Duncan

I am a highly experienced Chemistry teacher used to helping students get the grades they need whether they are struggling to pass GCSEs or A level, or pushing hard to get into top universities and Oxbridge. Aside from traditional classroom experience and 1:1 tutoring in real life, over the past year I have tutored many students online and use a mixture of online tools to maximise learning and interaction.

Before entering teaching, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry, and am probably the only high school teacher in the world to be a co-inventor of a commercial drug - the HIV drug Maraviroc for which I was awarded the Hero of Chemistry in 2008 by the American Chemical Society.

Tutoring Experience

I have been a Head of Chemistry at a top UK Independent School and previously at a State Grammar School, and am used to working with students of all abilities. As a Senior Examiner for one of the awarding bodies I have an extensive knowledge of the examining system, and can help you spot the key pitfalls in every exam. Some of my students have achieved Roentgenium awards in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge and one was the top scoring student on the OCR B course in 2013. I'm equally pleased though when helping students who find the course extremely difficult get the C grade that seemed so elusive at the beginning of the course.

Tutoring Approach

I am happy to teach all topics from scratch or start with what you know and build from there. Throughout each lesson we review questions to check understanding which allows us to use our time together most efficiently. I generally provide more questions and notes after lessons so that you can practice the skills and topics that we've covered between our 1:1 sessions. I'm very flexible so can pick up things that you are struggling with in school right now or review topics from wherever in your course. Generally I will use a combination of Zoom and OneNote but can use a variety of packages as needed such as Socrative for quizzes and Quizlet for sharing electronic flashcards.