About Dr Torben Smith
I have a PhD in organic chemistry and more than 20 years’ experience teaching A-level Chemistry.
I spent much of my teaching career at Bilborough Sixth Form College in Nottingham, including many years as Head of Faculty and Course Leader. I now focus on private A-level Chemistry tutoring.
Chemistry is the school subject I tutor. That gives me time to know the specifications properly, keep building resources and notice the recurring details that cause students problems.
This site is specifically about my AQA tutoring. I also tutor OCR A, with separate question sets and exam-board detail for each specification. The work I choose needs to fit the student as well as the course.
How I tutor
The sequence depends on the student. Some mainly need harder questions and exam technique. Others have gaps from Year 12 that need repairing before the Year 13 material makes much sense. Resit students can need something different again.
I use exam questions heavily and spend time on why the answers work. That makes unfamiliar questions much less frightening.
Seeing how you arrived at an answer lets me spot where the reasoning went off track.
Working together on a shared board makes that straightforward. I can follow a calculation, a mechanism or a written explanation and usually spot the point where the reasoning went off track.
You can send me questions between lessons too, and I add extra questions or resources when they are useful.
AQA Chemistry in particular
AQA is one of the specifications I know in greatest detail. I have built up large banks of questions over many years and use questions from other UK boards when they are genuinely useful preparation for an AQA topic.
We can isolate one idea, practise it in several forms and then return to full AQA questions once the chemistry is secure.
More than the weekly hour
I can help with revision planning, exam technique and study habits as well as the chemistry itself. Where it fits my experience, I can also help with UCAS or personal-statement work and some entrance-exam preparation.
Chemistry remains the main service and where most of my time goes.
From my teaching years
There has been plenty of time in a real chemistry laboratory along the way, as well as thousands of student answers to read, mark and diagnose.
That background means I have spent many years looking at where students lose marks, how courses fit together and what to try when the first explanation did not help.
AQA results, 2025
All of my AQA tutees improved on their starting grade. My AQA resit students achieved A or A* and improved by two grades.
Some students make very large improvements and others start from a much lower point. The public reviews show that range quite well.
Nottingham and face-to-face tuition
I am based in Nottingham and still get a fair number of local enquiries through Google. Online tuition is my normal service, including for local students.
Face-to-face tuition may occasionally be possible by special arrangement. I price that separately.
Get in touch
WhatsApp is usually easiest. Tell me which year you’re in and what you’d like help with.
Message me on WhatsAppWhatsApp, text or voice message07749 597452
Please check your spam folder if you’re waiting for an email reply.