I get quite a few enquiries from students who want to take A Level Maths without a school behind them. Some are at college doing other subjects, some have left education and some are adults coming back to it. Most of them ask me the same thing, which is whether it can actually be done.

It can, and I've worked with students who have done it. I've also seen plenty start without realising how much work was involved and stop part way through. In my experience the difference usually isn't ability. It's whether they knew what they were taking on at the start and had a plan for it.

So this is my honest take on what it involves. It isn't meant to put you off, just to give you a realistic idea before you start.

In this guide

The short answer

A Level Maths is one of the harder A levels, and doing it without a school makes it harder again. It's doable though, if you're prepared to commit to four things:

  1. Around eight to ten hours of maths a week, every week, for two years. More if you're starting from a lower grade, and a lot more if you want to do it in one.
  2. A fixed weekly routine to replace the timetable a school would give you.
  3. Independent practice as the main part of it, with tutoring built around that rather than replacing it.
  4. Someone checking your working regularly, so gaps get picked up early.
8-10hrsa week, the benchmark for a typical student in school
2yearsfor the full course, around 30 teaching weeks in each
3papersall sat in the same summer, with no coursework
2/3of the marks are Pure maths, the rest statistics and mechanics

Which of these are you?

Private candidates come from quite different situations. The work is the same for all of them, but what tends to go wrong is different for each.

Alongside other A levels

You are at a school or college that does not offer maths, or not in a way that fits your timetable, and you are adding it on top of your other subjects, so the maths has to fit around an already busy week.

The challenge is time
Out of education

You have left school, or you are an adult coming back to maths for a degree or a career. You have the most control over your time, but nothing making you use it.

The challenge is routine
Resitting

You have taken the exams before and want a better grade. You know the course, which helps, but it is easy to underestimate how much needs relearning rather than just revising.

The challenge is starting over

The hours, week by week

In school, a student aiming for a good grade will usually have four to five hours of maths lessons a week, and is expected to do about the same again on their own. So the benchmark is around eight to ten hours a week, for around thirty weeks a year, for two years.

Studying privately doesn't reduce that. Tutoring covers new content more quickly than a class of twenty-five, so the taught hours can come down a bit, but the practice can't. Most of the progress comes from working through questions yourself, not from being shown how.

Roughly how many hours a week each route asks forLessons or tutoringIndependent study
In school, over two yearsabout 8-10 hrs
The benchmark, for comparison.
Privately, over two years, from a grade 8 or 9about 8-10 hrs
Fewer taught hours, because tutoring covers content faster than a class. The practice stays the same.
Privately, over two years, from a grade 6 or 712 hrs or more
More, because GCSE gaps are being closed at the same time as new content is learnt.
Privately, in one year, from a strong startabout 20 hrs
The whole course in just over two terms.

These are guides based on our experience, not rules, and the split varies from student to student. The two-year figure from a grade 6 or 7 is our own estimate.

Even in school, half the work is done on your own, and when you're studying privately it's most of it. A tutor can explain a method in ten minutes, but you then need to do a good number of questions on it before you can do it yourself, and come back to it a couple of weeks later so that it sticks.

When that practice doesn't happen, what was covered in one session has been forgotten by the next, so each session starts further back and the course gradually falls behind. It's the most common reason I see private study stall.

The real challenge is routine

For most private candidates the hardest part isn't the maths. It's getting into a routine that gets eight to ten hours done every week without a timetable or a teacher, and then keeping it going.

In school, lessons happen whether you feel like it or not, homework gets checked and a teacher notices if you're falling behind. Studying privately, none of that happens unless you set it up yourself.

A few things that tend to help:

  • Fixed times, not a target. "Ten hours a week" tends to shrink. "Monday 7pm, Wednesday 5pm, Saturday morning" is much more likely to happen.
  • Set an alarm for each one. Otherwise it's easy to let one slide.
  • Keep a log of your hours. After a month it'll tell you whether the plan is realistic.
  • Keep a list of everything you can't do. That's what your next tutoring session should be about, and it's the best use of the time you're paying for.
  • Split your own study into three. Reading ahead on the next topic, practice on the last one, and exam questions on older topics so they don't slip.
  • Have a clear reason. Students who know why they're doing it (a particular degree, a career, a second chance) find it much easier to keep going through the second year.
Chris started A Level Maths five months late and still got an A in his Year 1 mock. Here he talks about how he caught up.

If you are starting from a 6 or a 7

Everything above assumes a strong GCSE. A lot of private candidates start from a grade 6 or 7, and that makes it a bigger job.

