The honest guide · UK market, surveyed July 2026
Free university archives, £50-a-month question banks, £18,500 admissions agencies: I priced the whole market so you don't have to. Here are the real numbers, what each option genuinely delivers, and, in the interest of honesty, which free resources I'd recommend before you spend a pound.
£0
past-paper archives & university support material
£50–300
self-study apps & question banks
£160–1,300
group courses & workshop programmes
£6.5k–18.5k+
full-service admissions agencies
The market map
Every option below exists for a reason, and I'll tell you plainly what each does well. Prices are the publicly listed 2026 rates of UK providers in each category.
£0
University-written support modules and decades of past papers with worked solutions, maintained by universities and volunteer mathematicians. Genuinely excellent, and I mean that: start here.
£50/mo – £300
Question banks and video courses with instant marking. Good for volume practice if your child is already well directed.
£160 – £1,300
Summer schools, weekly workshops and taught programmes, from subsidised ten-session courses to premium multi-week packages with group mentoring.
£6,500 – £18,500+
Complete Oxbridge admissions packages: test prep, interviews, personal statement, a managed team. Retainer plans alone run £800–£1,600 a month.
Ranges reflect publicly listed prices of UK prep platforms, course providers, tutoring agencies and admissions consultancies, surveyed July 2026. Individual specialist tutors charge £70–£250 an hour; premium London agencies average around £110 an hour before agency fees.
The gap in the market
That gap is where I built The Maths Tailor: the systematic method library of a platform, the individual attention of a dedicated specialist, and none of the agency machinery you don't need. One teacher, one method, one plan — built around your child.
Side by side
| Free archives | Self-study apps | Agencies | The Maths Tailor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full past-paper archive with solutions | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Every question mapped to a named, teachable method | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ 129 STEP / 82 TMUA methods |
| Week-by-week schedule built around your child's diary | ✗ | ✗ | ~ generic plan | ✓ |
| One-to-one with a specialist who teaches at a university that sets the TMUA | ✗ | ✗ | ~ assigned tutor | ✓ |
| Corrections written in one voice, by one expert | ~ varies by paper | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Someone who notices when your child goes quiet | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Price of a complete preparation | £0 | £50–300 | £6,500–18,500+ | from £795 |
The honest read: if your child is exceptionally self-directed, the free archives plus discipline can be enough. Most students need direction more than they need more questions.
Where we sit
Every option is built on the same platform: every past paper for your exam, each question fully corrected and tagged with the method that unlocks it, plus a personalised week-by-week schedule. The difference is how much of me comes with it.
Which exam is your child sitting?
Every pack below is set up for STEP: its methods, corrected questions, schedule and interactive papers.
Platform Access · STEP
£795
one-off · 6 months
Every STEP question ever set, decoded into the methods examiners actually reward, so your child always knows exactly what to work on next.
Kick-off & Debrief · STEP
£1,295
one-off · platform + 2 sessions
Or split in 2–3 payments with Klarna at checkout.
We chart the course together at the start, your child trains on the platform, and we pressure-test their exam readiness before the real thing.
Weekly Coaching · STEP
£1,195
per month · cancel anytime
A weekly hour with me — and a platform that turns every session into a full week of directed work between them.
Current families can add extra sessions during the final revision push at any time. A full preparation with me costs a fraction of one term's fees at the schools my students come from — and a missed offer costs a year.
Want to prepare both STEP and TMUA? Contact me for a special quote.
Fair questions
Because I sell only the thing that moves the score. Agencies bundle interview coaching, personal statements, account managers and a brand premium into one large invoice. My students get the maths — the part that decides the offer — from the specialist directly, with no machinery in between.
Start with them — they're genuinely good, and I recommend them to every family. What they cannot do is tell your child which of the hundreds of problems to do next, name the method they keep missing, or notice when practice quietly stops. Direction, not content, is what most students are missing.
Yes — that's the design. Start with Platform Access, upgrade to sessions when you want eyes on the work, or add extra hours in the final revision weeks. Most families start with Kick-off & Debrief: it sets the plan early and checks the readiness late, which is where one-to-one time matters most.
A pack covers one exam. You choose STEP or TMUA before checkout, and the platform is set up for that exam: its methods, its corrected questions, its schedule, its papers. Preparing both? Book a call and I'll put together a special quote.
With me — an Oxford-trained mathematician who taught at the LSE for seven years, and who built the platform. There is no bench of junior tutors behind the curtain: every session, in every pack, is with me.
You book both directly with me after purchase. The kick-off happens in the first days: a diagnosis, then a campaign plan we build together on your child's schedule. The mock debrief sits two to four weeks before the exam, on a full past paper taken in real conditions — the moment to fix what the real thing would punish.
Anytime, in two clicks — there is no term-long commitment. Platform access and sessions run to the end of the month you've paid for, then stop. Most families simply stop after the exam; that is how it's meant to work.
Yes — Kick-off & Debrief can be split into 2–3 payments with Klarna, directly at checkout. The total stays the same; only the friction is smaller.
Take the first step
Fifteen minutes, no obligation. Tell me the target and the timeline, and I'll tell you honestly which of the options on this page fits — including the free ones, if that's the truthful answer.