How to Become a GCSE Maths Tutor

As a compulsory subject taken by every student in the UK, maths is a highly in-demand subject that you can start tutoring. Whether you’re looking for full-time work or just want to supplement your income with a part-time gig, tutoring can be a wonderful way to make some extra money.

If you’ve got a solid foundation in mathematics, then you’ll be an ideal candidate to jump into the world of tutoring. In this article, we’ll be walking you through exactly how to become a GCSE Maths tutor.

What Qualifications Do I Need to Become a GCSE Maths Tutor?

The lowest standard for tutoring a subject is to have a qualification that is one above what you’ll be teaching. For GCSE, that means you should have an A-level in maths, with either an A or an A* setting you up for the best standing.

This continues onwards towards A-level, with most tutors either having a degree in maths or currently pursuing one. When looking for a maths GCSE tutor, students and parents will look for those that got top marks in both A-level and GCSE maths.

Apart from that, there are no set qualifications for becoming a GCSE maths tutor, but it always helps if you’ve got a background in teaching or education and are a great communicator.

How Do I Become a GCSE Maths Tutor?

When starting out as a GCSE maths tutor, there are three main elements that you should focus on which will set you up nicely for the future. These are:

• Learn the Exam Boards
• Create Question Sets
• Choose a Path

Let’s break these down further.

Learn the Exam Boards

Even if you’ve been studying maths for years, when you decide to become a tutor, you’ll likely have to brush up on the various exam boards that your students could potentially sit. While you could decide to only tutor the exam papers that you once sat yourself, this significantly limits the number of students you’re able to work with.

We recommend that you always spend some time brushing up on the major three GCSE Maths exam boards that are offered in the UK:

• Edexcel
• AQA
• OCR

By moving through these exam board specifications, you’ll be able to build up an understanding of which mathematical skills are tested in each exam. There will likely be a lot of cross over, but it’s always a good idea to familiarize yourself with the sort of questions that will be asked within the different exams.

Source.

Create Question Sets

Apart from learning formulas and how certain questions should be approached, a large part of improving your score in GCSE maths is about practising. Due to this, when a student approaches you, you’ll likely have to walk them through several sets of similar questions to test and develop their understanding.

While you could come up with questions on the spot, we recommend that you create a bank of potential questions for different topics that could come up. This means that whenever you’re going to work on a specific topic with a student, you’re able to pull up your question bank and work through a range of difficulties within the specific skill.

Also, by accessing past papers from a range of exam boards, you’re able to pull questions from previous exams, making your practice sessions even more realistic.

Choose a Path

Not all GCSE and IGCSE Maths tutors take the same path when it comes to delivering their lessons. While some teach in-person, an increasing number of tutors have been turning to online tutoring since the pandemic. Considering that over $18 billion USD was invested in online learning technology in 2019, this comes as no surprise.

When starting as a GCSE Maths tutor, there are two pathways you can choose from:

• Local Clients
• Online Clients

Let’s move through the differences between these two potential career paths.

Tutoring Locally

Creating a local base of students that you regularly tutor is a fairly difficult feat to achieve. Not only do you need to take care of marketing your tutoring services, but you also have to commute to different students, which could eat up the available hours you have in your day.

That said, if you want to tutor locally, we recommend putting up some marketing materials in local coffee shops, or in schools in your town if you get permission.

Due to how much more difficult it is to establish yourself locally, many budding tutors turn to online tutoring.

Tutoring Online

By using top online tutoring services like TutorChase, you’re able to sign up to be an online GCSE Maths tutor. After going through the recruitment process and demonstrating that you have the correct qualifications, background, and passion, you’re then able to start online tutoring.

There are several benefits of being an online tutor when compared to local tutoring:

• Wider Client Base - When working as an online GCSE maths tutor through an established network, you instantly get access to thousands of students around the UK. This boosts your tutoring range, not having to only work with local students.
• No Geographical Constraints - One frustrating part of local tutoring is the time that it takes you to actually commute to a student’s house. Considering that this is unpaid time, if you have multiple students in a day, you could be losing upwards of an hour of your time. But, when working as an online GCSE maths tutor, you’re able to tutor from the comfort of your home, eliminating the time it takes to travel and ensuring that geographical constraints never come into it.
• Technical Tools - By using an online lesson space, you have direct access to the wealth of online tutoring tools that are available. From saving lessons to Google Drive or Dropbox to being able to pull up a past paper question after one simply Google, there are a range of ways to take advantage of being online

That’s not to mention how much nicer it is to work from home, only having to roll out of bed before a morning lesson.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking to take the leap and become a GCSE tutor, then why not put in a tutor application for TutorChase. As one of the UK’s leading tutoring services, you’ll be able to get access to a wide network of parents and students looking for extra help with their Maths GCSE. With resources like GCSE Maths Q&A Revision Notes, you'll have the tools you need to help your students succeed.

Best of luck on your journey to becoming a maths tutor!