Online A Level Chemistry Tutor: 7-Point Checklist Before You Pay

By Hosni — science teacher and author, with more than 20 years teaching Biology and Chemistry, including 16 years teaching to Cambridge and Edexcel mark schemes at A-level. Reviewed against the latest exam-board mark schemes and examiner reports. Published 8 September 2026. Last updated 8 September 2026.

TL;DR: Most families buy one long tutoring session a week. The evidence points the other way: the Education Endowment Foundation finds one-to-one tuition adds about five months' progress, with short, regular sessions linked to normal lessons giving the best results, and online delivery performing much the same as in person. What an online A Level Chemistry tutor must fix is not "chemistry" in general. It is a short list of habits Pearson's own examiners publish after every series, and in one WCH11 series the mean mark was 39.3 out of 80. Use the seven-point checklist below before you pay, and use the table to check the tutor's work at home.

In this post

• What should an online A Level Chemistry tutor fix first?
• Does online tutoring work as well as in person?
• The 7-point checklist before you pay
• How many hours a week does an A Level Chemistry tutor need?
• Mark-losing habits and the question to ask your tutor
• When a tutor is the wrong buy
• What Gulf families should check first
• How do you know it is working after four weeks?
• FAQ

What should an online A Level Chemistry tutor fix first?

A good online A Level Chemistry tutor fixes a short list of habits that cost marks, not "chemistry" as a whole. Pearson publishes that list after every series, and the WCH11 examiner report for January 2023 records a mean mark of 39.3 out of 80, which means the average candidate left half the paper on the table.

Where did those marks go? Not to hard chemistry. The same report says fewer than 25% of candidates scored on a one-mark question asking for a difference between two separation processes. Around 70% scored nothing on ion polarisation. Candidates gave three decimal places straight from the calculator instead of the right number of significant figures. Candidates underlined "include state symbols" and then left them out. This is what we call exam technique, and it is where a tutor earns the fee.

Here is the thing students message me about. Every year, before the course starts, the same four worries arrive on WhatsApp. One, the maths: "I didn't take Maths, and AS Chemistry is full of it." Two, questions that pull from three topics at once. Three, running out of time. Four, the practical unit. None of those four is "I don't understand bonding." All four are habits. That's why the first question to ask any tutor is simple: which of these four will you fix, and how will I see it?

There is a second finding families rarely hear. The EEF's review of 123 tuition studies says short, regular sessions over a set period give the best return, and that tuition must be additional to and linked with normal lessons. The standard purchase, one 60-minute session a week with no link to what school did that week, is the pattern the evidence rates lowest. Keep that in mind when you read the checklist.

Does online tutoring work as well as in person?

Yes, on the evidence. The EEF found studies using digital delivery show broadly similar effects to face-to-face tuition, with one-to-one tuition adding about five months' progress on average and about four months at secondary level.

What makes the online version work? Two things, from my own classes. First, cameras on. I ask surprise questions through the lesson because students drift, and a student who knows a question is coming stays in the lesson. Second, the practical unit. I run the experiments on camera and use simulations, because the mark scheme rewards small details of the method, and a busy school lab does not always make those details clear. Online teaching handles both better than many people expect.

What does not work online is the same thing that does not work in a room: a tutor who explains for an hour and never makes you write an answer.

Private tuition is now normal rather than niche. The Sutton Trust's 2026 polling found 29% of secondary students in England and Wales have had a private tutor, rising to 45% in London. The question is no longer whether to tutor. It is how to buy it well.

The 7-point checklist before you pay

Run these seven checks in the first conversation. A tutor who passes five is worth a trial. A tutor who fails one and three is not, whatever the reviews say.

1. Board and unit match. Ask which paper codes the tutor has taught in the last two years. For Edexcel IAL the answer should name WCH11, WCH12 and WCH13 for AS, and WCH14 to WCH16 for A2. "I teach A Level Chemistry" is not an answer. The Pearson IAL Chemistry qualification page lists the units; check the tutor can name them without looking.
2. Marks papers, not just knows chemistry. Ask how the tutor marks homework. The answer you want is "against the mark scheme, marking point by marking point". Why? Because a PhD in chemistry does not tell you that "temperature" scores zero when the question asked for a difference.
3. A diagnostic first session. The first hour should be a short past-paper section, marked in front of you, not a tour of the periodic table. You should leave that session with a list of the habits to fix.
4. A session pattern that matches the evidence. Shorter and more often beats long and rare. See the next section for the pattern I use.
5. Mark scheme open on screen. Every model answer should be checked live against the board's wording. If the tutor works from memory, marks leak.
6. Progress you can see. Ask what number you will be sent after four weeks. A mark out of 80 on a full past paper is a number. "He's more confident" is not.
7. An exit rule. Agree up front what happens if the number does not move by week six. A tutor who welcomes that question is selling results. One who avoids it is selling hours.

The one question parents never ask, and should: "Which past paper will my child sit under timed conditions, and when?" The answer tells you whether the tutor has a plan or a habit.

How many hours a week does an A Level Chemistry tutor need?

Fewer hours, more often, is the answer the evidence gives. The EEF's optimum pattern is short, regular sessions over a set number of weeks, rather than one long weekly block that runs all year.

Here is how I run it, and why. From September until the October series I teach one class a week, because many students sit a unit in October and need time to solve papers, not sit in more lessons. After the October exams I move to two classes a week. Between classes the rule is fixed: read your notes within 12 hours of the lesson, but not straight after it. Why the gap? Straight after the lesson you are using short-term memory, and that reading is wasted. Leave a few hours, then read for 30 minutes, and the lesson stays.

