I like to follow the student and parents lead, using what they believe to be problem areas, wherever possible I use exam-style questions and content to maximise the efficiency of the learning and help the students to gain more exam practice. I believe it is important to learn content in the context of an exam style question to make sure the student is comfortable applying the knowledge in the all important exams. A strong ability to apply content to an exam question minimises the scale of content needed to be memorised, this makes revising much less daunting. Exam skills in one subject also improves this in all of their subjects, which is why I focus so heavily on them. Once students have a strong basis and understanding of answering exam questions they improve grades across the board.

Of course this doesn’t remove the need to revise and memorise potentially difficult content. To approach difficult concepts it is important to find the base level of a students understanding and to explain in more basic terms and work up in complexity, this makes the content more manageable and reduces the stress on the student. Memorising key facts and figures can be a tedious but necessary process for the student to achieve the top grades. To make this easier I actively produce resources with/for the student in their learning style. Finding what works best for them can be a bit of trial and error but it is very beneficial for the student to be aware of how they best memorise content. Personally, I find that colourful flash cards and the “look cover repeat” method to be most effective. This is usually the case for most students, however some respond better to recording voice recordings and relating, creating mind maps for memory and filling in any gaps etc., I think it is extremely important to find and use whatever works best for the student.