About the author, Private Tutoring & Essay Marking

About the author

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Background and private tutoring information

Joe Livingstone

Bachelor’s degree from the University of York.
Master’s degree from King’s College London, both in Philosophy.
Examiner for OCR Religious Studies.
10 years experience.

Highly specialized. I only teach the Philosophy (AQA) and religious studies A levels (OCR, AQA, Edexcel & Wjec/Eduqas).

Highly motivated – I want to be the best tutor in my two subjects!

Staying on track. I know how well a student needs to be doing at each point over the A level course to be on track for their target grade. I make sure they are either on track or know what they have to do to get on track.

Essay practice focused. I devote a lot of time to essay skills. Not understanding how to do essays can really let students down. The truth is, if essay technique is bad, it’s possible to know all of the information in the textbook perfectly and yet still only get a C grade.

A great advantage of tutoring over school teaching is the opportunity to give students much more feedback on essays and guide their improvement over time.

Organisation: connecting teaching & revision. I find that many students benefit from help with organization. My goal is not just to deliver effective lessons, but set students up for efficient and structured homework, essay practice and revision. During lessons, I break a topic down into an essay and revision orientated form. Once I’m finished teaching a topic to student, they will have a clear understanding of how it divides into parts/paragraphs. They will see how to arrange them in an essay to suit all potential exam questions and it makes revising the topics much easier too. I’ve seen astounding results with this method. It takes hard work and dedication, but it really works.

I love philosophy, but I also love figuring out how to efficiently organise the A level content in a way which enables structured revision and prepares students for the exam. This method is also the focus of the revision notes on my website.

I have a very flexible and relaxed timetable. I don’t charge students for cancelling or even missing lessons unless it becomes a repeat issue, and you can arrange as many or as few lessons with me as you like. This approach feels more positive and relaxed to me.

Although I’m very focused on my student’s grades and improvement, I am also friendly, relaxed, have infinite patience and I am even moderately entertaining!

£60/hour for online private tutoring.

NOTE: I am full on students until after the 2023 summer exams. If you are currently in year 12 and interested in starting tutoring over the summer or in september then you can contact me here:

joelivingstonetutor@outlook.com

For lessons I use zoom and ask for payment by bank transfer. I ask that you pay me before the lesson.