Fiona
premium
University of Cambridge
PhD in Theology
Graduate
5About Me
I have a PhD in Theology from Cambridge. I received an offer to do my master’s studies in English, History, or Theology from 12 universities including Oxford and Cambridge.
I secured scholarships worth more than £40K to do my master’s and PhD studies, including a Gates Cambridge scholarship. Scholarships for humanities students are extremely competitive. Of my fellow PhD cohort at Cambridge, only one person received full funding. Most people funded their studies with their savings or a loan. I received multiple scholarships each worth a few thousand pounds. This demonstrates my ability to write strong scholarship application essays to secure funding.
When I finished my PhD studies in 2015, I started an education consulting company. I coach students on how to write their personal statement, CV, research proposal and other application essays. I applied what I learned writing scholarship application essays in my work teaching students how to write personal statements.
In the past ten years, I have helped hundreds of students receive offers to study at top universities in the UK and the US. I specialise in coaching undergraduates or working professionals applying to do their master’s or PhD studies.
I also offer English proficiency test prep courses (IELTS and TOEFL) and teach humanities undergraduates how to write academic essays.
My teaching style
In terms of writing the personal statement, I first ask my students to brainstorm ideas. We then discuss what to keep and what to delete when we are structuring the essay. I will then guide my students to give examples and details to demonstrate their skill or experience.
As for writing an academic essay, I will first guide my students to gain knowledge of the material by writing summaries. We will then come up with an argument and structure the essay. Finally, we will add supporting details and examples to demonstrate the main points.
Taking my class is not about me telling my students what the correct answers are. Writing academic essays, whether it is a personal statement or a history paper, is about me guiding my students to apply critical thinking as they engage with the topic. I want my students to come up with an idea, and I will help them by developing the idea along the same line.
My English proficiency test prep courses tend to be on the speaking and writing sections of the tests. Students who need to take an English proficiency test are not native English speakers. It takes a long time to internalise grammar and English usage rules. I am an extremely patient teacher. Language acquisition is all about practising the same thing again and again: making mistakes, getting corrected by me, making the same mistakes again, getting corrected multiple times. Sometimes the same mistake has to be corrected 100 times before the student can internalise a rule. I am happy to be the teacher who corrects the same mistake 100 times.
My past experience
I have 20+ years of teaching/tutoring experience. I have taught English proficiency test prep (IELTS, GRE, TOEFL, TEFL) and academic essay writing in history, English, and theology.
I also have 10+ years of personal statement coaching experience.
My Proudest Achievements
I was not in debt when I finished my PhD studies (extremely rare in humanities subjects). I managed to fund my studies by securing scholarships worth over £40K and by working as a personal statement tutor throughout my studies.
I went on to start an education consulting business. In the past ten years, I have helped dozens if not hundreds of students receive an offer to study.
I teach
- Oxbridge Interview
- IELTS
- TOEFL
- TEFL
- GRE
My Results and Achievements
- Offer from Oxford
- offer from Cambridge
- helped dozens receive offers