Transformative tuition at GCSE/IB/Alevel/Oxbridge entrance/BA/MA/PhD. Qualified teacher. ExaminerAQA-IB-OCR-CIE. 20yrs Cambridge/Manchester admissions tutor.

Find out more about Leif

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  History, politics, geography, sociology have been my passions since sixth form, even before. I never intended to do any more study after uni, but ended up doing a masters, a doctorate. This finally turned into being a lecturer at Cambridge and Manchester Unis, and I TAUGHT these subjects - and that turned into advising exam boards on them, which led to training teachers, which led to teaching in a school, and that turned into…tutoring!

• Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  I love teaching any aspect of history and geography (but with a large portion of politics and sociology thrown in!). The basic questions will engage anyone: what did these people do? Why did they do it? What were the consequences of that? And in geography, you ask: where are people living? How do they live there? What does their future hold?
  
  Those questions underpin every great novel, movie or TV series. And these subjects have infinite variety.
  
  Finally, writing essays might look ‘just academic.’ But one day, your boss will ask you: ’Should we do this? Or that? Invest here, or there? Change our supplier, or keep them?’ The answer to more or less every important real-life question will come from doing what a historian, geographer, political scientist or sociologist will do: gather lots of contradictory information, evaluate it, and make an argument/take a decision.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  Mr Woodberry totally changed my academic outlook. I was a really mediocre high school student. But he took everything I said seriously (which often showed up how dumb I was!), and asked a follow-up question. And then another…and then another. Soon, I was deep into the biggest puzzle in humanity! Why do people do what they do?

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor

  Great tutors need to be able to give ACTIONABLE advice. So many teachers/tutors say things like, ‘Your argument needs to be tighter.’ What does that even mean? But, ‘You need to use the language of the question in the first line of every paragraph,’ - people can DO that.
  
  ​This means tutors should give feedFORWARD not feedBACK. The next essay won’t be on the topic of the last essay, so ’You should have mentioned…’ is probably not much use. But, ‘In future, when planning an essay, make sure you have 3 specific examples in each paragraph,’ - people can DO that. And they can see if they’ve done it themselves.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  At the end of my first term at uni, we had ‘mocks’ for our end-of-year exams. My feedback was, ’There is no way I can mark this or even comment upon it.’ This felt like a slap! It was a hard message to hear - but I learnt from it. My tutor took the time to explain that I was being vague about evidence, but over-assertive about arguments. Both are major errors! It took a lot of work, but… that tough advice made doing well in exams possible. Without it, I’d have failed.

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  These subjects are infinite. History, geography, politics, sociology - you can never know everything about every time, place, political system, society. This can make the subjects seem overwhelming, or like a giant deluge of pointless facts. But… when exploring these times, places, ideas, societies, explorers who’ve been there before you have made maps… Use the maps! They will turn ‘getting lost’ into ‘going on an adventure.’

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  I am an edugeek. I read evidence about what works in education, proper evidence, not "old teachers’ favourite anecdotes.” And I action that evidence in a lot of schools consultancy, teacher training, and tutoring. A lot of teachers (and some students!) are freaked out by genuine evidence, because it means they need to change what they do. But there are so many myths about education and learning, and they do so much damage. Just follow the evidence...

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions :-P) ?

  There aren’t many people in the planet who’ve been uni professors at globally recognised unis, advised the exam boards on how to organise their courses/questions, trained teachers, worked as a classroom teacher and got absolutely outstanding grades, and worked as examiners and moderators for IB, AQA, OCR and CIE. I’ve lived a lucky and varied life, and it’s meant that I know more than most about every aspect of (i)GCSEs, A-levels, IB, university entrance, and being an undergraduate. It’s a pretty unique skillset!