What history tutoring actually involves
History at A-level is essay craft. A Year 13 student doing AQA 7042 sits two papers (one breadth, one depth) plus a Historical Investigation coursework essay (4,500 words). They’re expected to argue a thesis, deploy specific factual support, weigh historiographical interpretations, and counter-argue. Most students arrive at tutoring not because they don’t know the content but because they can’t structure an answer that hits Level 5 (21-25 marks). A typical first session goes: tutor reads a recent essay, marks against the AQA band descriptors, identifies whether the gap is argument, evidence or interpretation, and runs a paragraph rewrite live.
GCSE is different. Students need to recall content (e.g. the Treaty of Versailles terms, the events of Kristallnacht, the function of the SS), apply source skills (utility, NOP — nature, origin, purpose), and write to time. A GCSE history tutor mostly works through past papers, drilling source-question structure, and timing. It’s lower-skill teaching but high-volume — January through May, every weekend, parents book GCSE history tutors solidly.
What good profiles look like
A converting profile names the period, the exam paper, and a recent result. Bad: ‘Experienced history graduate who loves the Tudors’. Good: ‘Cambridge History BA 2:1 (2022), specialised in Tudor and Stuart England in Part II. Two years tutoring AQA 1C Tudor and the Mid-Tudor Crisis 1485-1603 — last summer’s two Year 13s scored A and A*. Comfortable with the breadth paper and the depth paper, including the historiographical extracts question.’
A few things worth saying explicitly:
- The exact AQA/OCR/Edexcel paper code(s) you teach
- A recent student outcome (with permission)
- Whether you mark essays between sessions (most tutors don’t; the ones who do charge £5-£10 more an hour)
- Coursework support — the NEA in History is 20% of A-level and badly supported in many state schools
- Free 30-minute trial offer
Profiles that hit all five convert at roughly twice the rate of generic ones, based on internal platform data.
A real example — A-level mock recovery
A Year 13 at Latymer Upper got a D in his AQA mock (Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1991). Mum found a tutor on TheTutorLink in mid-January — a King’s College London History MA graduate who’d taught the same paper for three years. £45 an hour, weekly 90-minute sessions through to May, plus essay marking between sessions. The first three sessions were diagnostic — she made him rewrite the Stalin’s economic policies essay three times against the AQA mark scheme until it crossed from Level 3 (mid-teens) to Level 5 (22). By April he was self-marking accurately. He got a B in the final paper. Total spend: 16 sessions plus essay marking, around £900. The tutor’s earnings on TheTutorLink at 5%: £855. The same engagement on Tutorful at 25%: £675. Same hours, same teaching, £180 more in the tutor’s bank.
Building a sustainable round
History tutoring scales differently from STEM. The hours are lower (5-6 a week is a busy roster) but rebooking is high — A-level history families typically commit to a full year of weekly sessions because essay technique compounds slowly. A tutor who keeps three Year 13 students from October through to May, plus a couple of GCSE students, is running 5 hours a week at an average £42, which after the 5% platform fee is around £200 weekly across 30 teaching weeks. £6,000 of side income on top of a PhD stipend is meaningful.
The longer-term play is essay marking as a separate service. Many parents will pay £15-£20 for a 25-mark essay marked against the AQA or OCR mark scheme with written feedback, separate from tutoring sessions. Two essays a week at £18 is another £36 — small money individually, but it stops sessions being used for marking and lets you charge tuition rate for tuition. Tutors who structure their service this way tend to keep students longer because the value is clearer.
How to start
Sign up free at /register?type=tutor. Upload your degree certificate and DBS (or apply through the standard service if you don’t have one — £18, 2-3 weeks). List exactly which exam boards and which papers you teach (AQA 1C, AQA 2N, OCR Y109, etc — be specific, parents search by paper code). Set your rate at the market middle for your qualification: £35 GCSE / £45 A-level for a graduate, £45/£55 for QTS or postgrad. Write a 200-word profile mentioning a specific period, a specific student outcome, and the offer of a free first lesson. Reply to enquiries within an hour during weekday evenings. The platform takes 5% per completed session; the first lesson is free so trial conversion is on you. Five history hours a week at £45 average, after the 5%, is £213.75 weekly — useful term-time work for a postgrad or a former teacher.