Private Tutoring (1:1) · Mathematics
60-minute lessons · billed every four lessons
HK$700 per hour
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GCSE / IGCSE
IGCSE / GCSE mathematics tutoring: confirm the board first (Cambridge 0580 or Edexcel 4MA1), then the tier, practise to that board's paper combination and calculator rules, and mark against the published mark schemes. One-to-one, 60 minutes a lesson, in Kwun Tong or online, with a free first trial lesson.
Looking for IGCSE or GCSE mathematics tutoring? At PY Education, this subject is taught by founder and principal tutor Tinnie. She holds an MSc in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics (Distinction), first-class honours degrees in Accounting and Finance and in Data Science and Business Analytics from the University of London, and a BBA in Professional Accountancy from CUHK. She teaches mathematics for GCSE / IGCSE, GCE A-Level / IAL (including Further Mathematics), IBDP and AP.
Lessons follow the current syllabus and mark schemes of the board the student is entered with, covering the Core and Extended tiers of Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics (0580) and the Foundation and Higher tiers of Edexcel International GCSE Mathematics A (4MA1). One-to-one private tutoring, 60 minutes a lesson, HK$700 an hour, settled every four lessons, in Kwun Tong or online, which suits students here and students studying overseas. The first lesson can be a free trial.
IGCSE mathematics goes by the same name at every board, but the subject codes, the tier names and the grade scales are not the same. So when you enrol we ask three things first: which board the school uses, what the subject code is, and whether the tier has been settled.
The tier only comes after the board. The two boards set the same topic in different ways and put the marks in different places, so the past papers and mark schemes used for practice are always the ones from the board the student is actually entered with. As for which tier to take, we look at a recent test or mock paper in the free trial lesson and weigh it up together, rather than settling it for the student in advance.
From the 2025 examinations each 0580 tier has its own pair of papers, one on which a calculator may not be used and one on which it may; within a tier the two papers carry the same marks, the same time and the same weighting.
Note that Core is eligible for grades C to G, not A* to G; Extended runs from A* down to E. The same 2025 revision also added surds, and the exact values of sin, cos and tan for particular angles, to the Extended content.
Examination series: Cambridge holds two examination series, June and November, plus a March series held in India only.
Edexcel International GCSE Mathematics A (4MA1) is graded 9–1 and has two tiers. Foundation candidates sit papers 1F and 2F, targeting grades 5 to 1; Higher candidates sit papers 1H and 2H, targeting grades 9 to 4. All four papers are 2 hours, 100 marks and 50% each, and under Pearson's specification a calculator may be used in all four — 4MA1 has no non-calculator paper. There is no Core and Extended here, and no A* to G scale: where the school's paperwork says 4MA1, the papers are arranged as Foundation and Higher, and practice and marking follow Pearson's mark schemes.
Examination series: Edexcel International GCSE holds two series, January and June, which are not the same as Cambridge's June and November, so the revision rhythm differs as well.
The first four lessons usually stay on three pieces of algebra — indices, algebraic manipulation and factorisation, and equations and inequalities — until they run without stopping to think, rather than rushing a pass over every topic. These three come back through the geometry, trigonometry and statistics questions later on.
Key topics (the three lists below follow the Cambridge 0580 syllabus, with the Extended-only content marked; Edexcel 4MA1 is tiered as well, with the scope set by Pearson's specification):
The 2020 revision of 0580 removed matrices and loci. Transformations — translation, reflection, rotation and enlargement — were not removed, and both tiers are still examined on them; Core's scope is narrower: reflection is limited to horizontal or vertical lines, rotation to multiples of 90° about the origin, a vertex of the shape or the midpoint of a side, and enlargement to positive or fractional scale factors. As well as drawing the image, a transformation question asks for a full description: a rotation needs the angle, the direction and the centre, an enlargement needs the scale factor and the centre.
Key topics:
The sine and cosine rules appear at Extended only. The method used in the lesson is to write down which three pieces of information the question gives — two sides and an angle, two angles and a side, or three sides — and decide the rule from that, rather than from which rule the diagram looks like.
Key topics:
Cumulative frequency questions ask for the median and the lower and upper quartiles to be read off the graph, with the readings left drawn on it; like histograms, this appears at Extended only. Tree diagrams are on both tiers, but combined events at Core are limited to with replacement — without replacement and conditional probability are Extended content, where the denominator changes at the second layer. Both kinds of question ask for the same thing on paper: the values read off and the fractions used written down, not just the final answer.
