaxed, calming attitude during class). There is a large body of scientific research that indicates that improving at any skill requires two things: a) focused, discrete improvement on targeted weaknesses and b) honest, clear feedback from an external source. My tutoring is informed by these two principles - and through hard work I genuinely believe I can teach children the skills to succeed - not just in their exams but in later life!