London has thousands of private tutors. The market ranges from undergraduates charging £20 an hour through platforms like Tutorful to Oxbridge graduates charging £120 an hour through premium agencies. For most families, the choice is overwhelming — and the stakes are high enough that getting it wrong is genuinely costly, both financially and in terms of your child's progress.
After working with hundreds of families across London, we have identified the questions that actually predict whether a tutor will get results — and the common mistakes that lead families to spend months and significant money on tutoring that does not move the needle.
The most common mistake: choosing on qualifications alone
The instinct most parents have is to look for the most academically impressive tutor available. A first-class degree from Oxford. A PhD in the subject. Years of teaching experience. These credentials feel like a guarantee of quality — but they are not.
Academic excellence and the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly to a struggling GCSE student are entirely different skills. Some of the best tutors we have worked with are current undergraduates — close enough to the exam to remember exactly which questions confused them, which resources helped, and what the examiner actually wants to see. Some of the least effective tutors we have observed are academics with outstanding research records who simply cannot explain things at the level a 15-year-old needs.
This does not mean qualifications are irrelevant. For A-Level Further Maths or A-Level Physics, depth of subject knowledge genuinely matters. But it means that qualifications should be one criterion among several, not the primary filter.
The five questions worth asking before you book
1. How recently did they sit the exam your child is preparing for?
Exam specifications change. Mark scheme emphases shift. Question styles evolve. A tutor who sat A-Level Chemistry in 2008 is teaching from memory of a qualification that may have changed significantly. A tutor who sat A-Level Chemistry in 2023 knows exactly which topics came up, what the mark scheme rewarded, and what the examiner comments from recent series said.
For highly competitive admissions tests — UCAT, LNAT, PAT, ENGAA — this recency matters even more. The strategies that worked five years ago may not be the strategies that work now. You want a tutor who sat the test recently enough to give specific, current guidance.
2. Can they show evidence of grade improvements in students they have taught?
Most tutors can describe students they have taught. Fewer can point to specific, verifiable examples of predicted grade improvements. Ask for them. A tutor who has genuinely moved students from predicted C to A will be able to tell you how — which specific gaps they identified, what resources they used, how long it took.
Be sceptical of vague claims. "Most of my students get good grades" is not evidence. "I worked with a Year 12 student who was predicted a C in A-Level Maths, identified that her weakness was integration by substitution and parametric equations, and she sat her mock six weeks later and scored a B" — that is evidence.
3. What is their approach to identifying gaps versus covering content?
There are broadly two approaches to tutoring. The first is to systematically go through the syllabus, covering each topic in order. The second is to start by diagnosing exactly where the student is losing marks and working backwards from there.
For most students preparing for exams, the second approach is significantly more efficient. A student who is predicted a B in A-Level Biology is unlikely to have uniform weaknesses across the entire specification. They almost certainly have two or three specific areas — photosynthesis, perhaps, or statistical analysis — where they are consistently losing marks. A good tutor identifies those areas in the first session and directs most of the available time towards closing them.
Ask any prospective tutor how they start with a new student. If the answer is "we go through the syllabus from the beginning", that is a red flag unless your child is genuinely at the very start of the course.
4. Do they have experience with your child's specific exam board?
AQA, OCR, Edexcel and WJEC have different mark schemes, different question styles and different emphases within the same specification. A Biology tutor who has only ever taught Edexcel students may not know that AQA requires significantly more written explanation in its mark scheme answers, or that OCR has a higher proportion of application questions. For A-Level and GCSE exams where mark scheme technique matters, this specificity is important.
5. What progress reporting do they provide to parents?
Tutoring is an investment. Like any investment, you should expect regular, clear reporting on how that investment is performing. A good tutor should be able to tell you, at the end of each month, what was covered, what progress was made, what the remaining gaps are, and what will be prioritised in the coming weeks.
If a tutor cannot tell you how your child is progressing — or if the answer is always "doing well, making good progress" without specifics — that is a problem. Either they are not tracking progress rigorously, or they are not comfortable having honest conversations about where the gaps remain.
The one thing that separates tutors who get results from those who don't
Beyond qualifications, approach and exam board knowledge, the single most reliable predictor of tutoring success is this: whether the student actually wants to spend an hour a week with this person.
Tutoring works when the student is engaged. Engagement comes from the relationship. A brilliant tutor who a student finds boring, condescending or simply hard to connect with will produce worse outcomes than a less academically impressive tutor who the student genuinely likes, respects and looks forward to learning from.
This is why we never place a student with a tutor without a free trial session first. The academic credentials matter. The approach matters. But if the relationship is not there, none of the rest of it will work.
What to expect from private tutor prices in London
Private tutor prices in London vary enormously. At the lower end, undergraduate students advertising on platforms like Tutorful or Tutor Hunt charge between £20 and £40 per hour. PGCE-qualified teachers offering private tuition typically charge £45 to £70 per hour. Premium agencies working with specialist tutors — particularly for Oxbridge preparation, medical school applications or professional entrance tests — charge £80 to £150 per hour.
The relationship between price and results is not linear. Some of the most effective tutors we know charge less than £40 an hour because they are current undergraduates or postgraduates who are exceptional communicators. Some of the most expensive tutors charge premium rates for credentials that do not translate into better outcomes for the specific student.
The more useful question than "how much?" is "how will we know if this is working?" — and then holding the tutor to that standard.
When a tutor is not the right answer
There is a category of student for whom individual tutoring in the traditional sense is not the most efficient intervention. If a student is underperforming because of confidence rather than knowledge — if they understand the material but freeze in exams, or avoid asking questions in class because they are afraid of getting things wrong — a different kind of support may be more useful than additional subject teaching.
Similarly, if a student has a very specific and limited gap — they understand A-Level Chemistry but consistently lose marks on question 6 of Paper 2 because of the way thermodynamics questions are phrased — a few targeted sessions with the right tutor will be more effective than a long-term programme.
The honest conversation to have before booking any tutor is: what exactly does my child need, and is this the most efficient way to get it?
Our approach at Greystone
At Greystone, every student starts with a free 30-minute assessment with one of our advisors. We listen to where your child is, what they are working towards, and what has and has not worked before. We then match them with a tutor — not just on subject and year group, but on personality, communication style, and career pathway.
Our tutors are current students and practitioners in the fields your child is interested in. They bring subject knowledge and the kind of insider guidance — on applications, admissions, career paths — that most tutors simply cannot offer. If you are looking for medicine tutoring in London, law tutoring, finance tutoring or engineering tutoring, we match your child with someone who is currently living the career they are aiming for.
If you would like an honest conversation about whether we are the right fit for your child's needs, book a free assessment. There is no obligation and no sales pitch — just clarity.