98th percentile (2440) scorer in 2025. 70% of my students scored 2200+ in 2026

Find out more about Isaac

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  I first became properly interested in the UCAT when I was preparing for it myself. At the start, I treated it like most other exams and thought that doing more questions would naturally lead to a better score. I quickly realised that wasn't really how the UCAT worked.
  
  A lot of it comes down to strategy, timing and recognising the same types of questions again and again. I actually started enjoying the process of working out faster ways to solve questions, especially in Quantitative Reasoning.
  
  I ended up scoring 2440 overall, including a perfect 900 out of 900 in Quantitative Reasoning.
  
  I got into tutoring afterwards because I realised a lot of students were having the same problems I had seen during my own preparation. They were often putting in plenty of hours but didn't really know what they needed to change.
  
  I really enjoy being able to look at someone's performance, figure out what is holding them back and then help them improve it.

• Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  I teach all sections of the UCAT: Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning and Situational Judgement.
  
  My favourite section to teach is probably Quantitative Reasoning. I scored 900 out of 900 in QR myself, and I think a lot of students make the section much more complicated than it needs to be. I enjoy showing them the shortcuts and ways of approaching questions that can save a lot of time.
  
  I also really like teaching Decision Making. There are quite a few different question types, so once a student starts recognising the patterns and knowing what method to use, you can often see their confidence improve quite quickly.
  
  Verbal Reasoning is probably the most challenging section to teach because progress can sometimes take a little longer, but that also makes it really satisfying when a student's scores start moving.
  
  More generally, I like talking to students about their whole UCAT preparation rather than just individual questions. Timing, mock strategy, how much practice they should be doing and what they should focus on before their exam are all things I spend a lot of time helping with.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  I wouldn't say there was one single teacher, but I definitely had teachers who influenced the way I teach now.
  
  The teachers I always found the best were the ones who could explain something complicated in a really simple way.
  
  They also made you comfortable asking questions. You never felt stupid for saying that you didn't understand something.
  
  I try to bring that into my own lessons. If a student doesn't understand the way I've explained something, I don't think repeating the exact same explanation louder is going to help! I'll try another way until it makes sense to them.
  
  Especially with the UCAT, getting things wrong is actually useful because it gives us something to work from.

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  For me, the biggest thing is being able to adapt.
  
  Every student is different. Two students could get exactly the same score in a mock but be losing marks for completely different reasons.
  
  One might understand everything but be too slow. Another might be rushing because they don't actually have a clear method for the questions.
  
  A good tutor needs to be able to spot that.
  
  I also think patience is really important. Sometimes something clicks straight away and sometimes you need to explain it a few different ways.
  
  Another big thing is being honest. If I think the way a student is practising isn't helping them, I'll tell them. There's no point doing hundreds of questions if you're repeating the same mistake every time.
  
  With the UCAT especially, I think students also need structure. There are so many resources and different strategies online that it is very easy to become overwhelmed. A big part of my job is helping students work out what is actually worth focusing on.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  One of my favourite examples is a student I worked with who was struggling with Decision Making.
  
  He was scoring around 630 out of 900 and didn't really believe he was capable of scoring highly in the section.
  
  Instead of just giving him more questions, we went through what he was actually getting wrong. We broke the section down into the different question types and worked out exactly which ones were costing him marks.
  
  We changed a few parts of his approach, practised those areas properly and then started applying it under timed conditions.
  
  Seven days later, he scored 880 out of 900 in Decision Making.
  
  Obviously the score improvement was great, but the part I remember most was how differently he looked at the section afterwards. He went from thinking he was simply bad at Decision Making to knowing exactly what he needed to do.
  
  That is something I try to show all my students. Sometimes you don't need to work harder. You need to work out exactly what is going wrong first.

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  The biggest challenge for me when I was doing the UCAT was probably timing.
  
  At school, you're normally taught to be careful, check your work and make sure you fully understand something before moving on.
  
  The UCAT doesn't always let you do that.
  
  Sometimes the best decision is actually to skip a question, guess it and come back later. Learning when to keep working on something and when to move on took me a while.
  
  I also found there was almost too much advice available. You could watch five different people explain the same question type and get five different strategies.
  
  Eventually I stopped constantly changing what I was doing and started paying much more attention to my own mistakes and results.
  
  That's something I now try to teach my students as well. You don't need every strategy on the internet. You need the strategy that works for you.

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  I've always liked improving at things and working out why something isn't working.
  
  That's probably one of the reasons I enjoy UCAT tutoring so much.
  
  I really like the analytical side of it. If a student tells me their score has stopped improving, I want to know why. Are they running out of time? Are certain question types causing problems? Are they making avoidable mistakes? Are they using the wrong strategy?
  
  Once you find the actual problem, improving becomes much easier.
  
  Outside of tutoring I'm also interested in medicine, business, technology and fitness, so I definitely have plenty of interests outside the UCAT as well!

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions :-P)?

  I think the main thing is that I genuinely care about helping students improve rather than just sitting with them while they complete questions.
  
  I've done the UCAT myself and scored highly, so I understand what the preparation feels like, especially when the exam starts getting close and your scores aren't where you want them to be.
  
  I also try to make every student's preparation personalised.
  
  If someone comes to me struggling with Decision Making, I'm not automatically going to give them the same lesson I gave the last student. I want to know exactly what they are struggling with first.
  
  I've been lucky enough to see some really big improvements from students. One student went from 1600 to 2170 in three weeks, while another improved his Decision Making score from 630 out of 900 to 880 out of 900 in just seven days.
  
  Those results are obviously something I'm proud of, but my favourite point is normally when a student starts being able to correct themselves.
  
  When they look at a question and say, "I know what I did wrong there," that's when I know they're actually improving rather than just memorising what I've told them.
  
  That's what I want students to get from my tutoring: a clear strategy, more confidence and the ability to approach the UCAT properly on their own.