I was fortunate to have studied the IB program and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I was attracted to the IB curriculum's broad and diverse approach to learning. Despite being the first cohort to undertake IB at my school as a group of only 20 out of 200 students, the choice of IB over A Levels was an easy one.
During my high school years, I didn’t ask for tutoring or private lessons, hoping not to add any financial burden on my parents. Instead, I studied on my own. After entering university, I wanted to tutor other students, but it was hard to find students directly, so I applied to work at a tutoring academy. That’s when I discovered how much higher the tutoring fees were than I had expected. I also realized that as a student from a prestigious university, I could earn a significant income through private tutoring. There were even times when I had to turn down students because the fees didn’t match, which I later regretted and felt guilty about.
These experiences motivated me to establish GuruMe, an education company with the aim of removing the inflated costs of private education and offering transparent, high-quality international education programs. I have offered various types of tutoring, including free sessions, and even helped connect my peers with tutoring opportunities. I taught myself coding and created a cafe-style tutoring website, as there was no platform where students could easily find tutors with international experience. This site became GuruMe's first service, which has now evolved into the tutoring app 'TutorHive.'
As I continued running the tutoring platform, parents frequently inquired about academy classes, which led me to establish IBtheTOP, an IB specialised academy.
Having graduated from a UK university, I also began helping students with UK university admissions, including personal statement guidance and interview preparation. Since much of my consulting focused on sharing information, I started blogging about it, which eventually led to over 400 posts. These posts became the foundation for my publication book, All About UK University Admissions. I later expanded into publishing with the release of All About the IB Program and subject-specific textbooks for IB Chemistry, Psychology, and English.
I believe there are various needs in education. Some students require specialized classes and guidance from academies, while others benefit more from private tutoring, and some may only need study materials to supplement their school classes. My goal is to support all students studying the IB program in any way possible. That’s why, in addition to running the tutoring and academy services, I also founded and run ibGuru, an IB study app.
As IB education is often limited to privileged students attending private international schools, my aspiration before the end of my 30s is to collaborate with the IBO and establish a scholarship foundation that will make IB education accessible to the broader public.
2025 | ibGuru |
2024 | Paschar Consulting |
2021 | Oxbridge Solution |
2021 | All About IB Chemistry, Publication |
2020 | TheTOP Books |
2019 | All About UK University Admissions, Publication |
2018 | All About IB Studies, Publication |
2018 | IBtheTOP |
2017 | Tutorhive |
2017 | GuruMe |
2014 | Oxford University, Biochemistry M.Sc |
2013 | |
2010 | Wellington College, IBDP |
Harry Lee