Some topics need more than a session. I spend about three weeks on the mole and stoichiometry alone, because there is a small mole question hiding inside almost every question on every unit. A tutor who covers moles in one hour and moves on has left marks on every page that follows.

One more thing on hours. Unit 1 takes longer than Units 2 and 3 together, because in Unit 1 you are not only learning the content, you are learning the system: the paper layout, the command words, the timing. That's why I prepare students for Unit 1 alone in January, then Units 2 and 3 for June. Never sit Unit 2 before Unit 1. Unit 2 asks you Unit 1 questions.

Mark-losing habits and the question to ask your tutor

The table below turns the January 2023 WCH11 examiner report into something a parent can use at home. Column one is the habit Pearson's examiners listed. Column two is what a good tutor does about it. Column three is how you check without knowing any chemistry.

Three figures give this table its weight. In June 2025 the A boundary for WCH11 was 64 out of 80, with WCH12 at 60 and WCH13 at 36 out of 50. Boundaries move every series, so I tell students to aim above the published boundary rather than treating one series as a permanent target. The habits in the table can cost marks even when the underlying chemistry is understood.

When a tutor is the wrong buy

A tutor is the wrong buy when the gap is exam technique and the student has not yet solved past papers on their own, because papers plus marked feedback close that gap at a fraction of the cost. Students on forums ask the same question every year: "I got a B at AS, is the jump to an A doable alone?" Often, yes.

Here is what I tell a parent in that position. First, get the content in a structured way: a full IAL AS Chemistry course with live classes, or a self-paced one, so nothing is missing. Second, follow the paper ladder. Start with older papers open book, notes beside you, marking every mistake and recording the topic it came from. Those papers become your map of the syllabus. Third, move to newer full papers, untimed and marked at the end. Finally, reserve the newest available papers for timed mocks. That ladder is the whole method. It is as simple as one plus one.

Get the first two homeworks marked by someone who knows the mark scheme, because early on you will mark your own wrong answers as right. After that you can mark yourself.

If you want to see whether the structured route suits your child before you spend anything, my free AS Chemistry online class runs the first topic exactly the way the paid course does, cameras on, surprise questions included. The IAL Chemistry notes and solved papers eBooks cover the paper ladder above in one place.

When is a tutor the right buy? When the diagnostic session shows a content hole, not a technique hole. Bonding never learnt properly. Organic mechanisms never drawn. Then one-to-one is the fastest fix, and the checklist above tells you how to buy it.

What Gulf families should check first

For families in Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, check that the tutor teaches the exact paper your child will sit. If your child is taking Edexcel IAL, a tutor who has only taught a UK linear A Level may never have opened a WCH paper. Edexcel IAL is modular, with separate units and resit opportunities. That changes the plan, not only the paper.

Three things follow from that. One, the unit order matters. Sit Unit 1 in January and Units 2 and 3 in June, and use October as a repair window for any unit that missed its target. Two, the tutor should know the Section C question on WCH12, the one built from a passage that pulls from several topics and sometimes from Unit 1. Three, ask whether the tutor knows what Unit 3 asks. It is predictable: one organic question, one energetics question, one titration, one identification of ions and gases. A tutor who cannot list those four has not taught it.

If you are choosing a board rather than a tutor, and you are home-schooling, I tell families to choose Edexcel IAL. The units are shorter, the sessions are more frequent, and the resit option is worth more than any single tutor. The IAL AS Chemistry specification breakdown on this site lists the unit codes, marks and timings so you can check what a tutor tells you against the document.

How do you know it is working after four weeks?

You know tutoring is working when a full past-paper mark has moved, not when the student says they feel better about chemistry. The EEF's guidance is to monitor progress and adjust provision, and a mark out of 80 is the only monitor that means anything at A Level.

Here is the four-week test I use. Week one, a diagnostic section of a paper, marked in the session. Weeks two and three, the habits from the table above, one or two per session, with homework marked against the scheme. Week four, a full recent paper, untimed. Compare the mark and the repeated errors with week one. If neither has improved, revise the plan before buying another block of sessions.

After that comes the timed stage. Finish with ten minutes to spare. Some of my students flip the paper: Section B first, because it carries 60 of the 80 marks, then back to the 20 multiple-choice questions. You need to find your own order. What you cannot do is discover in the exam hall that you run out of time.

If you would like a second opinion on a tutor's plan, or on whether your child needs one at all, message me on WhatsApp at +965 5137 5709 or email admin@chem-bio.info. I will tell you which of the four habits I would fix first.

That's all for today. I hope that this was helpful and I wish you all best of luck in your exam.

FAQ

Is online tutoring effective for A Level Chemistry? Yes. The Education Endowment Foundation found digital delivery of one-to-one tuition shows broadly similar effects to in-person tuition, at about four months' extra progress for secondary students.

How much does an online A Level Chemistry tutor cost? Private rates vary widely by country and tutor, so no single figure is honest. For scale, UK schools bought subsidised one-to-one tuition under the National Tutoring Programme at £167 to £180 per pupil for a 15-hour block, with online delivery cheaper than in person.

How many sessions a week does an A Level Chemistry student need? The evidence favours short, regular sessions over one long weekly block. I run one class a week until the October series and two a week after it, with notes re-read within 12 hours of every lesson.

Should I get a tutor or an online course? Get a course if the gap is exam technique and the student has not yet worked through past papers with marked feedback. Get a tutor if a diagnostic session shows a content hole that a course has not closed.