One-to-one tutoring for IGCSE, GCSE, O Level and A Level mathematics, taught live online by a mathematician with an MPhil. It starts by establishing why marks are being lost — knowledge, method, arithmetic or time — because the fix for each cause is different, and only one of the four is solved by covering the topic again.
No card details Fees quoted after the free assessment No minimum term
These are the four things parents say most often at a first diagnostic. Each one points somewhere quite specific — and none of them means the student cannot do mathematics.
“My child understands the lesson but cannot solve exam questions.”
There is a gap between following a worked example and choosing a method with nobody prompting them. Understanding and retrieval are different skills, and only one of them is being practised.
“They can follow an example but struggle when the numbers change.”
The method was memorised as a sequence of steps rather than understood. It holds while the question looks familiar and collapses the moment the surface details move.
“They revise for hours but marks don’t improve.”
Almost always, the revision is aimed at the wrong cause. Re-reading topics fixes missing knowledge and does nothing at all for method selection, careless slips or timing.
“They know formulas but don’t know when to use them.”
This is method selection, and it is a separate skill from knowing the formula. It is also one of the most teachable things in the whole subject.
If more than one of these sounds like your child, that is normal — and it is exactly what the free diagnostic is designed to separate out.
Every lost mark in a diagnostic or a mock is classified into one of four causes. It matters because the fix for each one is completely different — and because only the first is repaired by re-teaching the topic.
The topic itself is not secure.
The student could not do the question because the underlying method was never properly learned, or was learned and has decayed. This is the only cause that re-teaching a topic actually fixes.
What fixes it Rebuild
The topic is known; the wrong approach was chosen.
The student knows every technique the question needs but selected the wrong one for it — a trigonometry question answered with Pythagoras, a simultaneous equation solved by substitution when elimination was two lines shorter. The mark is lost in the first thirty seconds, before any algebra is written.
What fixes it Recognise
Right method, slip on the way through.
A sign dropped, a term mis-copied between lines, a fraction inverted. The mathematics was understood and the approach was correct. These marks are recoverable through how working is set down, not through more teaching.
What fixes it Write
Right method, not enough paper time.
The student could have earned the marks and never reached the questions. Usually caused by spending too long on early questions rather than by working slowly overall — which means it is fixed by rehearsal and question selection, not by revision.
What fixes it Rehearse
Most students arrive assuming their problem is the first column. In practice it is usually one of the other three, which is why more revision on the same topics so often fails to move the grade.
The stages are not a fixed syllabus every student is marched through. The audit decides which ones carry the weight, and the sixth stage sends the plan back to the audit.
Find out which of the four causes is actually costing the marks.
Close genuine knowledge gaps from the foundation up.
Train method selection before any algebra is written.
Set the working down the way an examiner needs to read it.
Put it under exam conditions, once coverage is secure.
Re-audit every paper. The plan follows the evidence.
Refine returns to Diagnose. The roadmap is re-cut against what the last paper actually showed, so the plan tracks the student rather than the other way round.
For the student who will be in it: you work on a shared whiteboard, you see every line written out as it is explained rather than described, and the whole session is saved so you can watch a method again the night before a paper.
Lessons run live on Zoom with a high-precision pen-tablet. Every formula, substitution and line of working appears on a shared whiteboard as it is being explained — the same experience as sitting beside a tutor at the kitchen table.
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Four situations, four genuinely different plans. The diagnostic decides which one a student is in — and it is common to be in more than one.
Gaps from earlier years are making current work unstable — usually algebra, fractions or negative numbers.
What the plan looks likeMost of the time goes on rebuilding the foundations — starting from why each method works, in the order later topics depend on them, before anything at exam level is attempted. Slower for the first month and considerably faster afterwards.
How the tutoring worksIn the final terms before the papers, with coverage broadly there and a date on the calendar.
What the plan looks likeMost of the time goes on full papers under real exam conditions, marked against the official scheme, with practice at choosing which question to answer first so no marks are lost to the clock.
