Science
Year 10 · NCEA Level 1
Junior science and the new Level 1 standards. Almost every gap I later find in Physics or Chemistry was made here.
One to One Private NCEA Tutoring
NCEA tutoring in Auckland. From stuck to Excellence.
- Year 10 to Year 13
- Science, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Calculus
- Online across NZ, or in person in Parnell
Your teen is not lazy and they are not slow. They are missing something from an earlier year, and every new topic is being stacked on top of that hole. A class of thirty cannot stop and dig for it. I can. We find it, fill it properly, and the grades start moving on their own.
- Free 20 minute call
- No contracts, cancel any time
- You always get me, never an assistant
The climb
One school year
Most students come to me sitting on the left. The whole job is getting them across before the externals in November, because that is the exam that decides the year.
Find out where your teen actually is“Two terms ago she told me she was dropping Chemistry. Aaron went back to Level 1 bonding in the second lesson, which nobody else had thought to check. She sat the mock and got a Merit.”
310+Excellence credits I earned across NCEA Levels 1 to 3
1 to 1Every lesson is private. Never a group, never an assistant
Y10 to Y13Head starts in Year 10 through to NCEA Level 3
20 minA free call, and you will know exactly where the gap is
The problem
Does any of this sound like your teen?
- They revise for hours and still come home with Achieved.
- They followed it in class, then went blank in the test.
- They can do the worked example but not the exam question.
- They have started calling themselves bad at the subject.
- The teacher says they are fine. The report says otherwise.
- You want to help and you cannot work out where to start.
Two or more of those and it is not effort. Something earlier never landed, and every week since has been built on top of it. That is a very fixable problem, and it is the only one I work on.
The formula
How I take a struggling teen to Merit and Excellence.
Same four steps, every student, in this order. It is not clever. It is just the part almost nobody does, because step two looks like going backwards.
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Find the hole
I read back through their recent work until I hit the thing that never made sense. It is hardly ever this year's topic. Usually it sits one or two years behind, quiet and load bearing. This takes one lesson, sometimes two.
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Fill it properly
We rebuild that one piece until your teen can teach it back to me with the book shut. Other tutors skip this because it looks like falling behind. It is the opposite. Everything after it gets faster.
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Build forward
Now this year's work actually sticks, so we move. Every week your teen gets a workbook I built for their gaps that week. Not a photocopy, not a page from a textbook. They keep all of them.
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Prove it under pressure
Real NZQA marking schedules. Real time limits. From the first month, not the last fortnight. Knowing it at the kitchen table is worth nothing if it falls apart in the hall. By November the externals feel like a normal Tuesday.
The result Not Achieved → Achieved → Merit → Excellence
The difference
Most NCEA tutoring treats the symptom.
Most tutoringStandard
Who teachesA rotating tutor, or a group of six
The planA fixed course, same for every student
Starting pointWhatever the class is doing this week
MarkingTicks, crosses and a rough guess
MaterialsPhotocopied worksheets off the shelf
Exam practiceOne past paper in the final fortnight
CommitmentA whole term, booked and paid in advance
Ace NCEARecommended
Who teachesOne student, and always me
The planWritten around your teen after lesson one
Starting pointWherever the hole is, even two years back
MarkingAgainst the real NZQA marking schedules
MaterialsA new workbook every week, built for them
Exam practiceTimed conditions from the first month
CommitmentWeek by week. Walk away whenever.
Not sure what your teen is stuck on?
Neither are most parents. Twenty minutes on a call and I will tell you, whether or not you book a single lesson.
Subjects
NCEA science and maths tutoring, Year 10 to Year 13.
Pick your teen's year and I will show you exactly what I cover. Your school may use a different course name. NZQA calls them Science, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Chemistry.
Six subjects, four year levels, one tutor. If your teen needs two subjects we can run two sessions a week.
Year 10 is the cheapest year to fix anything. Close the gaps now and Level 1 stops being a fight before it starts.
The Level 1 standards changed in 2024. I teach the current ones, not the version that was around when you were at school.
Level 2 is where most students lose the thread. It moves fast, it assumes Level 1 stuck, and it never stops to check.
Level 3 decides university entrance, so the margin for error is small. The one subject I do not take is Level 3 Statistics. Tell me on the call and I will point you to someone good.
Maths
Year 10 · NCEA Levels 1 & 2
Number, graphs, geometry and trigonometry, through the Mathematics and Statistics standards up to Level 2.
Algebra
Year 10 · NCEA Levels 1 & 2
The most common hole I find, by a distance. Fix algebra and maths, physics and chemistry all get easier in the same week.
Physics
NCEA Levels 2 & 3
Mechanics, waves, electricity and modern physics. The subject students go backwards in fastest when one idea is missing.
Chemistry
NCEA Levels 2 & 3
Structure and bonding, reactions, organic and redox. Heavy on explaining why, which is exactly where Merit turns into Excellence.
Calculus
NCEA Levels 2 & 3
Differentiation, integration, functions and complex numbers. The Level 3 subject that opens engineering, science and medicine.
Pricing
What NCEA tutoring costs.
One hour, one to one, always with me. Every option includes the same lesson and the same workbook. The only thing that changes is how often your teen comes and how you pay.
