I truly believe that the day you stop believing, dreaming and achieving, should be the day you pass away… as only then, can you say that you lived a truly fulfilling and happy life… for round 1 at least!!… as you can climb those heights again in the next round, whatever form it takes! <3
I could right 100+ pages dedicated to the motivations in my life, but without further ado, I will present the main people and events that have helped shape me into who I am today, and helped me to achieve, and continue to achieve every single day.
Mai Ta
Wife, Partner and Best Friend
Alex Loktionov is an ancient historian and a Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. He has taught Egyptian language at Cambridge for five years, and has participated in admissions processes for Archaeology, Linguistics, and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies. He has BA, MPhil and PhD degrees from Cambridge. His previous posts include working as a researcher in ancient legal history at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and as a Bye-Fellow in Egyptology at Selwyn College, Cambridge
Alex has a particular interest in fair admissions processes and ensuring that top universities consistently admit students who display the highest indicators of ability and potential in the academic context of their schooling. He has considerable experience of the university preparation sector, having worked extensively with pupils from low-participation backgrounds on leading national initiatives such as the Brilliant Club, Lumina, and the Sutton Trust. As a member of the advisory board, Alex is interested predominantly in helping Independent Thinkers play a positive social role through providing its courses to students of limited means who would otherwise miss out on university preparation of any kind.
Eito Ta
Son and Best Friend
Dr Martin Stephen was only the second man to hold both ‘High Master’ places in the UK – firstly as High Master of The Manchester Grammar School and secondly as High Master of St Paul’s School, London. Prior to this he was Headmaster of The Perse School, Cambridge, and was elected Chairman of HMC (The Headmasters’ and Headmistress’s Conference) for 2004.
The author of over 20 books on education, First World War poetry and military history, he is also author of the five critically-acclaimed ‘Henry Gresham’ series of historical crime thrillers, and a regular contributor to written and broadcast media. He was a founder Governor of The London Academy of Excellence, arguably the UK’s most successful state Sixth Form College, and co-founder of The National Mathematics and Science College, Coventry. Married to Jenny Stephen, they are the only couple who can claim at one time or another to have been Head of five schools in the Top 30 of the UK’s A-level league tables.
Dr Katie Halsey
English, History, Oxbridge Admissions
Katie Halsey holds an MA, M.Phil and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, and a PGCE from King’s College, London. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Stirling, Scotland, having previously worked at the Universities of Cambridge, St Andrews and London. Katie is a specialist in the fields of eighteenth-century literature and book history, and her research mostly focuses on Jane Austen. Her monograph Jane Austen and her Readers, 1786-1945, was published in 2012, and she has published widely in all of her fields of interest. During her career, Katie has taught at both university and secondary school levels, has taught English as a Foreign Language in the UK and abroad, and has conducted admissions interviews and been involved in student selection procedures at a number of different universities.
George Chater
Biology; Chemistry; Medical School Applications
George currently works in the NHS as a doctor specialising in anaesthesia; he was elected as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians in 2019. George has been a Clinical Fellow at University College London Hospitals NHS Trust Foundation where he taught undergraduate courses in Medicine. Prior to taking up this appointment, he worked as a junior doctor at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust in London. George qualified as a doctor at King’s College, Cambridge, where he also studied for his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences (Pharmacology), and undertook his pre-clinical medical training.
George has been published both in The Lancet and the BMJ. George has extensive experience of successfully mentoring and advising students on their applications to study Medicine, Biology, Biochemistry and related subjects at the UK’s most competitive universities.
Rachel Densham
Law, Finance, Psychology
Rachel Densham is a lawyer and was formerly an investment banker. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of Amsphere Limited; she recently retrained as clinical psychologist, also completing a doctorate in clinical psychology.
Rachel joined the London office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as a lawyer in 2008, having previously been an investment banker at N M Rothschild & Sons in London, where she had specialised in public and private mergers and acquisitions for both corporate and private equity clients since 2003. Prior to this, she was a corporate associate in Linklaters’ London and New York offices, where she also completed her training contract.
Rachel received a Certificate in Corporate Finance from the Securities Institute in 2004. She completed the Diploma in Legal Practice at the College of Law, London in 1997 and the Common Professional Examination, Diploma in Law at City University, London in 1996. She graduated with First Class Honours in Politics and Modern History from the University of Manchester in 1995.
Dr Luke Houghton
Latin; Greek; Art History; History
Luke has a double first in Classics from Merton College, Oxford, two Masters degrees (one in Classics from Cambridge; and one in Art History from the Courtauld Institute), and a Ph.D. in Latin poetry from Trinity College, Cambridge.
He has taught extensively at Russell Group Universities, including Cambridge, UCL (where he was a postdoctoral fellow), and at Glasgow (where he was a Lecturer). He is currently a Classics Master at a leading co-educational boarding school in England. Luke remains an honorary fellow of the UCL Classics Department; he recently published his first monograph with Cambridge University Press, Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue in the Italian Renaissance.
Luke has been instrumental in helping our students achieve places to read Classics at university and is an inspiring teacher of Classical prose composition.