A parent calls four weeks before the exam. She has left it late, she knows she has left it late, and she is hoping that intensive means something can still be done.
Something usually can. It is not the course, and saying so is what makes the next four weeks worth paying for.
Step 1: assess before recommending
A diagnostic, even a short one, tells you where the marks are. Four weeks spent on the wrong thing is worse than four weeks spent on nothing, and only an assessment reveals which is which.
Step 2: be honest about what is achievable
A student twenty marks off the boundary with specific gaps is a realistic target. A student who has not covered half the syllabus is not, and pretending otherwise takes money for a disappointment.
Step 3: target the marks, not the syllabus
Four weeks buys work on high-frequency topics, exam technique, timing and the specific errors the student repeats. Attempting full coverage in the time achieves none of it.
Step 4: teach exam technique explicitly
How marks are awarded, how to read a question, what to do when stuck, how to manage time and what to attempt first. This is often worth more in four weeks than any content.
Step 5: use past papers relentlessly
Timed, marked and reviewed. In a compressed window this is the whole method, and it is what distinguishes a crash course from four extra lessons.
Step 6: set realistic independent work
A student who will do two hours a day and one who will do six need different plans. Ask, and build accordingly rather than issuing the same schedule.
Step 7: publish intensive options separately
A named short course with dates, hours and price, rather than asking a panicking parent to work out what suits. Availability matters more than anything in these weeks.
Step 8: be available when they enquire
Late enquiries arrive at night, at weekends and in the days after a disappointing mock. A response on Tuesday has lost four of the remaining days, which is the urgency in test prep enquiries in the weeks before an exam.
Step 9: manage the parent as well as the student
Parents in this position are anxious and that transmits. Explaining the plan, and what a realistic outcome looks like, is as much of the job as the teaching.
Step 10: say no where it is right
A student who needs the next sitting rather than this one should be told. That family will come back earlier next time and will tell others why.
Step 11: plan the next window
Where this sitting is not realistic, offer a proper programme for the next one. It converts a declined booking into a longer engagement.
Step 12: deadline panic is a general pattern
It appears in application deadline questions and last-minute panic, format and schedule details matter as in course format and schedule questions for test prep, and checking your answers against real enquiries is covered in testing your assistant with real past enquiries.
Getting started
Publish your intensive options with dates and honest expectations, then capture exam dates and starting points at any hour. SpideyChat for education providers answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.