Having worked with over 1,000 A-level students, I've seen every version of the tutoring story. The tutor who transformed a student's A-level chemistry tutors online in a term. The tutor who was lovely, reliable, £45 an hour, and made no measurable difference in a year. Parents usually can't tell which one they've hired until results day, and by then it's too late. So here's the checklist I'd give my own family: what actually predicts results, what to ask, and the red flags that should end the conversation.

Why the choice matters more than parents realise

Here's something I say in every workshop I run. Schools teach students what to learn, but almost nobody teaches them how to perform in exams. Those are two different skills. Most students who sit at a B aren't short of knowledge. They lose marks on application, exam technique and recall under pressure.

That's exactly why tutor choice matters. A tutor who only re-explains content is fixing the thing your child probably doesn't need fixed, one hour at a time, at £45 an hour. A tutor who trains exam performance changes the grade. They look identical on a profile page.

What to look for in an A-level tutor

Subject expertise, proven at A-level standard

A strong degree in the subject matters, and so does having personally scored top grades at A-level. A-levels are a specific game. Someone who mastered that game recently can teach the moves. Be a little careful with tutors whose expertise is university-level but who haven't touched an A-level paper in years. Brilliant and useful aren't always the same thing.

Exam board fluency

AQA, Edexcel, OCR. Same subject, different papers, different mark schemes, different command words. A tutor who knows your board's mark schemes inside out can teach your child to write answers that examiners can actually give marks to. Ask directly: "Which boards do you teach, and how do you use mark schemes in lessons?" A vague answer here is disqualifying.

A teaching approach built on doing, not watching

In our sessions, we cover content briefly and then go straight into exam questions, because that's where the learning actually happens. One of our students put it better than I ever could in their feedback: "I liked how we worked together to get the answers instead of the tutor doing it for us." That's the sentence you want to hear about any tutor you hire.

Progress you can see

Between-lesson homework, topic scores, mock results, confidence ratings. The format matters less than the fact that something gets measured. If nobody's measuring, nobody knows whether the money is working.

The four questions to ask before hiring anyone

1. "Which exam board do you teach, and how well do you know its mark schemes?" You want specifics, not reassurance.
2. "How will you measure my child's progress?" Listen for anything concrete: scores, papers, topic tracking.
3. "Can you share results or feedback from previous students?" Anyone good has this ready.
4. "Walk me through a typical hour." If it's 50 minutes of explaining and 10 minutes of questions, that's a content lesson, not exam training.

Red flags that should end the conversation

• They don't ask about your child's current grades, target grades or exam board before quoting.
• No homework between sessions. One hour a week with nothing in between barely moves anything.
• They promise specific grades. Nobody can promise an A*. They can only promise a process.
• Every lesson is content explanation. Ask your child after session three: "Are you doing past paper questions in lessons?" If the answer is no, that's your answer.

One-to-one or group teaching? The honest comparison

Parents assume one-to-one is the premium option. Sometimes it is. If your child has deep gaps in understanding, a good private tutor is the right call. But for students who broadly understand the content and need exam performance, structured small-group teaching often works better. There's pace, there's a bit of healthy competition, students learn from each other's mistakes, and the cost per hour drops from £40 or more to something like £9 to £15. I've written a full breakdown in does one-to-one tutoring actually improve grades.

What this looks like at A-Level Accelerators