How much does it cost?

The exact investment is set at the intake conversation, once I understand which syllabus and tier your child is on, the exam session, and what the work will involve. There are no published rates and no packages. The application and the first two conversations are free; nobody commits to anything until we both agree it is the right fit.

Which exam boards do you cover?

Cambridge (CAIE) IGCSE, all tiers: Mathematics 0580 and 0607, Physics 0625, and Additional Mathematics 0606. If your child is on another board, ask anyway — IGCSE content overlaps heavily across boards, and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it.

Year 10 or Year 11 — when should we start?

Year 10 is structurally better. It leaves room to repair foundations properly, build timed-paper pace gradually, and make the tier and IB-subject decisions with evidence rather than under deadline pressure. Starting in Year 11 still works well, especially from the autumn term; starting after the mocks becomes triage, and I will say so plainly if that is the situation.

Can you help us choose between AA/AI and SL/HL for the IB?

Yes — this is one of the most valuable conversations I have with IGCSE families. We look at actual IB questions, realistic grades, and the entry requirements of target university courses, then map the choice: AA for the algebra-fluent and STEM-bound, AI for modelling and statistics, and what HL genuinely demands in maths and physics. Better settled in Year 11 than discovered in DP1.

Does starting tutoring early create dependency?

Done badly, yes. This method is built the other way: diagnosis of the exact broken step, reasoning documented in the student's own words, and a session archive the student owns and can search independently. The explicit goal is a student who stops needing the tutor — the IGCSE cases on this page ended with students carrying the habits into the IB on their own feet.

You apply through the application page. I reply within 48 hours. If it looks like a fit, we have two free conversations before anyone commits: one to understand the situation — board, tier, school, targets — and one to agree the weekly rhythm and the plan through the exams and into the IB. Only then do we schedule the first paid session.

Cambridge IGCSE — Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Physics

IGCSE maths and physics tutor, one-to-one, online

One-to-one online tutoring in IGCSE Mathematics (0580, 0607), Additional Mathematics 0606, and IGCSE Physics (0625), run from Milan for students worldwide. The point is not just the grade in June — it is arriving at the IB with the algebra fluency, reasoning habits, and exam pace the Diploma assumes you already have.

IGCSE is the last stage where pattern recognition still pays. Your child can earn a good grade by recognising question types and reproducing worked examples, while the understanding underneath never becomes load-bearing. The IB finds out in the first term of DP1 — when the questions stop looking like the textbook and fixing the gap gets expensive.

I work one-to-one, online, with a small number of IGCSE students at a time, on the Cambridge (CAIE) syllabus, at every tier — including families in Milan preparing for the international schools here. If you are looking for an IGCSE maths tutor in Milan, or an IGCSE physics tutor online more broadly, who treats these years as the foundation they actually are — not a holding pattern before the real course starts — this page will tell you whether we are a fit.

Unfamiliar-question format: fine, until it stopped looking like the textbook.

IGCSE already contains the seed of the IB style: unfamiliar contexts, multi-step reasoning, method marks for correct working even when the final answer is wrong. In Extended 0580 and International Maths 0607, the grade-deciding questions are the ones where the first line of the solution is not obvious. We train exactly that habit — reading an unfamiliar question, deciding what it is actually asking, and starting anyway — because it transfers directly to IB papers two years later.

The confidence gap: the grades are fine, the confidence is not.

"I'm not a maths person" at fifteen is still reversible. At seventeen, mid-Diploma, it is much more expensive. Usually the label is wrong anyway: what looks like a lack of ability is one broken step — fractions, negative numbers, rearranging equations — that was never repaired and now taxes every new topic. We find the exact step where the reasoning broke and fix that, rather than re-teaching everything around it.

IB subject choice: made with half the information, ahead of time.

AA or AI. SL or HL. Physics or not. These decisions close doors if they are made on vibes, and they are usually made in Year 11, by students who have never seen an IB paper. An IGCSE maths and physics tutor who teaches the IB courses as well can show you what AA HL actually demands, what AI SL actually contains, how AA SL compares with AI HL, and what choosing Physics SL or Physics HL really commits you to — and which university courses require which — before the school deadline, not after week three of DP1. Families weighing this decision at a Milan international school can see the dedicated IB Maths tutor in Milan page.

Core vs. Extended: the decision being made for you, not with you.