01
Send the short form
Two minutes. Their year, their subject, what is going wrong.
02
We talk for 20 minutes
Free. I read what you sent, then tell you where the gap is.
03
Lessons start that week
One hour, plus a workbook built for your teen.
Session by session
$80per session
No plan, no commitment. Book a lesson when you want one and see what you think.
Start session by session- One hour, private, always with me
- A workbook built for that lesson
- Marked against the real NZQA schedules
- Online, or in person in Parnell
Paid 24 hours before each lesson
Best results
Accelerated · twice a week
$150per week
Two sessions a week at $75 each. This is the option that moves a grade band in a term rather than a year. It is what I put my own students on.
Work with Me- Two private hours a week, at the lower rate
- Teach it Monday, prove it Thursday, so nothing fades
- Enough time to cover two subjects, or one subject twice as deep
- Your two slots are held, including through exam season
- Still no contract. Stop at the end of any week.
Paid at the start of each week
Best value
12 session block
$900for 12
Works out at $75 a session and saves you $60. Twelve sessions is a full term, which is long enough to see the whole thing through.
Start with a 12 session block- The lowest rate I offer, $75 a session
- Use them once a week, or twice to go faster
- Sessions never expire, so a sick week is not a lost week
- A written plan for the term after the first lesson
Paid up front
How payment works. Blocks are paid up front. Weekly is paid at the start of the week. Single sessions are paid 24 hours before the lesson. There is no contract and no sign up fee, and you can stop at the end of any week.
About
Work directly with an expert NCEA tutor.
Aaron
UoA Medicine, Y2
I sat NCEA and came out with over 310 Excellence credits across Levels 1 to 3. I was Dux and Head Boy in the same year, and I swam competitively the whole way through. It brought in more than $30,000 in scholarships. I am now in my second year of medicine at the University of Auckland, a course that takes fewer than one in ten people who apply.
None of that is why you should hire me. It just explains how I know what I know.
Most NCEA advice is useless to a student who is stuck. Read the textbook. Do more past papers. Try harder. Being stuck is not a work ethic problem, it is one specific gap sitting in one specific place, and generic advice never finds it. I had to find mine on my own with the clock running. Then I did it again at university.
Now I do it for one student at a time. You get me in every lesson. Not an assistant, not a group of six, not a recording.
- Dux
- Head Boy
- 310+ Excellence credits
- $30,000+ in scholarships
- UoA Medicine, Year 2
Parents
What Auckland parents say after a term.
“Two tutors before Aaron and nothing shifted. He went back to Level 1 algebra in the second lesson and that turned out to be the whole problem. Physics stopped being a war at our place.”
“We went to two sessions a week in Term 2 and the difference was obvious by the mock. The workbooks are the part I did not expect. He builds a new one every week.”
“She went from a Not Achieved in her first internal to a Merit in the mock. The bigger thing is that she stopped telling me she was dumb.”
FAQ
Common questions about NCEA tutoring.
How do I get started?
Fill in the short form at the bottom of this page. It takes two minutes. I read it myself and reply within one working day, usually sooner, and we set up a free twenty minute call. Have their last report and a recent test handy for it. Nothing to sign, and no pressure to book.
How much does NCEA tutoring cost?
$80 for a single session. $150 a week for two sessions, which works out at $75 each. Or $900 for a block of 12, also $75 each. Same lesson and same workbook either way. Blocks are paid up front, weekly is paid at the start of the week, and single sessions are paid 24 hours ahead.
Why do you push two sessions a week?
Because it works far faster. One session a week means we teach something and then wait seven days to find out if it held. Two means we teach it, they use it, and we check it while it is still fresh. Students on twice a week tend to move a grade band in a term instead of a year.
My teen has already given up. Will this work?
That is most of who I work with. A teen who has stopped trying usually stopped understanding long before that. Effort is rational. Once the gap is fixed and the work starts paying off, it comes back on its own, and I have never had to nag anyone into it.
Do you tutor online or in person in Auckland?
Both. Online lessons run anywhere in New Zealand and that is how most of my students learn. In person is for families in Parnell. If you are elsewhere in Auckland, online works just as well and nobody has to sit in traffic.
Which subjects and levels do you teach?
NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3, plus Year 10 students who want a head start. Science, Maths, Algebra, Physics, Chemistry and Calculus. The only subject I do not take is Level 3 Statistics.
How long before we see a change?
Confidence usually moves first, inside three or four weeks. Grades follow at the next assessment. It depends on how far back the gap sits, and I would rather tell you that honestly on the call than promise you a number I cannot control.
Do you help with internals as well as exams?
Yes, and internals are often where a year is quietly saved or lost. I will not write anything for your teen. We plan it, read the standard together, and practise the skill it is testing until they can do it without me.
Find out what your teen is stuck on.
Tell me a little about them and I will read it before we speak. Then we talk for twenty minutes, free, and I tell you where the gap is. What you do after that is up to you.
- 01You send this form. Two minutes, and nothing to sign.
- 02I reply within one working day. Usually the same day.
- 03We talk for twenty minutes. Free, and no pressure to book.
- No contracts, cancel any time
- You always get me, never an assistant