How to Choose an IGCSE Tutor: A Parent's Checklist

TL;DR

Most parents judge an IGCSE tutor on qualifications and rapport, which tells you very little about whether marks will move. On Cambridge IGCSE Biology and Chemistry, only half the qualification rewards knowledge and understanding — the other half tests problem-solving and experimental skills, and on the Edexcel International GCSE the recall share is smaller still. So the useful test is whether the tutor teaches to those assessment objectives, works from the specification your child is entered for, and can show you how progress will be tracked between sessions. Below are ten questions to ask before you book, what a strong answer sounds like, and what to check at week one, week six and week twelve.

On this page

• Why parents start looking
• The half-the-paper test
• Board and entry route
• Online or in person
• The safeguarding checks most parents skip
• Ten questions to ask before you book
• What progress should look like
• When a tutor isn't what your child needs
• FAQ

Why parents start looking for an IGCSE tutor

Parents usually start looking in one of two moments: a mock result that came in well below the predicted grade, or the sudden realisation that the exam series is weeks away. The second moment is the expensive one, because by then you are buying time rather than teaching.

In April, during the exam period, I kept getting messages from students who were very worried. They wanted to do well. When I spoke to some of them, I found they did not have the basic knowledge the exam required — not because they did not care, but because they had reached the final month and were trying to fit an entire academic year into a few weeks.

The same April, I had another group of students who were doing nothing unusual at all. They were following the same daily routine they had followed since September. Those students outperformed the first group by miles.

That difference is rarely about natural ability. A 15-year-old is still developing long-term planning, self-discipline and consistency. They have to take responsibility for their own learning, but handing a teenager a complete IGCSE subject and expecting them to manage it alone is not realistic. What they need is a system around them — and whether a tutor can build one is the thing worth testing.

What should an IGCSE tutor know? The half-the-paper test

A tutor who only re-explains content is aiming at half the paper. Cambridge splits the qualification into three assessment objectives with published weightings: knowledge with understanding takes 50%, handling information and problem-solving takes 30%, and experimental skills and investigations take 20%. The Cambridge IGCSE Chemistry 0620 syllabus uses the same split.

Edexcel weights it harder still. Its International GCSE Biology specification allocates 38–42% to knowledge and understanding, 38–42% to application, analysis and evaluation, and 19–21% to experimental skills. On that paper, recall is the minority of the marks.

This is why a good explanation is not the same as a good lesson. A general explanation helps a student understand a topic. The exam does not reward what is in the student's head — only what they write on the paper, in the form the mark scheme accepts. Every lesson should follow the exact specification, and every assignment should be tied to what the student has just learned.

When you talk to a tutor, listen for whether they distinguish these two jobs. The ones who do will talk about command words, about what "explain" demands that "describe" does not, and about the questions that set a familiar idea in an unfamiliar context. The ones who do not will tell you how well they explain topics. Both can be true of the same person, but only one of them shows up in the result. Our IGCSE Biology course is built around that second job for exactly this reason.

Does the tutor know your child's board and entry route?

Being entered on the wrong route caps the grade before the exam starts. On Cambridge IGCSE, candidates taught only the Core content sit Papers 1 and 3 and can be awarded grades C to G; candidates taught the Extended content sit Papers 2 and 4 and are eligible for A* to G. A tutor who does not know which route your child is on cannot plan the right work.

Edexcel's International GCSE works differently: it is untiered, so every candidate sits the same two papers and is graded 9 to 1, with Paper 1 carrying 110 marks and Paper 2 carrying 70.

So the first factual question is not "are you a science tutor?" but "which specification and which papers?" A tutor who asks you that question in the first conversation is a good sign.

Workload matters here too, and it is a decision parents make rather than tutors. As a general guide I would not recommend more than eight IGCSE subjects, or more than three A-levels, in one academic year — it spreads a student's time and effort too thin. More is possible with strong time management and a proper daily routine, but the decision should rest on what your child can manage every day, not on what looks impressive or what someone else's child did. The same care applies to subject choice: pick subjects that support the university course or career your child may want later, and if they are 14 and have no idea yet, choose broadly enough to keep options open. If Chemistry is one of those subjects, the IGCSE Chemistry course follows the current 0620 content point by point.

Online or in person: does it change the result?

The evidence says the medium matters much less than the teaching. The Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit puts one-to-one tuition at around five additional months' progress on average, drawn from 123 studies, and reports that studies involving digital technology show broadly similar effects.

Two findings in that review are more useful to a parent than the headline figure. The first is that secondary-age gains are smaller than primary: about four additional months rather than six. The second is that comparisons between one-to-one and small-group tuition are mixed — in some studies groups of two or three did as well or better, which suggests the quality of teaching enabled by a small group matters more than the precise number in the room. Paying a premium purely for one-to-one is not automatically buying a better outcome.

The review also notes that tuition works better when it is additional to normal lessons and explicitly linked to them, with progress monitored. That is a practical instruction for you: a tutor who never asks what the school is covering this term is running a parallel course, not a support one.

