Woohoo! End of term! Summer's ahead – six weeks of freedom! We are heading to the beach and will have fun, all the three days of summer we have here in Scotland (unless you, like me, like swimming in cold water).

Wait – what? You have maths tuition next Monday...? And every week after? What a nightmare!

And is it, really? Why would someone need maths tuition during summer holidays? Or, actually, any holidays – I remember having lovely three-hour-long sessions a couple of times a week with a university student during the last Christmas holidays.

Well, need and want are often two very different things.

And with exams ahead and a lot of work to catch up on, it's quite understandable. But what about those who don't need any specific preparation? Those who just want or need to stay on track?

Yes, I have students having maths sessions with me during summer. Every summer. Most of them were always the "unlucky" ones who had to retake their exams after the summer holidays. To be honest, more than half of them weren't so much unlucky as just a bit lazy or irresponsible (yes, the truth hurts) for not preparing themselves on time for the proper exams during the school year. But yes, some of them were just unlucky or simply needed more help, and it also took a longer time to get them ready. And sometimes, not very often, but still, some of them didn't even pass the exam for the second time. That's just life, and yes, I do give a little bit of approval to let someone say "maths is just not for me." After a decade of maths tuition and working with hundreds of students, I confess that, yes, maths is not for everyone. BUT from my point of view, you are allowed to say that only after you've done your best and worked really hard.

And this doesn't apply to basic primary and secondary maths – those compulsory years in all countries. Unless you've been told by professionals that you belong to the special educational needs category. In that case, yes, that's exactly what it is; you may require special education and you may not be able to go through all basic maths. I accept this exception.

But let's go back to the idea of having maths tuition when you are not going to (re-)take any exams straight after the summer holidays.

It can happen when you (or mostly your parents – don't hate them for that, please!) think that you:

• simply need to stay on track when moving to a new year, crossing key stages, or even changing schools.
• need some structure even during holidays (while not being at summer camp or other funnier places than at home with a maths tutor next to you, throwing some maths at you).
• need to be better prepared for next year because the last one was not as good as expected; it's better to start sooner than try to catch up at the very last moment. Remember, maths builds on itself. If you don't have the basic knowledge, you will miss a lot of stuff later, and it will be more difficult to get it. And yes, that's where "I hate maths, maths is so difficult" comes from.

...hmm? Can you give me any more reasons? I bet there are more! =)

Anyway, if it happens for any reason that you are stuck with a maths tutor during summer, make the most of it. Remember, maths is your enemy (if you feel it this way) mostly because it's been delivered to you in the wrong way (read more in my older article, "Why do you hate maths?"). A good tutor can (and will) tailor maths sessions for you, and you'll see it from a different perspective. If you need it because you have exams after summer, work hard simply because you need it. If you just have some catch-up-and-stay-on-track lessons, make it fun! You and your tutor can find an interesting way to spend those "horrible" 60, 90 (hopefully not more! =) minutes together with maths. It's better than getting "I-hate-it" rashes every week before your session begins (and a couple of hours later as well)!

Oh, do you say it's not the maths, but the fixed schedule that bothers you the most? Especially over the summer? (Because — next Monday, your friend actually has scheduled a lit party to start the summer, which you can't miss...)

Good news: As time moves on, I've made some changes. Although I no longer tutor over the summer (yes, this is Veronika from the future, updating an almost decade-old article), I now offer something better! A flexible way of learning maths — at your own pace so you can cram as much as you need to or take it as casually as the summer holidays should feel: explore my Maths Club if you need to brush up on secondary maths up to GCSE. This can be the convenient summer learning — maths awaits!

And yes, the Maths Club runs all year round (just like me going wild swimming, all year round), not only over the summer, and is ready to support students whenever they need to; hooray!

P.S. Nat 5 is in the working — most of the course specifications are ready for you in the Maths Club — ask me for more details if you want to know more or have a sneak peak.