Online GCSE Tutoring in Kingsbury
One-to-one lessons for Year 10, Year 11 and resit students, £30 per lesson
Online GCSE tutoring in Kingsbury across every subject we teach. Most maths revision treats every topic as equally worth revising. The exam does not. The proportions are set nationally, they are published, and they differ sharply between the two tiers.
Knowing them changes what a short revision run should contain, and it is the difference between a student spending February on the topic they find most interesting and spending it on the topic carrying the most marks.
The first session is free and it is a real lesson. Bring a marked maths paper and we will look at where the lost marks sit against the weightings.
What Kingsbury families ask
- Which topics carry the most marks.
- Whether the balance differs by exam board.
- How Foundation and Higher differ.
- What to revise when time is short.
- Whether small topics can be dropped.
Where are the marks in GCSE maths?
In different places depending on the tier, and in proportions that are prescribed rather than left to the exam board.
The Department for Education publishes the subject content and assessment objectives that every GCSE maths specification is built from, and the balance between content areas is set nationally rather than chosen by each board. That is worth knowing on its own: a family worrying about which board their child sits is worrying about the wrong variable, at least as far as content proportions go.
At Foundation tier the paper leans on Number and on Ratio, proportion and rates of change. Between them those two areas account for around half of the marks, which makes percentages, fractions, proportion and rates the single highest-value revision a Foundation student can do.
At Higher tier the weight moves decisively into Algebra, which becomes the largest single area at roughly thirty per cent, while Number drops to around fifteen. The number work has not disappeared; it is embedded inside harder questions rather than examined on its own, which is why a Higher student who is shaky on fractions loses marks in algebra without ever meeting a question labelled fractions.
The practical consequence is that the same student revising the same subject should revise differently depending on which paper they are entered for.
Approximate content weightings
| Content area | Foundation | Higher |
|---|---|---|
| Number | 25% | 15% |
| Algebra | 20% | 30% |
| Ratio, proportion and rates of change | 25% | 20% |
| Geometry and measures | 15% | 20% |
| Probability and Statistics | 15% | 15% |
Set nationally and the same across boards. Boards describe them as approximate.
How should that change what gets revised?
By weighting the time the way the paper weights the marks, which is a duller plan than most students want and a more effective one.
For a Higher student with six weeks, algebra is worth roughly twice what probability and statistics is worth. That does not make statistics worthless, and it does mean an evening spent on tree diagrams and an evening spent on simultaneous equations are not equivalent purchases of time.
For a Foundation student the picture inverts. Number and ratio dominate, and the good news is that they are the areas where a student most likely already has partial knowledge from earlier years. Securing percentages, fractions and proportion moves more marks, faster, than anything else available at that tier.
There is a second reason to weight this way that has nothing to do with the arithmetic. The big areas are the ones other topics are built from. Algebra sits underneath rearranging formulae in physics, underneath graph work, underneath large parts of geometry. Time spent there pays twice.
What this is not is permission to abandon a whole area. A student who drops geometry entirely at Higher has written off a fifth of the paper, which is a bigger sacrifice than it sounds when grade boundaries sit where they do. Our Stanmore page covers how those boundaries are set.
Where to start, by tier
- Foundation: percentages, fractions and proportion first.
- Foundation: then ratio and rates of change.
- Higher: algebraic manipulation before anything else.
- Higher: then graphs and geometry together.
- Either: never abandon a whole content area.
How do you find which part of a big area is broken?
By working backwards through the method rather than by topic name, because the failure is usually one step down from where it appears.
A student who cannot solve simultaneous equations may have no problem with simultaneous equations. They may be unable to rearrange an equation reliably, or to handle a negative correctly when multiplying through, and the topic named on the report is simply the first place that older weakness became visible.
This is why marking a paper by topic can mislead. Six lost marks spread across four different algebra questions often come from one broken step appearing four times, and fixing that step fixes all four. Six lost marks in one topic and nowhere else is a different problem and a smaller one.
The way to tell is to watch the working rather than the answers. Where does the pen stop, and what was the last line written before it went wrong? That is the question a one-to-one lesson can answer in twenty minutes and a marked paper cannot answer at all.
Steps that break underneath everything
- Handling negatives in multiplication and division.
- Rearranging an equation with the unknown on both sides.
- Converting between fractions, decimals and percentages.
- Substituting into a formula accurately.
- Reading a scale that does not go up in ones.
Which GCSE subjects can your child get help with?
