Physics and Chemistry private tutoring at lycée: how to make real progress

Private tutoring in Physics and Chemistry at lycée has to deal with a particular difficulty: in just a few lines, a single exercise can draw on course content, Maths, a graph, units and an interpretation of the result. A student can know the required formula perfectly and still fail because they do not recognise the model, convert a unit incorrectly or cannot justify the move from one step to the next.

After six years of private tutoring, I therefore find it more useful to look for the exact point where the reasoning breaks down than to conclude too quickly that the student “doesn’t understand Physics”. Support then becomes far more targeted.

1. The specific difficulties of Physics and Chemistry at lycée

The current Physics and Chemistry curriculum in the general track is progressive. According to Éduscol (the French Ministry of Education’s portal for teachers), Physics and Chemistry accounts for 3 hours a week in Seconde (the first year of lycée), general and technological tracks, then 4 hours in Première (the second year) and 6 hours in Terminale (the final year of lycée) for students who choose and keep the specialty in the general track. The curricula in force for these year groups are still those of 2019.

The ministry presents the specialty around four broad themes: the constitution and transformations of matter, motion and interactions, energy — conversions and transfers, and waves and signals. It also states that teaching relies on experimental practice and modelling to link real objects and phenomena to models and theories.

This structure explains some of the difficulties. The student regularly has to switch languages:

• moving from a text describing a situation to a diagram;
• from the diagram to the relevant physical quantities;
• from the quantities to a law or a model;
• from the model to a mathematical expression;
• from the calculation to a value with a unit;
• and then from that value to a physical interpretation.

A student may therefore seem “bad at Physics” when their main block lies elsewhere. Some cannot tell useful data from secondary information. Others understand the phenomenon but are weak at algebraic manipulation. Others still can calculate but never check whether a speed of several million metres per second is consistent with the situation.

Symptom	Possible block	Priority work
“I never know which formula to use”	The model or the quantities have not been identified	Describe the situation and name the quantities before any formula
The course content is known but the exercises remain difficult	Knowledge is not transferred to a new situation	Compare several problems that use the same principle in different forms
Lots of numerical errors	Weak conversions, powers of ten or algebraic manipulation	Isolate these automatic skills, then feed them back into Physics exercises
Correct result with no justification	Implicit reasoning	Have the student state the law, assumptions, substitution and conclusion
Absurd result not spotted	No check of units or order of magnitude	Add a systematic validation step

Good private tutoring therefore starts with a diagnosis, as our article on mistakes with functions in Seconde shows. There is no point giving twenty exercises on forces if the student is first stuck on vectors or on reading the system being studied.

2. Linking course content, units and models

Physics and Chemistry becomes simpler once formulas stop being learnt as an independent list. A relationship has to be linked to a model, to quantities and to the conditions under which it can be used.

Take a basic situation: a student uses v = d / Δt. If they apply the formula directly with a distance in kilometres and a time in seconds, then write “m/s” out of habit, the problem is not the formula. They are not yet correctly linking the quantity calculated, the data and the expected unit.

Before a calculation, I recommend a short sequence:

1. What are we studying? Identify the system and the question.
2. Which quantities do we know? Write them down with their values and units.
3. Which model or law links these quantities?
4. Are the units compatible? Convert before substituting the numbers.
5. Is the result plausible?

This method slightly slows down the first exercises, but it prevents the student from choosing a formula simply because it contains the letters they saw in the question.

The unit is a reasoning tool, not decoration

In private tutoring, units provide a very effective diagnosis. If a student ends up with an energy in seconds or a concentration with no unit, you need to go back to the meaning of the quantities before simply correcting the calculation.

A simplistic rule should nevertheless be avoided: checking the units does not prove that an answer is right. An expression can be dimensionally consistent and rest on the wrong model. The unit is an additional check, not a proof.

Build revision sheets around the relationships between concepts

A Physics and Chemistry revision sheet is more useful when it links a law to its conditions, a diagram and an example than when it contains fifteen formulas squeezed onto one page.

For amount of substance, for example, the student must be able to distinguish situations in which they have a mass, a concentration or a number of entities. The real learning lies in recognising which of these representations matches the problem set.

