How to Check Whether a Tutor Can Actually Teach Across Curricula
By Renzo Diaz·3 min read
A tutor covering IGCSE, IB and A-Level maths together is not, by itself, evidence of either strength or weakness. Test the claim for your child's exact subject, syllabus code, level and exam year — with one piece of their own work — rather than accepting or dismissing it on trust.
A degree in mathematics shows subject preparation. It does not, by itself, establish familiarity with Cambridge 0580, IB Math AI HL, or a specific A-Level specification. Equally, a tutor teaching several curricula at once is not automatically a red flag — some of the most useful preparation for the IB happens precisely at the IGCSE stage, in the hands of someone who already knows where the two courses connect. The honest answer is "it depends," and the way to resolve it is a short, concrete test rather than a headline claim in either direction.
The claim should be tested for the exact subject, syllabus code, level and exam year your child is taking — not accepted or dismissed on the strength of the pitch alone.
1. A practical test for a prospective tutor
With the student's permission, provide one independently attempted problem, its course and exam session, and an authorized markscheme if one is available. Ask the tutor to explain which marks the written response could earn and why, the first line where the method or evidence becomes insufficient, one different problem that would test whether the student can repair that step independently, and which part of their advice would change if the paper belonged to another syllabus.
A confident "I can teach all maths" answers none of those four questions. A specific, syllabus-aware answer to even one of them tells you more than the pitch did.
2. Know the syllabus codes, because "maths" isn't one course
Cambridge publishes distinct, current syllabuses for IGCSE Mathematics 0580, International Mathematics 0607 and Additional Mathematics 0606. IB Mathematics has Analysis and Approaches and Applications and Interpretation, each at HL and SL, plus a mathematical exploration — and the course changes again for first assessment in 2029. A tutor who can name which of these a student is actually sitting, unprompted, is demonstrating exactly the kind of syllabus-specific awareness the test above is designed to surface.
Layer 1 — Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580
Core and Extended tiers; the most common IGCSE maths syllabus
Layer 2 — Cambridge International Mathematics 0607
A separate, internationally-oriented syllabus, not interchangeable with 0580
Layer 3 — Cambridge Additional Mathematics 0606
A harder, optional extension course, closest to a rehearsal for IB HL maths
Layer 4 — IB Mathematics AA / AI, HL / SL
Four distinct DP courses; current syllabus examined through November 2028, a revised one from 2029
3. What can genuinely change between courses
The same algebraic idea can appear under different calculator rules, question structures, and expectations about how much explanation the mark scheme actually rewards. A tutor needs to know what the target course assesses, and to teach enough of the underlying reasoning that the student can recognise the same idea inside an unfamiliar question — not just reproduce a past-paper answer. Familiarity with past-paper solutions alone can produce an impressive-looking demonstration without durable understanding underneath it.
It's worth asking about boundaries too: who selects the homework, whether work is reviewed during sessions or between them, and whether the offer includes recordings and progress monitoring or only live teaching. Get the answers in writing before assuming a service is included — they matter as much as a headline hourly rate.
4. Verify history without treating a review as a guarantee
Look for a dated history of independent reviews, checkable qualifications, and results whose evidentiary status is actually clear. A published review demonstrates that a person reported an experience; it does not prove that every student will reach the same grade. The guide to verifying a tutor's claims sets out that evidence hierarchy in more detail, and applies exactly the same way whether the tutor teaches one curriculum or several.
For a student already struggling, the decisive question stays the same regardless of how many curricula a tutor advertises: can they locate a specific failure of reasoning in this student's own work, and give the student a way to reproduce the method without help. Apply to work with Renzo with a recent piece of your child's work and that's exactly where the first conversation starts.