Mentor Match

What it is

Mentor Match is an online tutoring service for children at international schools in the Gulf. Its FAQ says its tutors "specialise in IB, IGCSE, A Level and American curriculum tutoring across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar international schools," and the course menu adds CBSE and ICSE boards and an SAT program. Every lesson is live and one-on-one, and each student keeps the same tutor throughout. The homepage pitch is "1:1 Tutoring That Helps You Excel at Math," which the site says is "Built on Bloom's 2 Sigma" and "personalised to your child's exact foundational gaps and curriculum."

The company lists three offices on its site: a UAE office at Dubai Digital Park in Silicon Oasis, a US office in San Francisco and an India office in Chennai. The booking form is in the name of Mentor Match Private Limited. A "Trusted by Parents from" strip names Dubai and Abu Dhabi international schools such as JESS Dubai, NLCS Dubai, GEMS Wellington, Repton Dubai and BSAK Abu Dhabi; these are the schools the families come from, not partners.

The GPS framework

Mentor Match organizes its teaching around what it calls the GPS Framework, with three stages:

1. Gap. An AI diagnostic is meant to "pinpoint the exact concept your child is stuck on, not just the topic."
2. Personalise. Weekly one-on-one live sessions "built around that gap and their real school syllabus."
3. Score. Mock tests and reports, with "Invigilated tests every month, so you see progress in the data."

Parents receive monthly progress reports and can request optional parent-teacher meetings to discuss improvement and goals. A dedicated account manager acts as the family's single point of contact, handling "everything, from daily support to exam schedules & more."

Curricula and subjects

The curriculum coverage is the core of the product, and the site breaks it down by program.

• IB, PYP to DP. Subject-matched tutors for HL and SL, with Internal Assessment and Extended Essay support. The footer lists PYP (Years 1-5) maths, science and English language; MYP (Years 6-10) maths, biology, chemistry, physics and English language and literature; and DP (Years 11-13) Maths AA, Maths AI, chemistry, physics, biology and English A Language and Literature. A separate ERAYA course is listed for the IB Diploma.
• British, Year 1 to 13. IGCSE and A-Level coaching "aligned to Edexcel, Cambridge and AQA," with Cambridge primary, secondary and pre-university subjects listed in the footer.
• CBSE, Class 6 to 12. "Board-exam focused tutoring mapped to the NCERT curriculum." ICSE appears in the curriculum options too.
• American. American and AP tutoring sit in the menu next to the SAT Program.

By subject, the course menu lists Math Tutoring, Science Tutoring, ELA Tutoring, the SAT Program, Public Speaking and a Math Catch-Up course. The booking form adds biology, physics, chemistry, English, coding, Arabic and social science, and accepts students from Grade 1/Year 2 to Grade 12/Year 13.

How sessions work

The FAQ says "Every 1:1 session is 55 minutes" and that "Most students attend 2 to 3 sessions per week per subject," adjusted to the child's goals, learning style and subjects. A later FAQ answer gives 60 minutes for a session, so families should expect a session of roughly an hour. Sessions run on Mentor Match's own interactive online platform. The FAQ also mentions home tuition alongside online classes, though the session answer itself says lessons are conducted online.

Continuity is a selling point: "The tutor from your Trial class is the one who continues," and "Every student is assigned one dedicated tutor for all their sessions." Scheduling is flexible. Families can reschedule with 24 hours notice, and emergencies are "handled within 2 hours." There are "no fixed contracts or long-term commitments."

Tutors

Mentor Match puts weight on selection. The FAQ says "Fewer than 1 in 10 applicants join Mentor Match," and the homepage goes further: "From thousands of applicants, we select just 1.3%, then keep evaluating them after every session." Every tutor "passes subject assessments, a live teaching simulation and a two week training programme before teaching any student," and the FAQ separately mentions qualification checks and interviews. The courses are described as "Engineered by experts with over a decade in education, taught by curriculum trained tutors." Tutor names and photos appear on the homepage under Meet the Tutors.

If a child does not get on with a tutor, the company will "rematch your child at no cost," and parents can choose another tutor better suited to the child.

Price, trial and refunds

The FAQ gives a price range: "Sessions are priced between AED 70 and AED 100 per hour." There is no subscription tier on the homepage; the price is per session. Every route into the service starts with a free trial class, booked through a form that asks for the student's grade, subject and curriculum.

Refunds are generous on paper. "Any sessions you haven't taken are refunded within 48 hours." On tutor fit, the FAQ says that if a child "remains unsatisfied after three tutors, we refund all remaining unused sessions in full." A second FAQ answer says a family unsatisfied "after the first three sessions" gets the remaining fees back, "no questions asked."

Results the company claims

The homepage headline figures are that 87% of students see their grades go up, that 475,000+ one-on-one sessions are delivered every year, and that the average time to first improvement is 4 weeks. These are the company's own figures without a stated method. A results ticker names individual students: Rania's maths went from 90% to 99% in Grade 6, Mohammed reached a final maths grade of 7 (A+), Rabail Umer's maths grade climbed from 4 to 6, Akshara went from 7 to 9 in maths, and Jai's IB DP final grade rose from 32 to 38. Others include Nathan with 41/50 in maths and 39/40 in science, and Muaz with 27.5/30 in a PT1 maths test.

Who it suits

Mentor Match suits families in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar whose children attend IB, British, American or Indian-board international schools and need help that matches the school's exact syllabus, from IB Internal Assessments and Extended Essays to IGCSE board specifications and CBSE board exams. It fits parents who want one long-term tutor, monthly test data and a single account manager rather than a marketplace of freelance tutors to sift through. Math is the flagship, with a dedicated catch-up course, but sciences, English, Arabic, coding, public speaking and SAT preparation are on offer too.

It is a weaker fit for families outside the Gulf international school system, because the pitch, the school list and the curricula are built around it, and for students who want self-paced recorded courses rather than live weekly lessons. Families comparing on price should note that the AED range is quoted per hour of tutoring, and that regular attendance of 2 to 3 sessions per subject each week adds up.