Learn exam techniques

Videos guide students through all types of exam questions, showing exam techniques, top tips, how to use mark schemes, and more.

Gain exam question practice

A downloadable PDF provides the exam question(s) and mark scheme(s) shown in the video.  Students can practice, apply or test themselves.

Understand how marking works

Students learn to predict the mark scheme themselves and understand how to answer questions most effectively and efficiently.

Exam Skills How does it work?

Each week another video is added to the library to support the learning journey through the course content. The collection grows week by week to form a searchable library of over 80 videos when the course completes (Oct 2027). You can see what's in the hub to date by clicking on the 'Chapters' and 'Lessons' links at the top of this page. Flexibility is key: Whenever you join the hub you'll be able to access previous tuition recordings (and those in all the other hub areas), so you can work through at whatever pace works best for you and your family. Simply work through the Topic Pods - everything is numbered so you can follow in order. You can join (and leave) the hub whenever you want for as long as you want. Watch in your own time, speed up, slow down, pause and reflect. All videos include captions. Videos guide students through all types of real exam questions, showing exam techniques, top tips, how to use markschemes, and more. Key terms and the skills that gain exam marks are listed at the side of the video. Wherever possible, the videos added are relevant to the topic taught in that week's tuition session, and may also be linked to the examples given in the Maths Skills video for that week, so that they enhance and enrich student's understanding. A downloadable PDF provides the exam question(s) and mark scheme(s) shown in the video - Students can choose how they learn: try the exam question(s) as they go through the tutorial or have a go at the question first, then mark themselves with guidance from the tutorial. Learning to use the mark schemes themselves is more powerful than having work marked for them. In time, students learn to predict the mark scheme themselves and understand how to answer questions most effectively and efficiently to maximise their chances of gaining marks. Each week, the Practical Skills Exam Skills, Maths Skills and Biology Is Everywhere videos are relevant to the topic taught in the live session. They develop, extend and connect the tuition based learning to the real world and to the knowledge and skills needed to succeed and exams. There are no deadlines, no fixed timescales (apart from any external exam dates you're working towards of course). You choose to access the components of the hub that work best for you at the pace that works for your family.

Your tutor

Hi, I’m Amanda. I’ve been teaching IGCSE Biology to home-educated students since 2017 and teaching Biology since I qualified as a Science teacher in 2010. I have a BSc in Zoology, an MSc in Applied Entomology and have worked in biological research as an earthworm ecotoxicologist and equine welfare researcher all over the world. My menagerie of weird and wonderful animals helps me bring my teaching to life, and I love to teach Biology with real things and interactive demonstrations.

Testimonials

What do people say about learning with Amanda?

"I love the access to the math and exam questions! Its really helpful!" "i love the community, it makes me feel welcome" "its very useful to have everything in one place"
Student chat comments

In live sessions

Sparking STEM logo with Trustpilot review summary showing a five star rating with a Trustpilot score of 4.8 / 5 from 38 reviews
The Hub has structure, but it does not feel rigid. It has exam awareness, but it does not feel exam obsessed. It offers live teaching, recordings, worksheets, quizzes, practical links, and extra videos, but we do not feel we have to use everything at once.
The Home Ed Daily

Sasha Jackson

Truspilot review breakdown showing 100% 5 star reviews (from 38 reviews)
You just 'get' home-ed, you accept it and don't judge, and that's quite rare for a provider who doesn't home-ed themselves. Your passion for making sure ALL the children can access learning shines through.
'Tigerrific'

Home-educating parent

If Amanda's doing it I'm doing it as anything Amanda does is amazing!
Lily

Student in the hub