The whole list below, with a specialist for each.
Maths
Foundation and Higher, revised in proportion to where the marks are. See GCSE Maths tutoring.
English Language and Literature
Both GCSEs, set texts included. See GCSE English tutoring.
Combined and Triple Science
Where algebra quietly reappears as rearranging formulae. See GCSE Science tutoring.
Computer Science
Programming and the written papers. See GCSE Computer Science tutoring.
Business Studies
Calculations as well as evaluation marks. See GCSE Business Studies tutoring.
Humanities
History, Geography and Religious Studies, when a specialist has room.
Does this help with a maths resit?
More than almost anything else, because a resit is short and weighting the time is how a short run gets used well.
A November resit gives about ten weeks. Covering the whole specification in that time is not realistic and attempting it is why so many resit courses produce the same grade twice. Weighting the run towards Number and ratio at Foundation, where most resit students sit, concentrates the effort where the marks are.
The 16 to 19 maths and English condition of funding, updated in July 2026, requires maths to continue after Year 11 where grade 4 was missed. A grade 3 leads to a GCSE entry; grade 2 or below allows Functional Skills level 2 instead.
Most resit students are entered at Foundation, where grade 5 is the ceiling and grade 4 is the target. That is a very reachable target with the right ten weeks, and a very unreachable one with the wrong ones.
Ten weeks, weighted
- November covers Maths and English Language.
- Foundation caps at grade 5, which is usually enough.
- Number and ratio carry about half the paper.
- The centre decides the tier and the entry.
See GCSE resit tutoring and the exam dates page.
How does an online lesson run?
Video, a shared whiteboard, and handwritten working the tutor can follow line by line.
Send a marked maths paper
Or just tell us the tier.
Free one-to-one session
A real lesson, no card details taken.
Find the broken step, not the topic
Usually one step under the symptom.
Weight the plan to the paper
Biggest areas first.
Reviewed at six weeks
Against marked questions.
The full process is on how it works. Where a school is an academy it publishes its own calendar, and for everything else the gov.uk term dates finder leads to the right council.
What does a GCSE tutor in Kingsbury cost?
One to one at £30, the same for Foundation and for Higher.
There is no premium for Higher tier and no separate rate for resit students, which is worth checking when comparing quotes.
An hourly rate somewhere else needs a lesson length attached before it means anything. Our guide to GCSE tutoring costs sets out the market.
What £30 covers
- A full one-to-one lesson with a subject specialist.
- A revision order weighted to where the marks are.
- Attention to the step underneath the topic.
- Work matched to the tier your child is entered for.
- A tutor change if the match is wrong.
Tell us the tier and the last mark
Those two are enough to draft a weighted plan. We reply during the day.
- Year group and tier, if it is decided.
- The most recent maths mark or grade.
- Which topics feel worst.
- When the next assessment falls.
- Days and times that work at home.
Prefer to talk it through? WhatsApp us, or use the contact page.
Send an enquiry
Frequently asked questions
Which maths topics carry the most marks?
It depends on the tier. At Foundation, Number and Ratio between them account for about half the paper. At Higher, Algebra is the largest single area at roughly thirty per cent.
Are the weightings the same for every exam board?
Yes. They are prescribed rather than chosen, so AQA, Edexcel and OCR all examine the same balance of content. The questions differ; the proportions do not.
Does that mean we should ignore the small topics?
No, but it does mean an hour spent on algebra at Higher is worth about twice an hour spent on probability. When time is short, weight the revision the way the paper is weighted.
Why does Number drop so much at Higher tier?
Because the Higher paper is aimed at grades 4 to 9, and the marks move into algebra and geometry. The number work is still there; it is embedded in harder questions rather than examined on its own.
Is this a reason to choose one tier over the other?
Not on its own. The tier decision is about which grades are reachable, and the school makes it. But knowing the weightings tells you what a student is about to face either way.
Which GCSE subjects do you cover?
Maths at both tiers, English Language and English Literature, Combined or Triple Science, Computer Science and Business Studies, plus humanities subject to cover.
What does it cost?
£30 a lesson, one to one, at either tier.
Do you have a tuition centre in Kingsbury?
No. Online only, with the company registered in Feltham rather than locally.
Book a free GCSE session for your child in Kingsbury
One free one-to-one session, no card details and no obligation. Send a marked maths paper with the enquiry and the tutor will have mapped the lost marks against the weightings before the lesson starts.