When to start exam preparationCompetent and consistent, but stuck a grade below target — the last band is decided on the final questions.
What the plan looks likeMost of the time goes on writing full justification for the reasoning marks, and on the questions that quietly combine several topics at once — which is where the last grade is usually decided.
How progress is measuredFine on questions that look like the practice, lost when a paper phrases something a new way.
What the plan looks likeMost of the time goes on recognising what a question is asking — sorting questions by type without solving them, until spotting the method a problem calls for becomes automatic.
Why this happensNot sure which one fits? That is precisely what the free diagnostic session establishes — forty minutes, no obligation, and a straight answer.
Credentials you can check, families who agreed to be quoted, and an explicit list of the things this practice does not claim.
Postgraduate study is not required to teach IGCSE or A Level, so it is worth being precise about what it buys: not harder content, but a deeper sense of where each school topic sits in the subject — and therefore a better answer when a student asks why a method works.
Teaching Cambridge and Pearson Edexcel specifications online, alongside AP Calculus and the Matric and Intermediate boards. That range matters because it makes the differences between specifications visible: what one board rewards in a written solution, another does not.
The person who runs your diagnostic teaches every subsequent lesson and writes every progress report. There is no agency, no assistant tutors and no group classes. Read the full background.
It is an assessment, not a sales call. Here is exactly what happens, minute by minute, and what arrives afterwards.
A short conversation with the parent about the history: which topics feel worst, what school has said, what the target grade is and when the paper is.
Targeted problems across the strands, live on the shared whiteboard, chosen to probe rather than to test. What matters is how they approach each one — where they hesitate, what they reach for first, what they leave out — not the score.
What was found, in plain language, with the parent present. Including when the answer is that the student does not need paid tutoring, or needs something this practice does not offer.
A Mathematical Progression Roadmap: every lost mark classified as knowledge, method, arithmetic or time and ranked, the gaps named against the specification, the order to close them in, and realistic milestones. Yours to keep whether or not you book a lesson.
Tell us a little about your child and we will match them to the right slot. No payment details, no obligation.
Answered directly, without the sales pitch. Each answer stands on its own.
Learn with Tahira offers specialist one-to-one mathematics tutoring and exam preparation, delivered entirely online by Ansa Ameer Tahira, MPhil in Mathematics. The services are: mathematics tutoring, IGCSE Mathematics, GCSE Mathematics, O Level Mathematics, A Level Mathematics, exam preparation, personalised 1-to-1 tutoring and online tutoring. Every engagement starts with a free 40-minute diagnostic assessment and a written learning plan. There are no group classes and no assistant tutors.
All tutoring servicesThe diagnostic is a free 40-minute one-to-one session at the start of any Learn with Tahira engagement. The student works through targeted problems while the tutor observes how they approach them rather than only whether the answer is right. Within 24 hours the family receives a written Mathematical Progression Roadmap listing the syllabus gaps found, the order they would be closed in, and realistic milestones. There is no cost and no obligation.
Book the diagnosticLearn with Tahira quotes each student individually after a free 40-minute diagnostic assessment, rather than publishing a single hourly rate. The quote reflects what the assessment finds: which syllabus gaps are real, how many sessions a week the written roadmap calls for, and how long support is likely to be needed. The diagnostic and the roadmap cost nothing, there is no registration fee, no materials fee and no minimum term, and no payment is ever taken through the website.
How pricing worksOpen the booking page at learnwithtahira.com/book, select your time zone, and choose one of the published free diagnostic slots. Enter the student’s details and what you would like to improve. No payment details are required. The 40-minute assessment is free, the written learning plan follows within 24 hours, and you decide afterwards whether to continue.
Book a free sessionMore detail in the full mathematics tutoring FAQ, or ask Tahira directly.
Forty minutes, one-to-one, at no cost. You will know which of the four causes is costing your child marks, and you will have it in writing within 24 hours — whether or not you book a single lesson.
Free 40-minute diagnostic Written roadmap in 24 hours No card details
