How many A level students have tutors?

[dingit]

Just chatting to Dd, and a significant number of her friends have tutors. One, who got an A for maths in her mock is being tutored as she needs an A star at the tune of £45 an hour.
Just worried I'm missing a trick here?

GRW I think your daughter is a very good example of what my friend calls knowing that everything you do is through your own efforts. I think it is much better to do a Foundation and feel that you have developed your skillset through your own trial and error rather than at the pace set by traditional A Level followed by Uni, which might not suit the rate at which some kids develop. I think in a lot of cases it is fear, and the belt and braces attitude to the A/A* level of achievement, the terror of a tiny chink of understanding not being plugged by a tutor's intervention. Unless someone is failing very badly, and my son certainly was not getting above D, in most cases he was E or U, I think there is a sort of hysteria around the top grades which doesn't do the child any services.

I was just talking to someone who was worried her child was going to get all A at Gsce and had hired a tutor to make sure of some of the more dicey subjects. That to me is piling the pressure on the child, as if it is disaster if they don't get As for everything? How can it be? And then it is a kind of race to the top, with everyone feeling like they have failed if they don't get absolutely brilliant grades. And the child is left wondering if they really got those grades at all, or without the tutor would they be able to manage anything?

I feel very conflicted about this. At least at the moment ds looks at his mediocre GSCE grades and thinks...I did that, because I didn't work hard enough, but I am still capable of something, off my own bat.

Freddorika do you have a concern about your DD's specific needs not being met by her school or is this just something you feel is necessary for decent grades?

They still have to work hard, the tutor does not do the work for them.

Bog standard comp - all of high achieving students tutored in Biology - the syllabus was barely finished in time -22 pupils per class

• i honestly think it would have been very hard to get an A in this situation without a tutor

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Oops. Posted too soon.
DC has a tutor at A level for two reasons : 1) illness meant they went from almost full attendance to missing several weeks of school and
2) the teacher for that subject was completely unable to change his teaching style so anyone who didn't 'get it's with him, was stuffed if they didn't have a tutor.
DCs tutor took the time to find dcs learning style and taught accordingly. As it happened the tutor found that DC worked better if taught in a lecture style. DC felt passed A Level and went to uni. Their subject at uni was strongly related to the tutored subject. DC gained a Masters degree and now teaches. DC has also tutored and has a great success rate.
As long as the need is for reasons other than the student not working or being on a course that they were never equipped for ( maths/science grade c at gcse attempting a level maths, physics etc) then a tutor can be very helpful.

My DD did well in GCSE's, but found it much harder to maintain the same level at A level, even though she did work hard. In Chemistry especially the jump from GCSE level was a lot. She is now half way through her Foundation year at uni, and has done well in exams. I do think having a tutor at A level might have helped her to keep up, but I think it's worked out for the best.