Tier entry caps the grade before the exam happens. Core Mathematics 0580 caps at a grade C. Sometimes the lower tier is the right call — a secure pass beats a failed stretch — but schools sometimes make it by default, from one mock, without telling you what the cap costs. If your child is anywhere near the boundary, it is worth an honest external assessment before the entry is confirmed. The same applies in reverse: a student quietly capable of Additional Mathematics 0606 who is never offered it loses the single best preparation for IB HL maths and physics.

Exam-time pressure: unlimited time at home, ninety minutes in the exam.

Exam pace is built at IGCSE or never. A student who produces perfect homework over three relaxed hours and then runs out of time on Paper 2 does not have a knowledge problem — they have a pace problem, and pace is a trained skill. We run timed sections early and often: which questions to bank first, how to lay out working so method marks survive a wrong final answer, and when to move on. These habits, built at fifteen, are still working at eighteen.

The syllabuses, covered properly

What an IGCSE maths and physics tutor actually works through

Coverage follows the syllabus your school is actually entered for — Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 (Core and Extended), Cambridge International Mathematics 0607, Cambridge IGCSE Physics 0625, and Cambridge Additional Mathematics 0606 for students heading towards IB HL. We sequence around your school calendar and mock schedule, not a fixed course outline. The full syllabus documents are published by Cambridge International.

Algebra fluency first: manipulating expressions, solving and rearranging equations, indices and surds, quadratics, simultaneous equations — the layer every later topic in maths and physics quietly taxes

Functions and graphs: linear, quadratic, exponential and trigonometric functions, transformations, and reading unfamiliar function behaviour before computing — the direct bridge to IB Analysis and Approaches

Geometry, trigonometry and vectors: circle theorems, sine and cosine rule, bearings, and the multi-step geometry questions that decide the top of the Extended markband

Statistics and probability: cumulative frequency, histograms, tree diagrams and combined probability — the most under-practised marks in 0580 and 0607

Additional Mathematics 0606: logarithms and exponentials, binomial expansion, coordinate geometry of the circle, introductory differentiation and integration — the closest thing IGCSE has to a rehearsal for IB HL maths

IGCSE Physics 0625: motion, forces and energy; electricity and circuits; waves; thermal physics; and the required practicals — taught so the maths inside physics (rearranging formulas, units, graphs) is fluent, not memorised

Paper technique by code: which papers your tier sits, where method marks live, calculator vs non-calculator discipline, and timing plans per paper

Exam rhythm: timed past-paper sections from early in the course, building to full papers under exam conditions in the mock season

The method

Diagnosis first, then a fixed weekly rhythm

We start by finding the exact step where the reasoning broke — not the topic, the step. Each week opens with last week's wrong answers, reworked from scratch, so errors are retired rather than repeated. Every session is recorded, summarised, and archived into a searchable library the student keeps — useful now, and invaluable when the same algebra reappears inside an IB HL question in two years. We work on Zoom with a shared Excalidraw whiteboard; I am based in Milan and teach online worldwide. The method is the same across courses; what changes is the syllabus, and the IGCSE ones are what this page is about.

See the full method →

Documented, not promised

The habits built at IGCSE show up in IB results years later

Tommaso Bagnoli started with me in the IGCSE years, working through Additional Mathematics 0606, and stayed through IB Math AA SL — four years in total. In his public Google review he writes that Renzo was "instrumental in helping me achieve my academic goals… always prepared, never late." The 0606 foundation is not incidental to that story: the algebra pace and calculus first contact built at IGCSE are what made the IB years a continuation rather than a rescue. You can read the public Google review.

Greta Lotti's path ran the same direction: we started with IGCSE International Mathematics 0607 and continued through IB Physics HL. Early investment in fluency, compounding into the hardest sciences stream the IB offers. Her public Google review is on the results page.

And a Grade 9 student at the American School of Milan, in his pre-IB year, ended 2021–2022 with two formal school honours: the Academic Achievement Award for Grade 9 and the Excellence Award — Renaissance. His mother's WhatsApp message of 18 June 2022 said: "Thank you! Honestly I am surprised for his achievement. I am so proud." The useful word is "surprised" — evidence of change the parent did not see coming. That is what these years are for.

All documented results →

IB Math Tutor

IB Physics Tutor

The IB is hard. Arriving prepared changes everything.

If you recognise your child in the situations above — strong grades on fragile foundations, a tier decision being made by default, IB subjects being chosen blind — the next step is a conversation, not a commitment. Applications are reviewed personally, I reply within 48 hours, and the first two conversations are free. I take a small number of students at a time so the work stays one-to-one in fact, not just in name. An IGCSE maths and physics tutor is cheapest in the years when the cracks are still small.

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