Zain

I’m a medical student at the University of Manchester and I run an educational platform called UnlockIB that produces high value ultimate guides and free articles for over 7000 students. Through medical school, I’ve mastered the art of effective learning and I aim to provide students with all my essential study strategies and personal resources. All I want to do is teach you the things I wish I was told back in school.

Tutoring Experience

Engaging with 500 students over emails and zoom calls in the last month has shown me the true value of teaching. I have helped students increase their Biology and Chemistry grades by 2 levels in a mere 2-3 weeks of intensive work on my crash courses. All of my spreadsheets, textbooks and IB exam preparation revision guides are offered for free to my students.

I studied 6 subjects in the IBDP (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, French and Literature) and scored in the top 2% of students worldwide in my IB MYP E-exams (GCSE equivalent). Doing the IB curriculum for over 9 years has provided me with a unique insight into the programme and a very strong understanding of its components. I have an excellent knowledge base in the sciences and I believe that I have developed very effective step-by-step study methods that will teach students HOW to efficiently revise for their exams.

For IBDP Students:

I am very enthusiastic about helping students tackle and improve their Internal Assessments (IA), Extended Essays (EE) and TOK essay + presentation. Having completed all of these components to a high standard, I will be able to provide constructive advice and guidance to students for all of their assignments.

Furthermore, I will be able to easily direct students with their sciences experimental IAs due to my expertise in laboratory projects and data handling from university. All students will receive free access to my high-scoring IAs and essays.

For Medical School Applicants:

Fortunately, I have been accepted into both UK and Irish medical schools as an international student and I have a lot of valuable experience with this overwhelming application process.

• I will advise, proofread and show you how to make your personal statement stand out from the crowds of students applying.
• I will prepare you for challenging entrance exams like the UKCAT and BMAT in the summer.
• Having done both multiple-mini interviews (MMIs) and online interviews for medical schools, I can extensively prepare you for your interviews with my question bank of university interview questions.

Tutoring Approach

I strongly believe in teaching supported by scientifically proven study techniques like active recall and spaced repetition. When it comes to information retention, evidence shows us that highlighting, rereading and summarising notes are poor techniques. Therefore I minimise using these and centre my entire approach around practise testing, active recall and spaced revision. This has genuinely led to the greatest outcome for all of my students, website users as well as my own grades.

To get an introduction to my teaching methods, have a look at my subject-specific www.unlockib.com articles.
However, considering each student as an individual means that I vary my teaching approach depending on the person and the subject. All of us struggle at different levels with certain topics. So, I want to use our time together to teach my tutee with creative perspectives and analogies to increase their conceptual understanding of these topics. I would direct them to the exact same resources (banks of past papers, my spreadsheets, exam prep guides and Youtube channels) that allowed me to secure top grades a few years ago.
As a tutor, I would not only be teaching students the content required for them to score highly but would be introducing them to the innovative ways I used (and still do with all my exams) to efficiently study this content. Studying for your exams shouldn't just be about studying for good marks, but should be about enjoying what you're studying and retaining long-term knowledge that can be applied in future endeavours.