Olley
"My daughter found the sessions highly engaging and frequently commented that after working with Olley, complex concepts would suddenly 'click' and make sense."
Parent of GCSE Biology student
A Level
Biology
Chemistry
GCSE
IB
Oxbridge Applications
Academic History
Newcastle University – Medicine MBBS 2023-2027 (expected graduation)
Oxford University 2014-2018 – Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 2:1
About Me
I work really hard to get students to understand exactly what’s going on from the ground up, it’s very important to me to make everything make sense. I’m always happy for students to ask as many questions as they need to, if they want to spend the whole session asking about one specific topic, that’s fine. The first thing I say before we start sessions is I want them to ask me any question at any time, regardless of anything else, because I think that’s one of the huge benefits of one-to-one tuition. My job is to help students understand science, so whatever the student needs is what we’ll do. I prefer to run sessions like an Oxford tutorial – back and forth with the student asking them questions and to explain their thought process to help them learn to think about science. However, I can shift to slightly less discursive structures if students would prefer this (but I tend to get better results out of lots of interaction). I’m patient and relaxed and tend to build good relationships with students meaning they’re comfortable asking me whenever they’re not confident.
Recent tuition
Edexcel Triple Science GCSE
I worked with this student through her GCSEs helping in all three sciences as needed. She developed hugely in confidence throughout the sessions and ended up flourishing! She achieved three 9s in her GCSEs.
AQA Triple Science GCSE
I worked with a student who came into his triple science GCSEs low on confidence. Through two years of tuition and hard work, he ended up achieving three 8s in his GCSEs which he was delighted about.
OCR A Level Biology and Oxford Interview
I worked with a student through her GCSEs and biology A level. She was a bright and hard working student and achieved three 9s at GCSE and then after lots of hard work, got into Oxford to read biology and got an A* in her A levels.
Edexcel A Level Chemistry
I started working with this student in year 11 and ended up helping him all the way through to his A levels and medical school admission. I really enjoyed the sessions with him, he would ask really insightful questions and really appreciated how much time I spent breaking chemistry down into manageable chunks and building it back up, which his school wasn’t doing. He went to King’s to read medicine and achieved an A* at chemistry.
IB Chemistry and Biology
I worked with a student who wanted to study biochemistry at university through the last year of her schooling at IB. She ended up achieving 7s (maximum grade) in both sciences and is now at UCL reading biochemistry.
Hobbies
One of the defining interests of my life has been science/medicine, I’ve been interested in it for as long as I can remember and now that I’m in medical school I love learning about it, I feel really lucky to be there and to be able to learn this stuff.
Outside of pure academics I’m a big reader – mostly fiction but some non-fiction. I just really enjoy it. I also love hiking and being in nature in general, one of my friends is doing an ecology PhD so I get to come along to some surveys and activities she’s doing from time to time. I’ve also played guitar for half my life, I don’t really have a way to explain why I like it, I’m comfortable enough now to play most of what I want to which I love. I love going to gigs and try to see as much live music and comedy as I can. There’s a range of sports including football and climbing I enjoy too.
Testimonials
“Olley worked with my daughter over a two year period initially supporting her GCSE Biology preparation [2023] and subsequently helping with her A-level studies on an ad hoc basis as needed.
My daughter found the sessions highly engaging and frequently commented that after working with Olley, complex concepts would suddenly ‘click’ and make sense. Olley demonstrates exceptional subject knowledge, genuine enthusiasm for teaching, and the ability to adapt explanations to different levels of complexity as needed. Communication with Olley was excellent. Arranged lesson times were always kept, yet Olley was also flexible and understanding when circumstances required changes.
When my daughter was applying for an undergraduate Biology course at Oxford, I requested that Olley work with her to prepare her for the interview process. Olley was very honest and conscientious, advising me to find someone else to conduct mock interviews so that she would experience working with someone she didn’t know. I appreciated this professional integrity very much indeed.
Olley was also a very supportive presence during the exam period, taking active interest in how things went and providing encouragement throughout. My daughter achieved an A* in Biology and will be starting her Biology degree at Oxford this October [2025]. I would recommend Olley without hesitation to any family seeking an exceptional biology tutor who combines academic excellence with genuine care for their students’ success.”
