# How to tutor GCSE science online: a lesson-by-lesson guide > How to tutor GCSE science online: a lesson structure, practising equations and required practicals, diagrams without a pen tablet, and exam-style answers. URL: https://learnworkly.com/blog/tutor-gcse-science-online · Published 2026-11-13 · Tags: Online tutoring, Formative assessment GCSE science is three subjects pretending to be one. A single student can be strong on cells, shaky on moles and completely lost with the physics equations, and the exam tests all three with a mix of recall, maths, practical skills and six-mark explanations. Tutoring it online adds a further challenge: you cannot see the diagram a student is drawing or the calculation they are half-way through. This guide shows how to tutor GCSE science online so that you see the thinking, not just the final answer. It covers how to structure a lesson, how to practise equations and required practicals, how to handle diagrams without a pen tablet, and how to train the long written answers that decide the higher grades. ## Start with the specification, not the textbook Every exam board publishes the exact content and skills it can assess. Before your first lesson, find out which board and which route the student takes: combined science (two GCSEs) or separate sciences (three), foundation or higher tier. The [AQA Combined Science: Trilogy specification](https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/science/gcse/combined-science-trilogy-8464/specification), for example, lists every topic, the equations students must recall, and the required practical activities that can appear in the exam. Turn the specification into a simple tracker: one row per topic, one column for each of recall, application and exam questions. Your first two lessons are a diagnostic, not teaching. Short mixed quizzes across biology, chemistry and physics will show you, within an hour, where the real gaps are. Most students overestimate biology and underestimate how much maths sits inside chemistry and physics. ## A 60-minute online lesson structure A routine that works for most GCSE science students, online or in person: 1. **Retrieval starter (5–8 minutes).** Four or five short questions from different topics, including one from at least a month ago. Answers are written, not said. 2. **Fix the gap (10 minutes).** Pick the one mistake from the starter that matters most and reteach it. 3. **New content or skill (20 minutes).** Explain, then check after every small step with a question the student answers on screen. 4. **Exam practice (15 minutes).** Real exam-style questions, timed, with a mark scheme. 5. **Exit check and homework (5 minutes).** Two questions that tell you what to start with next week. The same five blocks work for 1-to-1 and small groups. In a group, every student answers each check on their own screen, so you can see who needs you without asking them to admit it. ## Equations and calculations Equations are where many science marks are lost, and the errors are rarely about the physics. They are about rearranging, units and significant figures. Practise them in three stages: - **Recall.** “Write the equation linking force, mass and acceleration.” Do this every lesson for the equations the student must remember. - **Substitute and calculate.** Give values in standard units first, then in mixed units (grams, kilometres, minutes) so converting becomes a habit. - **Rearrange.** Ask for the subject of the formula before any numbers appear: “Make *a* the subject of F = m × a.” For calculation questions, ask students to show the substitution line, not just the final number. A number answer marked automatically tells you whether they got it right; the working tells you why they did not. Our guide to [tutoring GCSE maths](/blog/how-to-tutor-gcse-maths) has more on building that habit, and it carries straight over to physics and chemistry calculations. ## Diagrams without a pen tablet Biology and physics are full of diagrams: cells, the heart, circuits, ray diagrams, energy transfer diagrams. Students need to draw and label them, and examiners mark the labels and the details. You do not need a pen tablet for this. Two simple routes work well online: - **Draw on the screen.** Most laptops and every phone or tablet has a touch screen or trackpad good enough for a labelled sketch. A drawing question where the student sketches directly on the page shows you exactly what they draw, line by line. - **Draw on paper, then photograph it.** For neat diagrams, paper is still best. The student scans a QR code with their phone and takes a photo of the page, which lands on the right question for you to see and annotate. Either way, you can circle a missing label or a wrong symbol on top of their drawing, and they fix it while you are still in the lesson. LearnWorkly supports both through its [question types](/features/question-types), including drawing, number, multiple choice and photo answers. *[Image: The activity editor with GCSE physics questions: a multiple-choice question on units, a number question on F = ma marked automatically, and a drawing question asking for a labelled circuit diagram]* ## Required practicals Required practicals are assessed in the written exam, so students must know the method, the variables, the risks and how to process the results, even if they never did the experiment at school. Online, focus on what the exam asks: - **Method in order.** Give the steps of a practical jumbled and ask the student to put them in order. - **Variables.** “Name the independent, dependent and one control variable.” Short answers, checked every time. - **Results.** Give a table with one anomalous result and ask the student to spot it, calculate a mean and suggest why the anomaly happened. - **Improvements.** “How could the student make the results more accurate?” is one of the most common question stems. These questions are quick to set and to mark, and a few each week cover every practical by the mock exams. ## Six-mark answers Extended answers are where grade 7 students separate from grade 5 students. They need structure more than extra knowledge. Teach a simple routine: list the key points in a quick plan, write them in a logical order, and use the scientific words the mark scheme expects. Practise one six-mark question per lesson. Let the student write it on screen, then mark it against the mark scheme together. Highlight each creditworthy point in their answer and ask them to add what is missing. Over a term, keep their answers so they can see how their structure improved. ## Homework that tells you something Homework for science works best as short, regular retrieval rather than long worksheets: ten mixed questions across all three sciences, due before the next lesson, with automatic marking where possible. You arrive at the lesson already knowing the weak spots. Keep one question type in every homework for the student’s weakest area, whether that is rearranging equations, a specific practical or six-mark answers, until it stops being weak. ## Putting it together Online GCSE science tutoring works when you can see three things: the working behind calculations, the details of diagrams, and the structure of written answers. Build each lesson around short checks where the student answers on screen, keep their work so you can track progress by topic, and use the specification as your map. The result is a student who knows exactly what to revise, and a tutor who knows exactly what to teach next.