The two IGCSE boards differ here: each 0580 tier has one paper on which calculators are not allowed (Core Paper 1, Extended Paper 2), and from 2025 Additional Mathematics (0606) likewise has a non-calculator Paper 1. Edexcel 4MA1 has no such paper — a calculator may be used in all four.
The two 0580 papers do not test the same thing. The paper without a calculator tests the arithmetic itself — the four operations on fractions and decimals, squares and cubes and their roots, and holding accuracy without a machine; surds and the exact values of sin, cos and tan for particular angles were added to Extended in 2025, Core has neither, and for Core, calculating with standard form comes up only on Paper 3, the calculator paper. The paper with a calculator tests whether the working is complete, whether values are rounded as the question asks (how many decimal places, how many significant figures), and whether a whole paper can be finished.
So the two 0580 papers are practised separately: the non-calculator paper is done to time, then checked step by step by the student before looking at the answers; the calculator paper asks for the expression with the values substituted written out, rather than the figure copied off the machine. 4MA1 has no non-calculator paper, so practice there concentrates on the latter — full working, values rounded as the question asks, and a 100-mark paper finished within 2 hours. The calculator has a second use in the lesson: checking — working the same question a second way and seeing whether the two agree.
Cambridge and Pearson both publish a mark scheme alongside each past paper, listing method marks and accuracy marks separately: method marks are for the expression or the theorem used, and accuracy marks for the final value. Marks are given line by line, so a question with the working written out and the last step miscalculated still carries its method marks — which is why the expressions and theorems used go on the paper.
Take a sine rule question: the complete answer runs to three lines — a / sin A = b / sin B first, then the line with the values substituted, and only then the answer, rounded as the question asks. The mark scheme also notes where credit can follow through from the student's own previous answer, so a question is worth finishing even after spotting a slip partway.
We mark from the same document: the past paper together with that session's mark scheme, question by question, so the student sees which line the marks actually fall on rather than only whether the answer was right.
Cambridge IGCSE Additional Mathematics (0606) is a separate syllabus, taken alongside 0580 rather than in place of it. It is untiered and has two papers, each 2 hours, 80 marks and 50%, with grades from A* to E. From the 2025 examinations Paper 1 does not allow a calculator and Paper 2 requires a scientific calculator — the same revision that brought the non-calculator paper to 0580. The Edexcel counterpart is Further Pure Mathematics (4PM1).
0606 also covers integration, logarithms, radians and the binomial expansion — none of these are in 0580 or 4MA1, and all of them come up later in A-Level mathematics and IB Analysis and Approaches HL. It depends on the school offering it; whether to add it, and when to start, can be weighed up together in the trial lesson.
IAL P1 and IB Analysis and Approaches use IGCSE algebra from the opening lesson: simplifying algebraic fractions, factorisation, quadratic equations and the discriminant, laws of indices and surds. At IGCSE these are questions in their own right; at IAL and IB they turn up as a step inside a longer question. For students heading down either route we take these through another round in the second half of the IGCSE course, done without a calculator.
Logarithms, radians and the binomial expansion are not in 0580 or 4MA1; they are topics that begin after A-Level or IB starts. A student who wants an early look at them can have that arranged in the later IGCSE lessons. Tinnie teaches IAL, IBDP and AP mathematics as well, so the same tutor handles the bridge.
The trial lesson starts by confirming the board, the subject code and the paper combination, looks at a recent test or mock paper, and then talks through which topic to start from. There is no request to sign up on the spot.
Kwun Tong
Online
60 minutes (1 hour)
60-minute lessons · billed every four lessons
HK$700 per hour
Mathematics is HK$700 an hour, lessons are one hour, and fees are settled every four lessons — HK$2,800 for four — taught by Tinnie. The three business subjects in the same IGCSE course (Accounting, Business and Economics) are HK$700 an hour and are taught by the founder, Tinnie; each has its own subject page. The first lesson can be a free trial either way.
All three. Tell us which board the school uses and the subject code, and we teach from that board's syllabus and its published mark schemes. Worth knowing: the boards differ in tier names and grade scales too. Cambridge 0580 has Core (grades C to G) and Extended (grades A* to E); Edexcel 4MA1 has Foundation (targeting grades 5 to 1) and Higher (targeting grades 9 to 4) on the 9–1 scale.
