The last couple of months have seen my tutees rewarded with thoroughly superb results. Alexander, whom I had mentored since Autumn 2022,...

If you are applying to Oxbridge, I recommend watching the videos of Dr Matt Williams, the Access Fellow at the University of Oxford and a...

If you are revising Ibsen's A Doll's House, you might find this brief guide helpful. It analyses some of the play's most important...

Over the years, I have helped many students advance to excellent universities. This advice is for students who want to study English at...

This is about the time of year when many students in Year 11 begin to consider their applications to university in two years' time....

After a year of mentoring, SM, one of my long-term tutees, has been offered a place to study English at the University of Cambridge....

Constructing convincing arguments is the backbone of any A* essay. This piece takes the form of a Q&A and its points can be applied both...

Happy New Year! I hope that 2022 brings you joy, health and prosperity. Here are the answers to the Christmas Quiz. Round One 1. A...

Happy Christmas to all those celebrating! Here is another very trivial literary quiz to pass the time this holiday. I have aimed to make...

In two previous blog posts, I covered some of the more practical steps that you can take to prepare for an Oxbridge interview in the arts...

(This post was written in 2021. Since that point, Cambridge has changed its admissions process in English and, this year, Oxford will not...

Good morning. I hope that you enjoyed the first half of the autumn term. This is the second part in an occasional series of stimulus...

Every Friday, from now until early December, I will publish a cluster of short questions, designed to help students consider the more...

This is likely to be most relevant to those writing essay-based subjects, particularly English. It is not an exhaustive list, just a...

Four women, all over 70, sit in a garden chatting about this and that. Sporadically, one of them recounts details of plagues, famines,...

Reasonably enough, examiners expect more of students at A Level than they do at GCSE. In particular, they expect students to use a...

Freddie Fisk, 22, has just graduated with a double first in History from Cambridge University. He is now working as a tutor of History...

My advice could be reduced to two obvious instructions: Keep re-reading your set texts Keep writing essays about them. We all know this...

During the last fifteen years, I have marked hundreds of pieces of A Level coursework. Earlier this year, I wrote a Twitter thread...