Joseph N
Tutor in St James's, South West London

Hi, I'm a tutor specialising in 13+ scholarship/ CE exams, and 11+ pretests/ interviews. Although I have prepared students for admissions to dozens of boys' and girls' schools, the majority of my students are applying to one of the four top boys' schools - Westminster, St Paul's, Winchester and Eton.

They're hugely competitive schools, but I have a success rate of around double the usual rate, partly because (unlike most tutors) I actually went to one of these four schools, so I know exactly what they're looking for in a candidate - in two words, it's intellectual curiosity. I'd also be keen to work with students aiming at the top girls' schools (St Paul's Girls and Wycombe Abbey come to mind). I have been tutoring since 2000.


13+

Four students of mine have won scholarships to Winchester, Westminster and Eton in the past four years.

I can help prepare for English, Latin and History papers; I also teach essay writing – which covers Geography, Philosophy, and the various General papers some of these schools set.

I also teach every subject at Common Entrance.


11+

I have over the past fifteen years coached boys into Winchester, Westminster, Eton, St Paul’s, Harrow, Tonbridge, Wellington and Charterhouse, among other schools. I teach interview technique, verbal and nonverbal reasoning, Maths, English composition and comprehension.

I’m just as interested in what they’re reading and what they like to do outside class. Reading books and pursuing hobbies are grist to the mill of interview preparation – what does he get excited about, what’s he read recently? – because they give him something to talk about where he’s on familiar territory and can speak with knowledge and confidence.


Approach to tutoring

I am relaxed and laid back in my manner although I ask my students a lot of difficult questions. I’ve been tutoring a long time so I’m quick to identify problems, and ways to solve them. Likewise I take care to look at what they’re already doing right and praise good work fulsomely. I get on well with my students because I treat them with the same respect as I would an adult. The top schools are looking for pupils who are both interested and interesting, and I try to show them that those things are one and the same.


Tutorials at your home (or mine if preferred)

I teach in blocks of two hours, with a break or two, as I’ve found that’s the optimal lesson length for my 11+ students. 13+ scholarship and Common Entrance candidates may prefer to book two consecutive lessons to make up a three hour block, and 11+ and 13+ candidates who live outside London are politely requested to book two consecutive slots.

I teach almost exclusively at weekends and during school holidays and half-terms. In my experience the last thing my students want to see at the end of a hard schoolday is a smiling tutor brandishing folders full of more schoolwork. But I am willing to make exceptions. I also help with homework – learning how to turn a good piece of work into a great one is never a waste of time.


Tutorials via Skype

Skype tutorials can be one or two hours long, depending. They're usually at weekends during termtime, though there's some flexibility on that (any day is fine in holidays and half-terms).

I'm slowly moving towards being a Skype-only tutor (who among us can honestly say they love commuting?), but partly because my Skype tutees have started to be have more successes than those I teach in person. Maybe it's because I smell, and that puts off my in-person threes more than the Skype ones.

But I think it's because my Skype tutees are more likely to do homework if I set it, which is normally just to read an old Eton scholarship exam paper so we can discuss it in the lesson. Six months before an exam I might get them to start writing essays as homework so I can spend our online tutorial praising it and disagreeing with it. But it's never a particularly heavy load, and this would normally be in school holidays when they don't have too many other pressures on their time.


Homework

I love setting homework and I'll mark for free anything one of my students writes if it's typed or scanned and then emailed to me. As I said above, it also makes Skype tutorials much more effective if we can discuss an exam question he or she is already familiar with. All four of my successful scholarship candidates spent at least two hours working alone (but under my direction), for every one hour of tutoring they had. And it's a much more cost-effective way of using me, too.

It's best for us to meet in person before anyone starts talking about homework though, and this approach isn't always appropriate for younger students, or those with heavy academic/ extracurricular workloads.

Everything can be tailored to suit a talented candidate, and their circumstances. Discounts are occasionally given on the basis of the student's potential and need.