GCSE Maths Tutor.

Every GCSE maths student sits one of two tiers, and the tier decides which grades are possible before a single question is answered. Schools make the final entry, usually in February or March of Year 11, so there is time to change it — but only with evidence.

Higher adds topics foundation never covers — the quadratic formula, sine and cosine rules, iteration, vectors, algebraic proof. A comfortable 5 on foundation beats a panicked 3 on higher, and a capable student parked on foundation loses the 6 they had in them. Our guide to choosing a tier walks through the decision, and a tutor will give you a straight recommendation after the first few lessons, with reasons you can take to the school.

The first lesson is a diagnosis. The tutor sets a short mixed paper, shares it on screen and watches your child work on a shared whiteboard — where they hesitate, which topics they skip, whether marks are going on the maths itself or on reading the question. It usually turns out that two or three areas are doing most of the damage: algebra that was never quite secured in Year 9, ratio and proportion, or the multi-step problems that sit near the end of every paper.

Afterwards you get a plain summary: what your child can already do, what is holding the grade down, and roughly how long it will take to fix. The lesson is recorded, so you can watch the part that matters and your child can go back over a method instead of trying to remember it.

Tell us the board, the tier, the grade your child is on and the grade they need, and when the exam is — this summer, or a November resit. Within 24 hours we come back with tutors who teach that specification and have taken students across that particular gap. A tutor who is brilliant at stretching a 7 into a 9 is not automatically the right person to secure a 4, and the other way round.

Then you meet them, free, as many as you like until one clicks. Ask what they would do in the first month, how they use past papers, and how they will show you it is working. Our guide to choosing a GCSE maths tutor has the questions worth asking.

Most GCSE maths tutoring happens here: a student with gaps going back years, low confidence, and an exam in months. The plan is triage. Work out which topics are worth the most marks on your child's papers — number, ratio, the core algebra, the predictable questions that come up every year — and make those watertight before touching anything exotic. Foundation and higher papers share their grade 4 and 5 questions, so this is the same work whichever tier your child sits.

A grade 3 is usually closer to a 4 than it feels — often a question or two per paper. Our guide to the topics students most often get wrong is a good place to start, and this step-by-step revision plan turns it into a weekly routine.

At the top end the problem changes. These students know the content; they lose marks on multi-step problems, unfamiliar framings and the final questions on each paper, which are written to separate a 7 from a 9. Tutoring here is about reasoning under pressure: spotting which tool a wordy question is really asking for, laying out working so method marks survive a slip, and practising the topics grade 9 papers lean on — proof, vectors, functions, circle theorems.

It matters beyond the certificate. Most sixth forms ask for at least a 7 to take A-level maths, and some want an 8, because the jump from GCSE is steep. Our guides to moving from a 4 to a 7 and sixth-form entry grades set out what it takes.

Most schools hold Year 11 mocks between November and January, and those results are the evidence behind tier entries in February or March. The exams themselves come in May and June — three papers of 1 hour 30 minutes each, one of them without a calculator — and results arrive in late August. Starting in September of Year 11 gives two full terms; starting after mocks is later, but still enough to move a grade with a focused plan.

If the grade 4 doesn't come, the rules change after Year 11. Under-18s staying in full-time education with a grade 3 have to resit GCSE maths; with a 2 or below, Functional Skills Level 2 is an alternative. Students aged 16 or over can resit in November: for 2026, entries close on 4 October, the maths papers are on 4, 6 and 9 November, and results come out on 14 January. Our November resit guide covers how to enter, and what a grade 3 actually means explains the options.

Lessons run from £18 an hour, pay as you go, with no contracts, no registration fee and no minimum block. Tutors set their own rates, from £18 to £40 an hour, according to experience and specialism. You are paying for a specialist hour planned around your child's specific gaps, plus the recording and the tutor's notes.

A group revision class costs less per hour and suits a student who is broadly on track. What it cannot do is spend four weeks on ratio because ratio is what is costing your child a grade. One-to-one is the more expensive hour and often the cheaper route to the grade. Cancel free up to 24 hours before a lesson, and stop whenever you like. Our tutor cost guide compares the options.