Stressed UK teens seek influencers’ help for exam success

LONDON – Posing as a fortune teller on his YouTube channel, former teacher Waqar Malik tells thousands of followers that he can predict the 2025 exam questions.

He is one of a growing number of online study influencers gaining popularity among stressed British teenagers in search of exam success.

But educators and examiners are concerned some pupils are relying too much on online advice.

Mr Malik posts videos on TikTok and YouTube forecasting questions on classic English literature for the British GCSE school exam taken at 16.

In 2024 “I predicted the entire paper”, he said on his popular Mr Everything English channel.

Mr Malik, who says he is a former assistant head teacher, noted that he was just making an “educated guess”, but educators remain concerned.

“If you are a 15- or 16- year-old doing your GCSEs, and you’ve got somebody in your phone who’s telling you ‘this is what the English exam is going to be about’... that is so appealing,” said Dr Sarah Brownsword, an assistant professor in education at the University of East Anglia.

After British pupils sat their exams in May, some complained that Mr Malik’s predictions were wrong.

“Never listening to you again bro,” one wrote, while others said they were “cooked” (done for) and would have to work in a fast food restaurant.

With GCSE results set to be released on Aug 21, one exam board, AQA, has warned of “increasing reliance on certain online revision channels”.

“Clearly this is an important source of revision and support for students,” it said.

But the examiners want “your interpretation of the texts you have studied, not some stranger’s views on social media”.

‘Looking for help’

Students are overloaded, school leaders said.

“With so much content to cover and revise in every subject, it can be completely overwhelming,” Ms Sarah Hannafin, head of policy for the school leaders’ union NAHT, told AFP.

“And so it is unsurprising that young people are looking for anything to help them to cope.”

Mr Malik, whose prediction video has been viewed on YouTube 290,000 times, did not respond to a request for comment.

Dr Brownsword praised TikTok, where she posts grammar videos for student teachers, and said: “You can learn about anything and watch videos about absolutely anything”.

Teachers have always flagged questions that could come up, she said, but predicting exam questions online is “really tricky”.

“But I think there’s a real difference between doing that and doing it on such a scale, when you’ve got thousands or tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of followers online.”

But other content creators defended such videos.

“Those kinds of videos were never to mislead,” said Ms Tilly Taylor, a university student posting TikTok videos with candid revision advice to 100,000 followers.

“I make it very clear in my videos that these are predictions”, based on past papers and examiners’ reports, said Ms Taylor, who appeals to younger viewers with her fashionable eye make-up.

Other content creators sell predicted papers “all the time”, Ms Taylor said, but “I don’t think it’s right”.

Other educational influencers were more in favour.

“If you’re marketing it as a predicted paper, that’s completely fine... you just can’t say guaranteed paper,” said Mr Ishaan Bhimjiyani, 20, who has more than 400,000 TikTok followers.

He promoted a site offering an English predicted paper for £1.99 (S$3.50) with a “history of 60 per cent to 70 per cent accuracy”.

‘It took off’

Predicted papers allow you to “check whether you’re actually prepared for the exam”, said Ms Jen, a creator and former teacher who posts as Primrose Kitten and declined to give her surname.

Her site charges £4.99 for an English predicted paper and includes a video on phrasing to score top marks.

Mr Bhimjiyani, who went to a private school, started posting on TikTok at 16, saying he was “documenting my journey, posting about how I revise”.

“And then it kind of took off,” he added.

He founded an educational influencer agency, Tap Lab, that now represents more than 100 bloggers in their mid-teens to mid-20s.

Influencers earn most from paid promotions – for recruiters or beauty or technology brands – which must be labelled as such, he said.

Mr Bhimjiyani made £5,000 with his first such video.

Ms Taylor said she recently promoted student accommodation.

No one explained “how do you actually revise”, she said of her school years. So she turned to YouTube for ideas.

“I wanted to help someone like myself, who couldn’t necessarily afford to go to private school or have private tuition,” she added. AFP