For most Leaving Cert students, online grinds are just as good as in-person
Online grinds work extremely well for the majority of Leaving Cert students, particularly in subjects where the real work happens on a screen, a page, or a whiteboard anyway. If the tutor is strong, the student is engaged, and the session is structured properly, the format itself is rarely the deciding factor.
What changes the outcome is not whether the tutor is in the room. It is whether the student can focus, whether the explanation is good, and whether the session is run with enough clarity and structure to move the student forward every week.
The honest answer most tutoring sites won't give you
Most tutoring companies will tell you online is just as good as in-person because they want to sell you online sessions. We're going to give you the actual answer, which is more nuanced than that.
Online grinds work extremely well for the majority of Leaving Cert students - particularly for subjects like Maths, Economics, Accounting and English, where the work happens on a screen or a whiteboard anyway. A student who is focused, has a quiet space to work, and connects well with their tutor will get the same result online as they would sitting across a table. In some cases they get a better result, because the commute disappears and the session starts on time with no dead time.
Where online grinds can fall short is with younger students who struggle to stay off their phones, students who genuinely learn better with a physical presence in the room, and certain practical subjects where hands-on work matters. For the Leaving Cert subjects TGE covers, none of those apply.
What actually makes a grind session good - online or not
The format matters far less than the tutor. A weak tutor sitting in your kitchen is worse than a great tutor on a screen.
The questions worth asking are: does the tutor explain things clearly, do they adapt when something isn't landing, and does the student leave the session understanding something they didn't understand before?
At TGE, our tutors use shared screens, digital whiteboards, and the same structured approach online as in person. A Maths session looks the same either way - the tutor works through problems step by step, spots exactly where the student's logic breaks down, and corrects it in real time. The medium doesn't change any of that.
What does change online is the environment on the student's side. A student who sits at a proper desk, has their notes open, and treats the session like a real class will get exactly what they'd get in person. A student who joins from their bed with their phone beside them will not - and that would be true in person too.
Subject by subject - where online works best
Online works especially well in the Leaving Cert subjects where explanation, written structure, and exam technique matter more than physical presence.
Maths - online works very well. Shared digital whiteboards mean the tutor can write out workings in real time exactly as they would on paper. Students can see every step. Higher Level Maths in particular suits online because sessions tend to be focused and structured by nature.
English - online is arguably better than in-person for English grinds. Essay feedback, comparative analysis and poetry technique all involve text on a screen. A tutor can annotate a student's essay in real time during an online session in a way that is actually harder to do on paper.
Economics and Accounting - both work very well online. These subjects are definition and concept-heavy, and the tutor-student dynamic in these sessions is essentially the same regardless of format.
Science subjects - online works well for theory and exam technique. For students who are strong on content but weak on how to answer questions under exam conditions, online sessions are just as effective.
History - fully suited to online. History grinds are almost entirely about essay structure and source material, both of which work perfectly on a shared screen.
When in-person might suit your child better
There are students for whom in-person is genuinely the better choice, and we'd rather tell you that honestly than have you book online and get a worse result.
If your child finds it very difficult to stay focused on a screen for 45 minutes without drifting, in-person removes that particular distraction. The physical presence of a tutor in the room creates an accountability that some students need and respond to well.
If your child has certain learning differences - particularly where attention or sensory regulation is involved - the choice between online and in-person is worth discussing with us before booking. We work with students with ADHD, dyslexia, autism and dyspraxia both online and in person, and the right format depends on the individual student rather than the diagnosis.
If you're in Dublin and in-person suits your child better, we're based in Sandymount and that option is available. If you're anywhere else in Ireland or abroad, online is your option - and based on the results we've seen, you're not getting a lesser service.
The practical advantages of online nobody talks about
Online often works better in practice because it removes friction that quietly drains time and focus from families every week.
No commute means a 5pm session actually starts at 5pm rather than 5:20pm after traffic. Over the course of a school year, that recovered time adds up to hours of extra tuition.
Students who are tired after a long school day often engage better from their own home environment than they would sitting in a car and then in a tutor's house. The transition is easier and the session tends to start with more energy.
For families outside Dublin - and for Irish students living in the UK, France, Germany or elsewhere in Europe - online grinds with a tutor who knows the Irish curriculum and exam structure are the only viable option. That is not a compromise. It is access to something that otherwise would not exist.