Hi, I'm Brandon — I'm a medical student and Biomedical Science graduate that tutors GCSE Biology and Chemistry.
You're busy and I don't like self-promotion, so here's the summary: previous students have found sessions useful and enjoyable, they finished more confident and knowledgeable than when they started, and many improve their grades.
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I started tutoring in my first year of medical school. It was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Working with someone to find and patch gaps in their knowledge is, it turns out, an engaging challenge.
I found that my teaching style aligns with my personality: friendly and relaxed with a smattering of dry humour.
I enjoy teaching collaboratively with a liberal use of drawings and mind maps and scribbles. I encourage trial and error, playing around with ideas, and learning through mistakes. I do not enjoy lecturing.
Six example scribbles
My personal preoccupation with metacognition and study techniques — from which I'm recovering — bleeds through into my tutoring. I make it my mission to (gradually) quash ineffective revision strategies and replace them with more effective methods.
Studying for hours and hours and hours is not the goal. Fun is important, too.
I'm also happy to talk about the non-academic aspects of exams like procrastination, anxiety, and low confidence. GCSEs are the first 'big' exams and can elicit a lot of stress. This deserves to be addressed.
Ultimately, I want you to succeed and I'll do my best to help you meet your goals. I provide as much support as I reasonably can (but will not be answering questions about photosynthesis at 3am).
I charge £20 per hour for online sessions. I tend to see people once per week, sometimes more as exams close in.
If you'd like a chat, please use the form below or email [email protected].
An inventive email, I know.
Frequently asked questions
Why do you tutor?
I started for money but realised it's interesting to see how different people learn, satisfying to find their of strength and weaknesses, and fun to help them figure things out!
(and it funds my tea habit)
What's your academic background?
In college, I took A-levels in Chemistry, Biology, Computing, and Maths achieving all A*s and an average of 95% in my second year exams.
I then studied Biomedical Science at King's College London, graduating with a 1st class degree. My final years focused on immunology; mainly research on immune dysregulation in liver disease.
Now, I'm a 5th-year medical student playing "how high can the student loans go?!".
What do you use to tutor online?
At the moment, I use LessonSpace. It's a shared whiteboard which lets us collaboratively scribble and figure things out.
If there's a problem with using LessonSpace, I revert to using Whereby and sharing my iPad screen.
What are sessions like?
The actual structure of sessions differs. It strongly depends on the person. Sometimes I teach topics from scratch, sometimes we review difficult areas encountered between sessions, sometimes we trundle through exam papers. Although varied, sessions are always designed for efficacy.
Do you have teaching qualifications?
I do not have any formal teaching qualifications.
Do you have a DBS certificate?
Yes, I have an enhanced DBS.