Undergraduate economics tutoring with Tom

I am Tom, a Cambridge-educated economist turned economics tutor.

Specifically I studied the Cambridge Economics undergraduate course, as well as the Master’s in Economic Research from Cambridge (with distinction).

I have experience tutoring undergraduate economics students since 2020. I have also supported students with undergraduate applications since 2016.

What types of economics undergraduate tutoring do I offer?

Here is what I can offer for undergraduate economics tuition:

• Support with undergraduate economics modules. I can either offer support for all economics modules, or we can focus on selected module(s) as you request.
• Head start to undergraduate economics.
  • Get a head start over the summer ahead of your economics modules.
  • I can give you a solid foundation on undergraduate micro, macro, maths and/or econometrics to set you up for success and give you confidence ahead of the course.
  • I can also help with head starts for those going into second- or third-year undergraduate economics.
• University applications I can also offer advice on applications for economics (straight or joint honours) university courses in the UK.

More details about experience and modules

I have tutored students studying economics or economics joint honours courses at several UK universities. These include:

• Cambridge.
• LSE.
• UCL.
• Exeter.
• KCL.
• Manchester.
• Sussex.
• Loughborough.
• Heriot-Watt and more.

I am happy to adapt my teaching to any UK university’s course modules.

In addition, I can tutor almost any undergraduate economics module. This includes:

• Microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics (introductory, intermediate and advanced level modules).
• Other modules, such as:
  • Mathematics for economics.
  • Labour economics.
  • Public economics.
  • Behavioural economics.
  • Game theory.
  • Industrial organisation.
  • The economics of politics.
  • International trade.
  • Development economics.
  • Economic history.
• Dissertations or other research projects (I do not write dissertations for students, but I am happy to be an advisor).
• Have another topic for your economics module? I am happy to tutor this too!
  • I have guided students through more unusual topics, from the economics of hotels and tourism and the economics of crime to management modules.

While courses between universities can be different, my teaching is highly adapted to focus specifically on your course. I do this based on any available course materials.

When there are few practice papers available, I am able to write extra practice questions or tests for students. This can give students a real edge over others taking the exam.

How my undergraduate economics tuition can help

Understanding economics concepts from lectures – teaching and read-along

• Whether you are trying to understand indifference curves, econometrics, or macroeconomic models, I am able to break down and explain these ideas.
• This often starts by a student sharing their lecture slides or highlighting particular concepts they do not understand.
• Then I can spend time reading the lecture material in preparation for tuition sessions. This way, I can prepare explanations that bridge the gap between lecturer and student.
• Depending on the complexity of the material, we can either walk through the lecture material together, or skip to key difficult slides and focus on those ideas instead.

Helping to understand practice questions

• Learning the content is one thing, but sometimes economics undergraduate exam questions.
• If you are finding homework questions challenging, I can help explain difficult questions and provide guidance on how to solve questions.
• I can also mark question attempts for past papers or practice questions, ahead of the tuition session.

Exam preparation

• These skills mentioned above really come together in preparing before an exam.
• We can review difficult material, look at practice questions or have revision sessions before the exam.
• I am also happy to mark past paper or practice question attempts outside of sessions.
• More tips on undergraduate economics degrees.

Reading and understanding economics papers

• Reading economics papers can be critical for understanding many economics modules.
• I especially enjoy reading academic papers. I started reading papers during my four years studying Economics at Cambridge and keep reading papers to this day.
• I am willing to take the time to read any papers you find challenging, break them down and discuss the key ideas.
• Some general tips on reading economics papers can be found here and here.

Discussing research directions

• A dissertation or research paper in an undergraduate economics degree can be a student’s first experience of economics research. So it can often be challenging to know where to start.
• I have helped students at various stages of their research paper as an advisor.

Pricing and reviews of my university economics tuition

For each hour of undergraduate economics tuition I charge £99 per hour.

Please see below the reviews from previous students about how my tutoring goes beyond the standard economics tuition:

“Had an unbelievable understanding of Econometrics and complex topics which he could explain every detail of. Particularly for a layman, he made topics simpler.”

“Tom helped me with my Masters personal statement and dissertation work and I have successfully got an offer at the university of my choice! I found that he was very thorough when giving me feedback on my dissertation and it is evident that he went through line by line and cared about helping me to achieve the best possible grade. He has helped answer any queries outside of the one hour time and has read final drafts. I definitely feel I am getting the best value out of my tuition. Thank you Tom. Would definitely recommend”

“Tom is an excellent tutor and a master of Economics. We worked together across the entire duration of my final year of my BSc Economics undergraduate degree; I had even selected some optional modules from multiple different degree disciplines whereby Tom was still able to help due to his extensive knowledge surrounding Economic Principles combined with his extremely proactive attitude and persistence to ensure his students excel via genuinely understanding relevant content. Specifically, reviewing coursework, preparing for examinations via problem solving, and creating materials himself for revision are just a handful of the ways that Tom assisted me. Reviewing coursework in particular was very useful as Tom would offer multiple reviews in doing so, each one encompassing a thorough check of the validity of the content before working patiently and rigorously together on improvements. Overall, I would recommend Tom as a tutor to anybody considering Economics tuition at any level; I believe that
this is a particularly rare find today as the content of Economics varies greatly across different education levels, but Tom’s expertise simply spans all components of the subject.”

While I cannot guarantee a particular outcome from the tutoring, I will try my very best to help any student.

For the full list of 34 economics tutoring reviews, please visit the link here.

Contact information and availability

I have availability on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

I am happy to provide more specific information upon contact regarding availability for undergraduate economics tuition.

To get in touch, please feel free to email me at: tomftutor@gmail.com

More resources for undergraduate economics and applications

Here are some of my miscellaneous articles on undergraduate economics or economic research:

• What economists say about AI; from basic supply and demand to papers on economic history, elasticities and firm-level evidence.
• An introduction to how economists think about statistics.
• The key equations in economics.
• An introduction to behavioural economics: 10 behavioural biases.
• The microeconomic theory of giving gifts.
• The importance of institutions in development, including the Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson Nobel-Prize winning economics paper.
• How economists can experiment – the role of randomised trials in microfinance. Using econometrics to improve development outcomes.
• Summarising Goldin’s Nobel-Prize-winning work on women in the labour market.
• 12 tips for how to score highly in undergraduate economics.
• How to get a head start in undergraduate economics.
• How machine learning differs from standard linear regressions in econometrics.
• An introduction to utility maximisation and indifference curves, a common year 1 undergraduate economics topic.
• The economics of going to university – signalling or skills? A classic debate in the economics of education.
• How to read academic papers for economics – a guide and where to start on reading economics papers.

For more resources on economics university applications primarily, with a few introductory posts on undergraduate economics, see the link here.