Nationally, only around one in ten students who start A Level Maths with a grade 7 get an A, and from a grade 6 about one in five get a C. Those figures are mostly for students in school lessons every week. You can see the chances of each grade from your starting point on our grade chances chart.

It's not that the maths is out of reach. A Level uses GCSE skills, algebra especially, in every new topic without teaching them again, so a student who is shaky on them is learning new content and fixing old gaps at the same time.

How much tutoring, and why

Anyone studying A Level Maths privately will need a minimum of two hours of contact time with a tutor a week, and in practice it's more often three to four hours. Over two years that adds up, so it's worth budgeting for it from the start.

It isn't only about being taught the content. It's having someone look at your working every week, picking up gaps before they grow, and having a fixed point in the week that keeps the rest of your study on track.

Choosing a tutor with that in mind. More expensive tutors are often effective at getting results when time is limited, for example a student who only has one hour a week and wants to make the most of it. But if you need a lot of tuition, like covering the whole course, it can be more effective to go with a slightly cheaper tutor so you get more contact time. With private candidates, that extra contact time is often what keeps them on track.

The practical side

There are a few things a school would normally sort out for you.

You need an exam centre. Some schools and colleges will enter external candidates, and there are centres that specifically take private candidates. They each set their own fees, which vary quite a lot, so it's worth asking early.

Entry deadlines come round quickly. The exam boards' deadline for the summer is usually in February, and a lot of centres close their entries well before that. Late entries cost more, so I'd sort it in the autumn before your exams.

Everything is sat at the end. There's no coursework. The whole qualification is three two-hour papers in May and June, so you need all of the course at once on the day.

The exam board matters less than people think. The specifications are similar across the boards and Edexcel is the most common. Go with whichever your centre offers and your resources are written for.

A two-year plan

This is roughly how the two years look for a private candidate who is doing it properly.

  1. 1Before you startFix the foundationsSpend a few weeks on GCSE algebra (surds, indices, algebraic fractions, quadratics and rearranging). It is time well spent, and essential from a 6 or 7.
  2. 2Year 1, autumnBuild the routineGet the weekly routine in place and start the Year 1 pure content. Do exam questions on each topic as soon as you have covered it.
  3. 3Year 1, spring and summerFinish the first yearFinish the Year 1 pure, statistics and mechanics content, then do a Year 1 paper under timed conditions to see where you are.
  4. 4Year 2, autumn and winterThe Year 2 contentWork through the Year 2 content, using mixed exam questions to keep the Year 1 material fresh. Arrange your exam entry now.
  5. 5Year 2, springFull papersPast papers under exam conditions, timed and without notes, marked properly, and go through every mark you lose. Scores usually improve quickly at this stage, so do not be put off by the first few.
  6. 6May and JuneThe examsThree papers, a few weeks apart. By now the question should be less "do I know this topic?" and more "where am I still losing marks?".

One thing on past papers. It's tempting to start them early, but sitting a full paper before you've covered the content mostly just knocks your confidence. Exam questions topic by topic from the start, then full papers from the spring of the second year.

Can it be done in one year?

This is one of the questions I'm asked most, and the honest answer is yes, for a small number of students, but it's a lot more work than most people expect.

A one-year course means covering in just over two terms what a school covers in five. From a strong GCSE, that's something like twenty hours of maths a week, with four to six hours of that taught. From a grade 6, I wouldn't recommend trying it in one year. In practice it isn't realistic.

The students who manage it are mostly strong mathematicians, often also taking Further Maths. If that isn't you, two years will almost always get you a better grade, and it's worth thinking carefully about whether the extra year is the better option.

Are you up for it?

Here's a quick self-check.

The readiness checkTick each one that is true for you today.
of 8Most of these ticked? You are probably ready to start. A few missing? That does not mean no, it is just what to sort out first.

Some of the best results I've seen have come from private candidates who just did the work, week after week, for two years. It isn't easy, but it can be done.

Where we fit in

We work with private candidates regularly. What we offer is meant to go alongside the work above, not replace it.

Most private candidates start with 1-1 tuition, with regular sessions built around what they can't do yet and their working looked at every week. Our Exam Practice groups add a weekly session of exam questions in a group of up to six, with feedback on each student's own working. For students in their final year, the live lessons through A Level Maths Academy cover the Year 13 content two hours a week, recorded, and are free for students in our group classes or 1-1 tuition.

If you'd like to talk it through, you can see our current availability here, and the initial consultation is free.