Alex KF

My name is Alex, and I’m in my first year studying Law at the University of Oxford, with my third year to be spent in Paris. Before Oxford I attended St Paul’s School, where I achieved eleven grade 9s at GCSE, followed by an A* in French and As in Mathematics, History and Politics at A-Level. I also prepare students for the LNAT.

In tutoring, I aim to pass on as many as possible of the tips and techniques I picked up during my eleven years at St Paul’s, helping students succeed both in their studies and in their exams. A core belief of mine is that working smart beats simply working hard, and I’m keen to help students unlock higher marks by recognising and mastering the often formulaic nature of secondary school and sixth-form exams.

My areas of expertise cover most of the humanities, as well as English and French. At 11+, GCSE and A-Level, humanities and language exams can seem daunting, but in reality they tend to reward a fairly predictable set of skills and approaches. Rather than force-feeding students information to memorise, I believe the most effective tutoring draws understanding out of the student. Discussing a topic, asking questions and encouraging a student to put their own thoughts into words can be remarkably effective in building genuine understanding. Conversation also shows me exactly where a student’s understanding breaks down, rather than just correcting the answer in front of me.

My aim, then, is not just to give students the knowledge they need, but to teach them how to think about a subject for themselves. Whether we’re unpacking a difficult historical argument, refining an essay, discussing a piece of literature or working through a French text, I want students to leave a lesson feeling they reached the answer themselves. That makes lessons more engaging, and makes the material far easier to remember and apply independently in an exam.

Ultimately, I hope to give students the confidence and the toolkit to approach their subjects intelligently: understanding what an examiner is looking for, recognising why an answer works, and being able to reproduce that process for themselves.

I joined Mayfair Scholars to pass on the techniques that worked for me and to help students learn to think through a subject for themselves.