Meet The Team

James

Founder of The Exam Coach, 11 Plus Tutor & Expert

• University of Exeter graduate (BA History, 2:1)

• Won an 11+ scholarship to Bradfield College as a child

• Has worked in schools across the country to help students prepare for all types of exams

Fun fact: James often likes to have a cup of tea with Homer Simpson and SpongeBob SquarePants during his classes. 🫖

Ellie

Operations Manager & 11 Plus Expert

• University of Southampton graduate (BA English & History, 1st class)

• Children’s literature and creative writing specialist

• Has worked on hundreds of 11 Plus resources

Fun fact: Ellie once created a character that appeared in Wallace and Gromit. 🐩

The Exam Coach Story

January 2024

Thanks for visiting our website, it means a lot to us that you’re here!

We’ve come a long way since The Exam Coach was created a decade ago in 2014. James Davey, our founder, started the company fresh out of university, and he’s never looked back.

However, in his own school days, it’s safe to say James wasn’t the best of students… Have a look at a copy of his school report aged 13 below.

This set of reports might sound all too familiar for some of you. You or your child may have experienced a similar rough patch at school — just like James did. As we grow up there are many challenges thrown our way and staying on track at school is just one of them. School can be a bit of a rollercoaster ride.

This is exactly how it was for James; just a few weeks prior to receiving these reports, he’d won an academic and sports scholarship to Bradfield College. At times, he could produce some really great work but his lack of self-discipline and tendency to become distracted regularly threw him off-track.

James Davey (Founder): 

I didn’t understand it fully at the time, but without the scholarship, there was absolutely zero chance of me gaining admission to a school like Bradfield. Since graduating, I've come to appreciate just how important school entrance exams can be from the perspective of a parent. In particular, the 11 plus for entrance to grammar schools and scholarship examinations for entrance to independent schools. Admission to the right school can put a child in the best position to succeed in life whilst also limiting financial strain. My parents did everything they could to give me the best opportunities to develop and be successful in whatever I wanted to do. As a result, I’m passionate about paying this forward and helping other parents do the same for their children.

After a short struggle (and a couple of firm talkings to), James got his education back on track. His excellent GCSE and A Level grades gave him access to pretty much any university in the country (an extra special achievement considering no one in his family had been to university before). He ended up attending the University of Exeter.

At The Exam Coach, this is exactly what we want for your child. We want them to seize the opportunity competitive exams present and realise their full academic potential. As a result, everything we do is focussed towards helping students develop techniques and approaches to deliver consistent high performance in their 11 Plus exams.

After graduating, James was asked to return to Bradfield College to talk to the students about the changes he had made to aid his studies. Finding an unexpected passion for the topic, James ignored all guidance given and spoke for well over an hour on exam and revision techniques, as well as tips on avoiding procrastination and distractions. Before long, James was working with over twenty schools (including King's College University London, Wellington College and The King's School Canterbury) helping top performing students prepare for their exams. 

Take a look at the video below for a quick summary.

Over the past 10 years, The Exam Coach has helped thousands of students from a wide range of backgrounds up and down the UK and online across the world. During this time, we’ve discovered a huge amount about how students learn.

The Exam Coach is dedicated to figuring out what the highest performing students are doing to achieve top grades and helping other students replicate it. To do this, we have worked with thousands of students and parents, providing them with free revision resources or tutoring (such as our The Online Exam Preparation Bootcamp for GCSE and A Level students or free taster workshops for the 11 Plus). In return, we asked students/parents to send us their results and give us feedback on what they think they did well/not so well in their exams.

Have a look at some of the feedback we were sent below.

The challenges presented by the global COVID pandemic and the disruption caused to UK schools and exams led The Exam Coach to take a step back and reevaluate how we could help students. We expanded our online tuition offering and started doing as much as we could for free. Soon enough, the word got around about our 5-day 11 Plus exam preparation courses for grammar and independent schools — we were helping more and more students every week.

We honed and refined the delivery of our 11 Plus exam preparation courses across 4 key disciplines:

• 11+ English comprehension

• 11+ verbal reasoning

• 11+ creative writing

• 11+ persuasive writing

These courses cover GL, CEM, ISEB, CAT 4, Kent, Sutton SET and independent school exams. All of our courses are conducted via Zoom so they’re easy to access for students across the UK and the rest of the world. We’ve integrated interactive features, worksheets, chat features, class recap notes, homework and marking feedback via voice recordings to ensure the online learning experience is as valuable as possible.

Take a look at the highlights from a recent 11 Plus free taster session below.

Ellie (Operations Manager):

When I joined The Exam Coach, I was struck by the company’s pure passion to help students from all backgrounds. Their focus on providing free tuition and resources to those in need really resonated with me: there’s a vocabulary podcast, an entire archive of free 11 Plus practice papers, and a free workshop every week! The Exam Coach helped my brother and many of his friends pass their GCSE’s with flying colours. I’m proud to now be working with James to help the next generation of students do the same.

Since 2019, we’ve expanded The Exam Coach team and tutored thousands of students across the country.

In 2023, our mission is to continue sharing what we have learnt with as many students as possible, whether it’s through free resources, paid courses or free taster sessions. The pandemic may have put some students at a major disadvantage, but we hope, with our help, we can get them back on the right track. We are actively working towards a future where more students will be able to achieve the grades they require in order to be in the best position to succeed in life.

Thanks again for visiting our site! We hope to see you soon!

James, Ellie and The Exam Coach Team