Martin Davison

I don’t want to say there’s a set way to write an essay or approach a topic - because there isn’t one in humanities subjects. Every single person’s writing is different and distinctive and exam boards like to see flair and invigilators do not like monotonous essays -especially in English!

If hired I’ll approach each session personally as a process to improve writing and pick up more marks without turning every answer into the same stuff invigilators read day in, day out. As such, as the weeks go on I’ll like to see and set questions long and short for a student to answer and we’ll go through them addressing what works and what doesn’t. This framework will allow for a wider understanding of the subject, but most importantly will help you get valuable marks in exams.

The way to start will be to view the mark scheme for an essay and tailor how we approach writing to that. The first couple weeks will be used to identify where in a student’s answer they’re picking up marks and we’ll figure how to strengthen that before moving onto areas where they’re less strong. This way, there’s a solid foundation and a confidence for the student as we work which is vital for writing. In humanities subjects with short answer questions, such as some Politics exam boards or GCSE History we’ll also spend a portion of the first few sessions to really nail the small marks that add up before focusing solely on the essays.