Hi, I’m Maria O’Conor, founder and owner of The Unlocked Learner.

Over the last 25 years (I’m older than I look ;-)) I’ve enabled thousands of students in 3 countries to achieve great learning outcomes. My teaching career so far has taken me to a variety of places including Japan, Singapore, 1 college, 3 universities and 4 secondary schools in England. I’ve also transformed the lives of prisoners in the UK by re-engaging them in education and enabling them to achieve qualifications, giving them a better chance of employment or self-employment on release.

I’m passionate about enabling students to step up to achieve their absolute best and fulfil their study ambitions.

I set up The Unlocked Learner Ltd and created Step Up to Study Success because I saw a huge disconnect in the way students are taught study skills and study mindset skills in our traditional education systems. My unique study coaching formula combines these two essential areas and has enabled past students to increase their study outcomes to leap across entire grade boundaries from a 4 to a 6 at GCSE and 2.2 to 2.1 at undergraduate level. I’m also extremely proud to say that I’ve coached many of my students to achieve a first-class degree.

My Step Up to Study Success online course is designed to enable you to develop highly effective learning approaches that will empower you to achieve your best, now and throughout your career as a lifelong learner.

“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”
― Peter Drucker