The safeguarding checks most parents skip

The Department for Education is direct about the gap here. Its guidance for parents on tuition and out-of-school activities, updated in February 2026, states that there is no single legal framework governing how clubs and tutors operate, and that their staff are not typically inspected or assessed by any regulatory body.

The guidance sets out what to ask for: a child protection policy, the name of the person responsible for safeguarding and what training they have had, how your child's information is stored and who can see it, and what checks have been run on anyone who will be in the room. For a tutor working alone, it suggests asking whether they have had a Disclosure and Barring Service check and asking to see the evidence; a self-employed person doing regulated work with children can now apply for an enhanced check themselves. Where sessions are one-to-one, the guidance says outright that you may wish to supervise them.

The line worth holding onto is that a well-run provider welcomes these questions. If asking them produces irritation, you have learned something useful for free.

Ten questions to ask before you book

Print this, or keep it open on your phone during the first call. The value is less in the questions than in the shape of the answers.

1. Which specification is my child entered for, and which papers will they sit? Strong: they name the code and the paper numbers, and ask which route the school has chosen. Weak: "Cambridge or Edexcel, they're much the same."
2. How will you find out what my child does not know? Strong: a diagnostic in the first session or two, built from past-paper questions, then a plan. Weak: "We'll work through whatever they're stuck on."
3. How do you use past papers, and when do you start? Strong: from the first topic, not the final term. Weak: past papers saved for revision season. Random past-paper questions can damage a student's confidence — they have to be tied to the topic just taught and matched to the student's current level. Our classified past papers by topic exist for that reason.
4. How do you build up question difficulty? Strong: a ladder — short questions that check basic understanding first, then more detailed ones, then the longer analytical questions. Weak: handing a student the hardest six-mark question straight after teaching the topic.
5. How do you teach the marks, not just the content? Strong: mark schemes, command words, and the specific wording examiners credit. Weak: a promise to "explain it clearly".
6. What will my child do between sessions, and how will you know they did it? Strong: set work with a check the following week. Weak: no homework, or homework never reviewed.
7. How will I know where my child stands? Strong: a regular, specific update — topics covered, marks scored, what is weak. Weak: "They're doing fine."
8. What are your safeguarding arrangements? Strong: an immediate, unbothered answer, evidence of a background check, and no objection to you sitting in.
9. What happens if it isn't working after six or eight sessions? Strong: a named review point and a willingness to say the match is wrong. Weak: a long contract and vague reassurance.
10. What results have you seen with students at my child's starting point? Strong: specific, plausible, and bounded — a starting grade, a finishing grade, a timescale. Weak: a guaranteed grade. Nobody can promise that.

What progress should look like, week by week

Set the review points before you start, not when you are already worried. The EEF's review found that short, regular sessions over a defined period produce the strongest effect, and that progress should be monitored throughout rather than assessed at the end.

Here is a realistic schedule for checking that your money is doing something.

The underlying idea is accountability, and it is not about pressure. It is a three-way system: the student knows what needs to be done, the teacher knows whether it has been done, and the parent knows where the student currently stands. Knowledge is no longer the hard part — a student can find an explanation of any topic in seconds. The hard part is making sure they are progressing, completing enough practice, and that somebody notices early enough when they start to fall behind. Between sessions, a single organised set of notes beats five open tabs; that is what the IGCSE Biology and Chemistry notes eBook is for.

When a tutor isn't what your child needs

Not every problem is a teaching problem, and hourly tuition is an expensive way to solve the ones that are not.

If your child understands the material but freezes on the paper, the missing piece is worked exam technique rather than more explanation — a set of solved past papers showing exactly where each mark is awarded will move them faster than another hour of content.

If they have missed a term through illness or a school move, a structured course that covers the specification in order does the rebuilding job better than a tutor patching gaps week by week.

And if the issue is that nothing gets done between Monday and Friday, no tutor fixes that in an hour. That one is a routine problem, and it belongs to the household before it belongs to a teacher.

If you are not sure which of the three you are dealing with, describe the situation to us on WhatsApp (+965 5137 5709) or at admin@chem-bio.info and we will tell you plainly — including when the answer is that you do not need to buy anything.

FAQ

When should my child start IGCSE tuition? The strongest position is support that runs alongside teaching from the start of the two-year course, because gaps in science subjects compound rather than sit still. Starting in the final term is possible, but you are then choosing which topics to sacrifice.

How many sessions a week does my child need? For most students one focused session a week per subject, with work completed in between, does more than two sessions with nothing in between. The EEF's evidence favours short, regular sessions over a defined period rather than long, occasional ones.

Does the tutor need to have taught my exact exam board? Yes, in practice. Cambridge and Edexcel differ in paper structure, tiering and question style, and a tutor who does not know which one your child sits cannot plan the right practice.

Is online IGCSE tutoring as good as in person? The EEF Toolkit reports broadly similar effects for studies involving digital technology, so the medium is not the deciding factor. What decides it is whether sessions are structured, linked to school lessons and monitored.