IB English Tutor in Hong Kong

An unseen text under time pressure. Success depends on a reliable reading process rather than on inspiration: read for the guiding question, identify the two or three techniques doing the real work, and build an argument around them instead of listing devices.

The most common failure is a "feature hunt" — a paragraph on imagery, a paragraph on structure, a paragraph on tone, no connecting argument. Examiners reward a line of thinking.

Two works, one question, no text in front of the student. The two requirements are a genuinely comparative structure — organised by idea, not by text — and precise recall of the works, including quotations. We build both, with timed practice throughout.

The Individual Oral requires a global issue, two extracts, and ten minutes of sustained analysis. Students leave the preparation late and it shows in the delivery. We rehearse it properly.

The HL Essay needs a line of inquiry narrow enough to sustain 1,500 words of genuine analysis. Broad questions produce broad essays that land in the middle bands.

For acquired-language candidates: the productive skills, the prescribed themes, and the text types with their own conventions — a blog, a formal letter and a speech are each marked partly on getting the form right. These are learnable marks that students routinely give away.