A tutor starts work with a student on a topic the parent mentioned. Four weeks in it emerges that the school entered the class for a different specification, and a third of what has been covered is not on it.
Nobody was careless. The tutor asked what subject, and nobody asked what specification.
1. Ask for the specification, not the subject
Subject, level, board and specification code. The code is the only unambiguous version and it sits on the front of the exercise book.
2. Ask for a photograph rather than a name
Parents misremember board names constantly. A photograph of a textbook cover, a report or an assessment sheet settles it in seconds.
3. Establish the tier or route
Higher or foundation, and any optional units. This changes both the content and what a realistic target grade actually is.
4. Ask about coursework and non exam assessment
Where a component is already complete or partly complete, the remaining work changes entirely and so does what tuition should focus on.
5. Find out the exam series
Which session the student sits, and whether any units have already been taken. Resits and staged entries are common and rarely volunteered.
6. Check whether the school has changed anything
Specifications get updated and schools switch boards between cohorts. Last year's answer is not necessarily this year's.
7. Ask what the school has already covered
Teaching order varies between schools on the same specification, and tuition that runs ahead of the class can confuse rather than help.
8. Get the target and predicted grades
The gap between them tells you what kind of work this is, and whether the honest answer is a tier conversation with the school rather than tuition.
9. Obtain the past paper position
Which papers the school has used already, since using them again in tuition wastes the most valuable practice material available.
9b. Ask which resources the school has issued
Revision guides, online platforms and workbooks provided by the school shape what a student is used to. Working from the same materials rather than introducing a parallel set keeps tuition reinforcing the classroom instead of quietly competing with it.
9c. Check whether access arrangements apply
Extra time, a reader or a scribe change how a student should practise, and many parents do not mention arrangements because they think of them as a school matter. Knowing early means practice papers are done under the conditions the student will actually sit.
10. Match the tutor to the specification
A tutor who knows the board is materially more effective, which is the fit problem examined in tutor matching questions and getting the fit right.
11. Be honest when the timeline is short
A student arriving eight weeks before an exam on the wrong tier needs a frank conversation, handled in the manner described in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot.
12. Set the session count against the specification
How much content remains determines the block length, which connects to tutoring package and block booking questions.
13. Apply the same rigour to adult qualifications
Professional and vocational courses have the same specification problem, as covered in exam preparation course questions from learners.
14. Collect all of it at enquiry
An assistant that asks the subject, level, board, tier, exam series and target grade, and requests a photograph of the exercise book, delivers a first session that starts on the correct specification. See features.
15. What checking first actually saves
A term of tuition on content that will never be assessed. Start at try, and the sector view sits under education.