Dennis Copp

Firstly, we have to nail down the concepts that your working with, be they political ideologies, economic theories or approaches to studying the content matter. We'll do this by trying to think of examples of said concept in action and practicing being able to explain them fluently in your own words.

This leads us on to the next part of the lesson which will be centred around your knowledge of the period in question and developing that so come exam time you have a litany of examples to draw on for your responses.

By bringing these two aspects of the lesson structure we can then apply what you've learnt to practice questions that we'll run through together to drill in a winning structure that will get you the A* and As (I'm showing my age here, I mean 9s and 8s!).

This might sound simple but a clear and logical lesson format worked for me when I was studying for my GCSEs and A levels and is the best course of action for one to one learning as it creates the continuity needed to develop key skills that will get top marks.