Private tutoring can ask the student to compare similar exercises: “what changes between these two questions? why are you using this relationship here and not in the other one?” Putting this into words often reveals more than the numerical result alone.

3. Learning to set out scientific reasoning

The official Physics and Chemistry curricula are not just a body of knowledge. They structure the scientific approach around skills such as taking ownership of a situation, analysing or reasoning, carrying out, validating and communicating. These verbs are useful for understanding what a private tutor really needs to work on.

Faced with an exercise, the student can follow a simple framework:

1. Take ownership: what is the question asking, what information is available, which system is being studied?
2. Analyse: which physical or chemical principle is relevant? which assumptions are needed?
3. Carry out: do the construction, the calculation or the data processing.
4. Validate: check units, sign, order of magnitude and consistency with the phenomenon.
5. Communicate: present the reasoning and conclude with a sentence that genuinely answers the question.

A systematic review published in 2025 on problem-solving strategies in physics examined 118 studies and highlights the value of structured approaches, multiple representations and methods in which the student remains active in solving the problem. The studies brought together are very heterogeneous and cover several countries and levels; they do not make it possible to prescribe a single recipe for a French lycée student. They do, however, support a useful principle: solving a Physics problem is not just about recognising a formula and substituting numbers into it.

Have the student explain the step they have just written

When a student writes “according to Newton’s second law” or “we use Beer-Lambert”, the tutor can ask: “why does this law apply here?”

If they cannot answer, a correct formula may be masking fragile understanding. Conversely, a student who chooses the right law, states their assumptions and then makes a small calculation error does not have the same learning need.

4. A method for solving exercises that avoids the “leap to the formula”

A method must remain simple enough to be used under pressure during a test. Here is the one I recommend as a starting point.

Step 1: rephrase the question

“Calculate the speed” is less precise than “determine the value of the object’s speed from the distance travelled and the time taken”. Rephrasing forces the student to identify the quantity being sought.

Step 2: extract the data with their units

Write down only the information needed. Then convert if necessary. Conversions done in your head are a frequent source of errors with millilitres, litres, kilometres, hours, milliseconds or powers of ten.

Step 3: produce a representation

Depending on the chapter, this may be a diagram of the system, a force diagram, an axis, a graph, a reaction equation or a progress table. A representation is not required for every question, but it should be used when it clarifies the relationships between the quantities.

Step 4: choose and write the model before substituting values

First write the relationship with symbols. This makes it possible to check what is known and what is being sought and, sometimes, to isolate the quantity before introducing the values.

Step 5: calculate, then check

A calculator does not validate the reasoning. Check the unit, the sign and the order of magnitude. If a concentration becomes negative or a duration obtained clearly does not fit the situation, go back.

Step 6: conclude

The last line must answer the question with the quantity, the value, the unit and, where necessary, its interpretation.

In private tutoring, this method should not be recited mechanically. At first, the tutor can guide each step. Then they gradually withdraw the questions. The real sign of progress is that the student starts by identifying the system themselves, drawing what is useful and checking their result.

5. What role for experiments and diagrams?

Physics and Chemistry is an experimental science. The ministry states that the specialty relies on experimental practice and modelling to link observed phenomena with theoretical models. Éduscol also offers resources on measurement, uncertainty, modelling, data analysis and experimental activities, including some using a smartphone.

Online private tutoring does not replace all the practical work done in the lycée laboratory. The tutor does not have to recreate at the student’s home an experiment requiring equipment or substances that must be used in a suitable setting. The session can, however, prepare for and make use of the experimental approach:

• understanding what a protocol is trying to measure;
• identifying the relevant variables;
• predicting a result qualitatively;
• analysing a table of measurements;
• building or reading a graph;
• discussing an uncertainty or a source of error;
• concluding on the validity of a model from the data.

The diagram should be part of the reasoning

In mechanics, optics or electricity, drawing the situation can prevent the student from heading in the wrong direction. A study of upper secondary physics students published in 2019 shows precisely both the value and the difficulty of using multiple representations — diagrams, written explanations, mathematical expressions — in problem-solving. It does not prove that a diagram automatically improves every exercise; above all, it highlights that students need to learn to build and coordinate several representations.

A tutor can therefore ask the student to move deliberately from one form to another: “tell me about the situation without a formula”, “draw it”, “which quantities can you see?”, then “which relationship expresses what you have just drawn?”

