The levels we cover
Maths goes wrong in different ways at different stages, and the fix is rarely “more exercises”. What follows is where families in Cannes most often ask for help.
Collège and the brevet — ages 11 to 15
Fractions, negative numbers, proportionality, the first algebra and geometry. This is where small gaps become permanent. Since 2026 the brevet rests 60% on the June papers, so practising complete papers under timed conditions now matters more than it used to.
Lycée — the maths specialty
Functions, sequences, derivatives, probability and vectors in première, then the terminale specialty and, for some students, the optional mathématiques expertes or complémentaires. The jump is that answers must be justified, not just found.
English-medium curricula
For students at a British school or on a bilingual track, Luckas teaches maths in English. Tell us the exam board and the level — IGCSE or A-Level, for instance — so that we can confirm coverage. Notation and conventions differ from the French tradition, and marks are lost on them.
University and preparatory classes
First-year analysis, linear algebra and probability, and French classes préparatoires, several of which exist in Cannes itself. Tell us the module and we will confirm coverage before committing.
The new maths exam in première
Since June 2026, every student in première on the general or technological track sits an early written maths exam — including those who did not choose maths as a specialty. Current première students sit it on Monday 21 June 2027, from 8 to 10 a.m. It lasts two hours, carries a coefficient of 2, and is taken without a calculator: a 6-point multiple-choice section on quick, reliable calculation, then 14 points of written exercises that must be justified.
The subject depends on the maths actually studied: the specialty programme, the maths within the enseignement scientifique for students without the specialty, or the common-core maths of the technological track. Our French-language guide to the exam goes into more detail.
A worked example: the step that usually breaks
A price rises by 10%, then falls by 10%. What is the overall change?
× 1.1 then × 0.9
1.1 × 0.9 = 0.99
So the price has fallen by 1%. Most students answer “no change” — because they add the percentages instead of multiplying the coefficients. The calculation takes ten seconds without a calculator; the understanding behind it is the whole point. A student who can explain why the 10% fall removes more than the 10% rise added will handle any variation of the question.
So in a lesson we ask for the reason before we accept the answer, then set a second question that looks different but tests the same idea.
Taught in the language of the syllabus
Notation is not universal. Decimal separators, the naming of intervals, whether a trapezium is a trapezoid, how a derivative is written — these differ between the French and Anglophone traditions, and a student assessed in English who has only ever been taught in French will lose marks for reasons that have nothing to do with mathematics. Luckas, who completed his MSc at Imperial College London after French preparatory classes, teaches on either side of that line.
