1. Exam board first, subject second
Cambridge and Edexcel IGCSE courses in the same subject differ in structure, question style and mark schemes. Ask any prospective tutor which board and syllabus they teach, and check it against your child's course, which the school will confirm in one email. A tutor who does not ask which board your child sits is telling you how they plan to teach.
2. Ask what materials they use
The right answer includes past papers and official mark schemes, early and often. IGCSE grades are earned by producing what examiners award marks for, and mark schemes are the only honest description of that. A tutor working solely from a textbook is preparing your child for the textbook.
3. Listen to them before you book
For English and the humanities especially, the tutor's own language is the model your child absorbs. Ask for a voice note or introduction video. On LiveTutor every tutor records a voice introduction, and we share it before your first lesson, because accents and clarity are things you can judge for yourself in thirty seconds.
4. Check verification, not just reviews
Reviews are easy to farm. Identity and background verification is not. Ask how the platform or individual verifies who is teaching your child, and whether anyone has actually interviewed them. For online lessons, also ask what the platform records: our classrooms keep video recording off, and lesson audio is transcribed only for safeguarding review.
5. Insist on a real trial
A trial is a lesson, not a demo or a sales consultation. Your child should leave it having learned something, and you should be able to see how the tutor explains, corrects and encourages. A provider confident in its matching gives the first lesson free and rematches without charge if the fit is wrong. That is our policy, and it is a reasonable thing to demand from anyone.
6. Expect feedback you can act on
After each lesson you should know what was covered, what improved and what the next step is. Vague reassurance is a warning sign. Specific feedback, including honest news about tier placement or realistic targets, is what paying for an expert gets you.
7. Judge progress at four weeks
Set a review point when you start. By week four there should be visible movement: cleaner working in maths, structured paragraphs in English, better scores on timed past-paper sections. If there is not, raise it. A good tutor adjusts; a good platform rematches. Staying with a comfortable but ineffective arrangement is the most common tutoring mistake parents make, and the easiest one to avoid.
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