APD Tutors / A-Level Physics
A-Level Physics Tutor
One-to-one A-level Physics tutoring from a tutor who sat the same papers and got an A*. Physics is where students who understand the ideas still lose marks on the maths and the practicals. That is what we fix.
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Where A-level Physics marks actually go
Physics carries more maths than any other A-level science, and that is where the grades move. A student can explain a concept in words and still lose the marks because the calculation, the units or the graph let them down. Marks concentrate in a few areas.
- The maths. Rearranging equations, standard form, and significant figures and units carried correctly through every calculation.
- Required practicals. Examined inside the written papers and through a separate practical endorsement your child has to pass.
- The harder concepts. Fields, capacitance, simple harmonic motion and nuclear physics, where "explain" questions want precise reasoning rather than a definition.
How the papers are structured
A-level Physics is three written papers with every major board: AQA, OCR, Edexcel and Eduqas, and most include an options topic chosen by the school. Practical skills are assessed two ways: inside the written papers, and through a practical endorsement reported alongside the grade. Roughly two-fifths of the marks assess maths, more than in Chemistry or Biology, so a student who is shaky on the calculations is capped before they start. The options topic varies by school, from astrophysics to medical physics to turning points in physics, and it is examined in the third paper, so we drill the one your child's school actually chose rather than all of them. The equations students are expected to recall, not the ones on the data sheet, are usually the ones they skip in revision.
Where good students still lose grades
Understanding the physics is not the same as scoring it. The marks go on precision and exam habits, and both are coachable.
- Units and significant figures. Easy marks dropped by leaving off a unit or rounding too early.
- Uncertainties. Error and uncertainty questions are predictable and routinely skipped in revision.
- Graphs. Gradients, areas under a line and log graphs carry marks students leave on the table.
- Naming the physics. "Explain" questions need the principle stated, not just described in loose words.
Year 13 is where Physics grades slip
The first year builds confidence: mechanics, materials and electricity reward students who worked hard at GCSE. The second year is where it gets hard. Fields, capacitance, simple harmonic motion and nuclear physics are more abstract, more mathematical, and they arrive at the same time as coursework and every other subject. Students who coasted through Year 12 often meet their first real setback here, and by then the exam is close. We keep the maths sharp from the start and treat the harder Year 13 topics as the main event, not an afterthought, so your child is not learning fields from scratch in the run-up to the paper.
What we actually do
Every student starts with a diagnosis: current grade, target grade, exam board, and the specific topics leaking marks. From there the work is deliberate.
- Daily one-to-one tutoring, up to 5 hours a week, on the topics that actually move the grade.
- Predicted papers and exam questions written to sit at the difficulty of this year's real paper.
- Marked mock exams with examiner-style feedback, so the first full paper your child sits is not in the exam hall.
Emil, one of our founders, tutors Physics and got all A* at A-level. Your child works with someone who sat the same papers recently, not eight years ago.
92% of our students achieve A or A*. On average they move up two grades.
Related subjects
Many of our Physics students take one of these alongside it. We cover all six on the same programme.