James Wardrobe
Duff Miller, Kensington
Looming exams can bring weeks of springtime stress. But help is at hand. Samantha Laurie explores the rise of the revision course...
In a house of teenagers the phrase Easter holidays has a hollow, oxymoronic ring to it. Revision timetables, dawning panic, stress, anxiety. And that’s just the parents. No surprise then that many are choosing to outsource the misery to the specialists: Easter revision courses for GCSE and A level are booming.
Last year, 950 students walked through the doors of Mander Portman Woodward (MPW) in South Kensington for a week’s intensive revision. This independent sixth form college is one of the biggest specialist providers, running three weeks of courses – divided into 20-hour blocks – throughout the holidays.
“It’s a diagnostic exercise,” explains course director James Barton. “We can’t reteach the syllabus but we can focus in on common trip points and exam techniques, making sure our students understand the nuances of the particular exams they are taking.”
Last year – which saw the end of January A level exam sittings – business soared as the summer exams gained added importance.
“In the past we’d get students wanting to improve a C/D grade,” says Barton. “Now it’s much more likely to be A grade students with an eye on the top universities.”
Most come from private schools. But surely parents who are already paying for the privilege of small classes are reluctant to fork out again?
“If you go to a traditional private school you may be taught chemistry really well, but not necessarily how to get an A*,” suggests Chris Kraft, headmaster at Duff Miller, another Kensington based private sixth form. “In most schools – even the very good ones – the modular nature of A levels means that two years of teaching is squeezed into four terms. That doesn’t leave time to focus on revision and exam technique.”
The attraction of private colleges like Duff Miller is that they specialize in A level teaching – almost all the revision course tutors are teachers at the college, while many are also examiners. But such courses don’t come cheap. Duff Miller charges £600 for a 20-hour course (AS or A2 per subject); £1050 for a full A level (40 hours); £475 for a GCSE subject.
Before you part with your cash, therefore, it’s important to ask a few key questions. Who is the tutor? Is he or she a regular teacher at the college? Will the tuition focus on the exam board your child is sitting?
At A level this last matter is especially crucial, says MPW, which divides its three-week schedule into exam-board specific blocks. For subjects such as English and history, in which different texts or study periods make group revision tricky, it offers text-specific seminars. Other providers offer one-to-one tuition where they cannot bridge the different syllabuses.
Most firmly established in the field is probably Justin Craig, a tuition specialist that brings in full-time teachers for three-day revision courses at schools including Surbiton High, Guildford County School, City of London Freemen’s School in Ashtead and Queen Anne’s School in Reading.
At Justin Craig, tutors talk to students beforehand to discern their weak points and possible gaps in their knowledge. The aim is to build confidence and provide a more exciting adult learning environment, says Max Rice, sales manager at the firm.
“Away from their regular peer group many students are more comfortable asking questions and engaging with the teacher,” he explains.
Groups number five or six on average, and no more than nine, while many venues offer a shorter residential course of just two days instead of three.
There’s little real gauge of success – anecdotally, tutors suggest that students can improve by roughly one and a half grades. But it doesn’t suit all – those struggling with the subject, or who have missed school, would be better off with private tuition, advises the Council for Independent Education, which gives up-to-date guidance on all revision courses offered by private sixth forms (see cife.org.uk).
For parents, courses provide the guarantee of dedicated revision time for their children away from the distractions of technology. For those unsure, short one-day courses offer a good insight into how your child will fare.
Revision At Caterham, a private tuition firm, runs one-day courses (£135) at Caterham School, delivered mostly by the school’s teachers over the Easter break. Now in their fourth year, these are especially popular with GCSE students seeking support in maths and sciences. Justin Craig also runs one-day revision courses at February half-term, as well as pre-exam day courses in May and June.
As the A level world heads for major restructuring, such courses are set to proliferate. They may not replace hard graft and a purposeful revision programme, but at least they can allay the suspicion that the only things going down in that bedroom this Easter are
a lot of Facebook chat and a tonne of chocolate eggs.