This approach is particularly useful for students who can reproduce a standard exercise but get lost as soon as the question is worded differently.

6. How often should sessions take place, and what work in between?

There is no scientifically optimal frequency that applies to every student. One session a week is often a practical starting point when a difficulty in a subject is recurring, but it should not become an automatic norm.

In Terminale, general track, the Physics and Chemistry specialty already accounts for 6 hours of teaching a week according to Éduscol. Adding an hour of private tutoring therefore does not make up for a lack of work between sessions. Its value lies in unblocking, organising and directing that work.

Situation	Possible organisation
One chapter that is occasionally difficult	A few targeted sessions, then stopping or spacing them out once the block is lifted
Recurring difficulties but sound foundations	About one session a week + independent practice
Fragile prerequisites from the previous year	Regular follow-up, with part of the time devoted to the foundations that are really needed
Independent student preparing for a deadline	More widely spaced sessions to correct method, deal with mistakes and work on full exam papers

Between two sessions, a precise instruction is better than “revise your Physics”. For example: redo an exercise without the correction, learn the necessary definitions, then solve two different problems that use the same model.

The tutor can also keep a list of recurring mistakes: forgetting a conversion, the sign of a vector, misreading the limiting reactant, a conclusion with no unit, confusing a value with a change. Before a test, this list often becomes more useful than rereading the whole exercise book.

On NOEO, the tutor can attach targeted exercises and work to prepare to the follow-up. From a completed session, the student can also choose to launch a Learn pack, which may contain a revision sheet, flashcards or a quiz. The Learn pack is not created automatically after each session: it is there when the student chooses to extend the work done during the session.

7. How to choose a Physics and Chemistry tutor at lycée?

The first criterion is genuine command of the level taught. A tutor able to help effectively in Seconde is not automatically suited to the Terminale specialty, where mathematical modelling and the density of the curriculum increase.

In particular, check:

• the lycée year groups actually taught;
• command of both the Physics and the Chemistry needed for follow-up;
• the ability to go back over the mathematical tools without turning the whole session into a Maths session;
• how the tutor gets the student to reason rather than solving things for them;
• the place given to units, diagrams, graphs and interpretations;
• the ability to explain the same concept from several angles;
• the follow-up planned between two sessions.

In a first conversation, one question is particularly revealing: “What do you do when the student knows the course content but cannot start the exercise?” An answer focused only on “doing lots of exercises” is incomplete. You also need to identify why the student does not recognise the model, does not select the data or does not organise their approach.

Our article on choosing a private tutor for your child details the general criteria to check before starting. For families who prefer remote sessions, our guide to online private tutoring also sets out the conditions needed for the student to stay active during the session.

On NOEO, the tutors shown are selected by subject and year group, and several profiles currently listed teach Physics and Chemistry. The point of this validation by year group is to avoid assuming that a strong scientific background is automatically enough to support any class.

8. How can you tell whether private tutoring is really helping?

The school average matters, but it varies with chapters, tests and marking schemes. To measure the work of a Physics and Chemistry tutor at lycée, also look for signs closer to reasoning.

At the start	Sign of progress
The student immediately looks for a formula	They start by identifying the system, the data and the model
They regularly mix up units	They convert before substituting values and check the final unit
They only succeed in exercises identical to the model	They recognise the same principle in a question worded differently
They wait for the tutor to draw	They produce a useful diagram or representation themselves
They accept the calculator’s result	They check the order of magnitude and spot some absurd results
They understand during the session but get stuck alone	Several days later, they redo a similar exercise without the correction

These changes do not guarantee an immediate rise in the average, but they show that the student is becoming more independent in the subject. This is also what the tutor should aim for: gradually reducing the amount of help needed.

Private tutoring becomes less useful if it is used every week to do the homework in the student’s place. In the short term, more questions may get finished. In the long term, the lycée student risks remaining dependent on guidance. A good session should therefore alternate explanation, supported exercises and tasks completed with less help.

To find support suited to the student’s year group, you can browse the tutors selected on NOEO. The aim is not to promise a particular school result, but to choose a tutor who can identify the blocks, work on scientific reasoning and build continuity between sessions.