Both tiers are taught, but Edexcel is not divided that way. Core and Extended belong to Cambridge 0580; Edexcel International GCSE Mathematics A (4MA1) has Foundation (papers 1F and 2F) and Higher (papers 1H and 2H), graded 9–1. So which board the school enters comes first, and the tier after that. If it is not settled yet, bring a recent test paper to the trial lesson and we will weigh it up together. There is no request to sign up on the spot.
Extended runs from A* down to E; Core from C down to G — note that Core is not A* to G. That is the Cambridge 0580 system. Edexcel 4MA1 uses 9–1, where Foundation targets grades 5 to 1 and Higher grades 9 to 4. The tier entered sets the grade range, so it is worth confirming with the school before entries are made.
Yes. From the 2025 examinations each tier has one paper on which a calculator is not allowed and one on which it is: Core sits Paper 1 (no calculator) and Paper 3 (calculator), Extended sits Paper 2 (no calculator) and Paper 4 (calculator), and within a tier the two papers carry the same marks, time and weighting, 50% each. The same revision added surds and the exact values of sin, cos and tan for particular angles to Extended. Note that Edexcel differs: 4MA1 has no non-calculator paper — a calculator may be used in all four of 1F, 2F, 1H and 2H.
Matrices are not. They were removed at the 2020 revision, and loci with them. Transformations — translation, reflection, rotation and enlargement — were not removed, and both tiers are still examined on them; Core's scope is narrower: reflection in horizontal or vertical lines, rotation in multiples of 90° about the origin, a vertex or the midpoint of a side, and enlargement with positive or fractional scale factors. As well as the drawing, these questions ask for a full description: a rotation needs the angle, the direction and the centre, an enlargement the scale factor and the centre.
It depends on what comes after. 0606 is a separate syllabus taken alongside 0580, not in place of it. It is untiered, with two papers of 2 hours and 80 marks, 50% each, graded A* to E. From the 2025 examinations Paper 1 does not allow a calculator and Paper 2 requires a scientific calculator — the same revision that brought a non-calculator paper to 0580. The Edexcel counterpart is Further Pure Mathematics (4PM1). 0606 covers integration, logarithms, radians and the binomial expansion — none of these are in 0580 or 4MA1, and all of them come up later in A-Level mathematics and IB AA HL. The school has to offer it. Whether to add it can be talked through in the trial lesson.
Yes. IGCSE content is spread over two years rather than compressed into one. In practice we start with a stocktake of the topics, separating what has not been taught yet from what has been taught but does not come out yet, and begin with the algebra, since the geometry and statistics questions draw on it later. We do not promise a timetable or a particular grade.
Yes. Online costs the same as face to face and lessons are 60 minutes either way; the video platform is whatever suits, as long as the time difference can be worked around. Lesson times overseas are set around local school hours; the Hong Kong evening and weekends can both be arranged.
No home tutoring. There are two options: face to face in Kwun Tong, or online. Both cost the same, HK$700 an hour. Further away, online is an option, with no travelling time to count.
Algebra, mainly. AA uses simplifying algebraic fractions, factorisation, quadratic equations and the discriminant, laws of indices and surds from the opening lessons, and assumes you do not have to stop and think about them. So we take these through another round in the second half of the IGCSE course, done without a calculator. Logarithms, radians and the binomial expansion are in neither 0580 nor 4MA1 — they begin after IB starts — and an early look at them can be arranged in the lessons.
One-to-one. IGCSE mathematics is offered as one-to-one private tutoring only, 60 minutes a lesson at HK$700 an hour, settled every four lessons. IAL, IBDP and AP mathematics are one-to-one only as well.
Private tutoring. PY Education is a tutoring centre, and mathematics here is taught one-to-one by Tinnie, face to face in Kwun Tong or online, with a free first trial lesson.
This page is about IGCSE and GCSE. Local DSE mathematics — the junior forms, the compulsory part and M1/M2 — is on the DSE mathematics page, and primary mathematics on the primary mathematics page. Lesson lengths and fees differ between them: DSE and primary lessons are 75 minutes at a price per four lessons, while IGCSE, IAL, IB and AP lessons are one hour, charged by the hour and settled every four lessons.