A Level Geology Tutoring, for Every Board
A Level Geology asks students to think in three dimensions and across deep time: to read a geological map as a structure underground, and a rock or fossil as evidence of an environment that no longer exists. OCR awards it, and its papers test that reasoning on unfamiliar data, long passages and practical scenarios as much as on recall.
Short answer
A Level Geology is offered online, one-to-one.
A private lesson runs 90 minutes and starts at USD 95 per lesson; lessons are booked singly or in packages.
No group class runs for this exam.
From USD 95 per lesson
- Structure shown for OCR
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 95 per lesson
How A Level Geology is assessed, board by board
This page covers one specification for this subject: OCR A Level Geology (H414). It is set out below from the board's own document. If your school enters you with a different board, tell us on the intro call and we will work from that board's specification instead.
OCR
| Component | Share of grade | Length | Marks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals of geology (01) — All seven modules | 41% | 2 hours 15 min | 110 marks | structured questions and extended response |
| Scientific literacy in geology (02) — All seven modules | 37% | 2 hours 15 min | 100 marks | structured questions and data response |
| Practical skills in geology (03) | 22% | 1 hour 30 min | 60 marks | practical work and data response |
| Practical endorsement in geology | — | Assessed in school | — | practical work and reported separately from the grade |
- The practical endorsement is assessed by the school across the required geology practicals and reported as pass or not classified. It carries no marks towards the A Level grade, and universities do look at it.
- OCR is the only board awarding A Level Geology. Very few schools in Africa offer it, and a student taking it is often doing so partly independently — which changes what tutoring is for.
Checked on 22 September 2026
Specifications are revised periodically. Each block links to the specification it was read from and gives the date it was checked; if your school has moved to a newer specification, that document takes precedence.
What A Level Geology covers
The syllabus areas most boards share. Which ones appear, in what order and on which paper differs by board and by specification code — your own specification is the final word. Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper.
Earth and Tectonics
Plate tectonics theory · Earthquake and volcanism mechanisms · Mountain building and erosion
Rocks and Minerals
Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks · Mineral identification techniques · The rock cycle
Fossils and Stratigraphy
Fossil types and preservation · The geological time scale · Correlation and dating methods
Where A Level Geology marks are usually lost
Drawing cross-sections that disagree with the map
Geological maps and cross-sections run through the course, and they are where spatial reasoning is tested hardest. Students lose marks by drawing dips at the wrong angle, ignoring the order of events shown by faults and unconformities, or placing boundaries that do not match the topography. A cross-section is a structural argument, and every line in it has to agree with the map.
Naming specimens from appearance alone
Students describe a rock as “grey and hard” or name a fossil without giving the evidence. OCR expects identification from diagnostic properties — texture, crystal or grain size, mineral composition, reaction with acid, the form of a fossil — followed by an interpretation of the environment in which it formed. Marks follow the chain of evidence rather than the label, so a bare name earns little.
Skimming the long scientific-literacy passages
OCR assesses scientific literacy: the ability to understand a passage of A Level text, extract information from it and use it in a calculation or an argument, often in an unfamiliar context. Students who skim miss the detail the question depends on. The skill is trained by annotating geological articles, summarising the claim and its evidence, and answering questions on material the student has never seen.
A Level Geology coursework
OCR’s Practical Endorsement in geology is a non-exam component, assessed by the school’s teachers against common practical assessment criteria and reported separately from the A Level grade. To pass, the student must show competence across a defined range of practical skills, apparatus and techniques through assessed practical activities, and the course also requires a minimum amount of fieldwork, including work on unfamiliar outcrops. A tutor can explain techniques before a practical, clarify what each competency asks for and discuss the student’s results afterwards, but the practical work, its record and the assessment remain the school’s.
A tutor can explain the criteria, question a draft and point to what is weak. The research, the writing and every decision in it stay the student’s own, as the awarding body’s rules require.
How we teach A Level Geology
A tutor treats the teaching modules as one subject: foundations, global tectonics, interpreting the past, petrology and economic geology, geohazards and basin analysis all rest on the same reading of evidence. Specimen work uses photographs and, where the student has them, hand specimens, always with a written chain of reasoning from properties to name to environment of formation. Map work is practised every week, from outcrop patterns to sections through folded and faulted ground. Data questions and longer passages are set in the style of all three written papers. Where a student is studying the subject partly alone, the tutor also plans the two years with them and checks that the school has arranged the practical activities and fieldwork the course requires.
Your starting point is reviewed before the study plan is finalised. The exact method depends on the programme and is agreed on the intro call — for some students that means a timed section, for others it means reading a recent score report or a piece of marked work. We will tell you which applies to you before you book anything, rather than describing a process here that may not be the one you get.
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A Level prices
A Level tutoring from USD 95 per 90-minute lesson. Compare lesson packages and included materials.
A Level Geology: reviews from our students
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