Henrietta

Tutoring Experience

During some of my first tutoring experiences, I was lucky enough to coach prospective Oxford students through the admissions process to success! To take one success story: there was a particular student whom I tutored for several months up to the 2020 admissions cycle who successfully gained admittance to Mansfield College, Oxford to study English.

The experience was so rewarding that I later helped to found a new Oxbridge admissions scheme. The organisation I worked with involved organising a week-long admission ‘boot camp’ for prospective Oxbridge students, specifically from state comprehensives in the North East of England: the area in the UK that is the most under-represented in Oxbridge intake. I helped design the scheme to take place lately through small group tutoring between prospective and current Oxbridge students.

I used my experience tutoring to design the format of the week and structure how the sessions would be run, as well as providing all the resources that both students and tutors would need. I also reached out to and convinced David Miliband to end the week as our key-note speaker. The scheme was very popular and we believe it both boosted applications to Oxbridge of the students who attended and improved their chances of success in the application!

I have also been actively involved in the alumni network coaching with my former secondary school (King Edward’s School, Bath) and have returned to coach prospective Oxbridge students hoping to study English.

Tutoring Approach

Oxbridge Admissions: I strongly believe that success in the Oxbridge admissions process for English Literature stems from genuine love of the subject and refining how to express this enthusiasm both on page in your personal statement and in person in the interview. However, passion alone is not enough: in my experience to truly succeed an applicant requires a deep knowledge of the structure of the university, and an ability to highlight more unconventional aspects of their subject in their application. In my tuition I will focus on both of these aspects of the admissions process, tailored to the specific academic interests of the student.

I place particular emphasis in perfecting the personal statement of the applicant and am able to provide several rounds of intensive feedback to the student until the statement is perfect for the October deadline. Following this I have a wealth of experience in rehearsing the interview format with applicants. I have found this to be a particularly important part of the application process: if the student is familiar with the interview format by the time they arrive at the actual interview and has had the time to refine their ideas into the most eloquent form possible, I have found that this translates to a significant advantage in the final success of their application. This is what I aim to focus on in my tuition approach for Oxbridge admissions.

A-Level English Literature: My academic success in the field of English literature speaks for itself. I was the only student in the history of my secondary school to win the award for highest achieving English student in my year group (at a nationally competitive secondary school) four consecutive years in a row from Year 10-Year 13. I went on to achieve top marks in my A level and was accepted at New College, the most academically prestigious college at Oxford to study English Literature. I was then awarded an Exhibitioners Award at my College in my second year and third year: an award given to the top performing students at the College who are believed to be on track for a First Class Degree. I have recently been accepted for a highly competitive Master’s Degree in English (specifically literature from the 1550-1700 period), also at New College to commence this autumn.

I am deeply familiar with what it takes to succeed academically in the field of English and am in an ideal place to communicate this to A-Level students. I believe in returning to a focus on the text that the student is working with and encouraging them to view it in new and unconventional perspectives. Following this I believe in several rounds of feedback from written work in order to ensure that the student understands the fundamental importance of structuring essays and expressing their thoughts coherently. From this, I understand the importance of adding stylistic flair to written work and allowing the unique personality of the student to shine through.