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In our experience a live online lesson covers what an in-person one does for most GCSE and A-Level work: the tutor and student see each other, write on the same page and talk it through. What changes is who you can choose, since the tutor no longer has to live nearby, and that nobody travels. A tutor in the room can suit a younger child who finds a screen hard to settle in front of, or a subject that needs equipment on the table.
Lessons run in the browser with live video both ways, a shared whiteboard either of you can draw on, with proper maths notation, and screen sharing for going through a past paper. A photo of a worksheet or a page of a paper can go on the whiteboard for both of you to write on. Nothing needs installing, and it works on a laptop, tablet or phone.
After a lesson the room and its whiteboard stay open for 30 days, so your child can go back over the working, and any written report from the tutor stays on the lessons page after that.
The biggest difference is choice. A family in a small town is no longer limited to whoever lives within driving distance, which matters most for something specialist, such as an admissions test, an Oxbridge interview or an exam board few local tutors know. Nobody loses an hour to travel either, so a shorter lesson on a school night becomes practical.
It is also easier to keep an eye on. Messages stay on the platform, where a parent who looks after a child’s lessons can read them, and you can sit in the room during a lesson without being in the tutor’s way.
Some children, often younger ones, find it harder to settle in front of a screen, and a first lesson online can feel stranger than a tutor at the kitchen table. A practical subject that needs equipment, such as a science practical or an instrument, is harder to teach through a camera, and a child who needs somebody beside them to stay on task may do better with that.
The free 15-minute introduction is a way to find out which of these applies to your child before paying for anything.
A quiet room, a reasonable internet connection and headphones with a microphone make more difference than the device. A laptop or tablet is easier than a phone for writing on the whiteboard, and a stylus brings maths on a tablet much closer to paper. It is worth trying the camera and microphone before the first lesson rather than during it.
We do not know of a way to answer that for every child, and we would be wary of anybody who says they can. What decides it is mostly the tutor and what the student does between lessons, and the free introduction lets you try an online lesson before paying for one.
No. Every lesson is online, in the browser, which is what lets a tutor teach a student anywhere and keeps every message and lesson on the platform where there is a record.
There is no fixed age; it depends on the child. Under 13, a parent or guardian creates the account and looks after it, and for a younger child shorter lessons, with a parent in the room for the first few, usually help.
Yes, lessons work on a phone, but writing maths on a small screen is fiddly. A tablet or a laptop is easier, and a stylus makes the whiteboard much closer to working on paper.
Every tutor offers a free 15-minute introduction with no card needed, so you and your child can meet one before paying for anything.
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