Tutoring from year 7 to HSC, in NSW who's the best? (2 Viewers)

[frank82]

Hi , who are the best tutors leading to HSC in NSW? For any and all subjects pls? Through experience who worked best for you and which grade did u start with them?
TIA

 

[Jaros]

wouldn't recommend tutoring at least until yr 11, even then strictly only math and english.

 

[momothemonkey]

i haven't gone to any of the ones you mentioned so i might not be the most useful but i do attend a top 5 selective school and ngl no one attends those centres like i hadn't even heard of intuition until rn lol. so if you don't mind going to different centres:

in general for math most do either dr du or kurt (kurt is esp popular for ext 2 maths but you do need to get into it through an entrance exam where if you fail you js cant go whereas if you do badly on the dr du entrance exam you could still be assigned to one of the lower classes (a3/b)). the classes are pretty fast paced (unless you're in b they're a few weeks behind) and content heavy but they have weekly tests that force you to consolidate and test your knowledge. warning: in dr du they have a strike policy where if you fail x amount of tests/don't submit your hw x amount of times you get demoted. worse however, if you fail your kurt tests you get detention which (i think idk i don't go) is where you have to complete a long set of questions on the topic you failed for normally a few hours (you can't leave until you're done and the questions are very hard apparently) and they can pile up into the holidays. i knew multiple people who had like weeks worth of holiday detention...not fun but they're all pretty damn good at math so at least it pays off...i would say these places are mainly focused towards those who are already pretty strong in math and regardless i would highly recommend studying for these entrance exams.

english mostly private. imo unless you're bad at english as in you tend to rely on teachers to unpack texts in class/cannot analyse a text by yourself i would honestly recommend private over a class bc i think personalised feedback is more important for english, esp if you feel like your essay/creative writing skills are lacking but you can understand what the text/syllabi are pointing to. but if you prefer a class ik a good portion of people that go to scholardome or the brain, i just can't comment on what their classes are like.

for chem either cognito or ace - i personally go to cog and the accelerated stream is really good if you want to get ahead as you get a whole terms worth of HSC revision at the end of the HSC course while the standard stream is still doing mod 8. also the cog tutors in my experience have all been so supportive and you can schedule in tutes (tutorials) with your tutor if you feel like you need some extra help on a certain topic.

i don't take bio but a lot of students that do across my school + our brother school go to project academy. i would assume based on that its good for bio in terms of content and pacing. project has mandatory tutes per week with a different tutor to your class tutor in which you ask questions/complete hw which is always good to ensure people fix their problem areas. [this is kind of an aside and NOT related to the bio course, maybe ask around to see if you can find someone who did that] but my experience w/ project was a bit different: i went there for their accelerated math course (all of HSC 2U and 3U in year 11) and its pretty good. however, besides their accel math course, for math specifically project tends to have "easier"/slower paced classes with an easier range of practice questions/hw as i think they cater to a wider range of students. the other reason why they take a lot of time is because you have to write your own notes during the class. when i say write its more like your tutor will copy the notes from their exemplar booklets and then you copy those down, which tends to waste time, especially for chem (all the students in my grade that did chem at project switched to cog for this exact reason). if you tend to prefer this pacing/want more support for math (or chem) you could try them out as it kinda blends class and private tutoring bc of the permanent tutes. but if you're already pretty strong in these subjects/really wanting to get ahead and get a high band 6 result i would prob skip.

for tutoring in general i would recommend a course that is at least somewhat accelerated when compared to your school because it allows you to get an initial grasp of the content (basically like scheduled in priming) so that during school you can fully understand/digest it faster/better. you can then treat school lessons as a form of active recall which should help to develop your retention of content, thus boosting your ability to apply it to exam questions.

sorry for the long and kinda messy post. obv you don't need to go to these places but maybe do some more research into your options before deciding. i hope this helps in some way. dw too much tho since you're still in y10 you have a lot of time to experiment with different places and decide what works best for you. gl!!

it really depends on what subjects you take and what your strengths/weaknesses are. science tutoring is not really necessary (as the previous person implies) bc there are so many free resources you can find online, but if you can afford it and it helps then thats also great. i replied to a similar kind of message before so hopefully ^ may help you out a bit.

 

[frank82]

it really depends on what subjects you take and what your strengths/weaknesses are. science tutoring is not really necessary (as the previous person implies) bc there are so many free resources you can find online, but if you can afford it and it helps then thats also great. i replied to a similar kind of message before so hopefully ^ may help you out a bit.

what are the online resources pls? i cant seem to find legit ones online

 

[momothemonkey]

you can use the BOS notes & resources, https://thsconline.github.io/s/ for past papers (including prelims, internals, trials and HSC papers from a range of schools) and general tutoring centre's free online resources as a starting point (for learning content there are so many yt channels, including HSC specific ones, that explain concepts in a clear and understandable manner for science and math subjects). in my experience at least, once students reach y11 and y12 their grade will begin sharing resources from their own past students (e.g. in a grade-wide google drive). since im assuming you're/your child is in year 7/8 (??) don't worry about it too much now, as you begin stage 6 the resources will start flowing in lol.

 

[frank82]

it really depends on what subjects you take and what your strengths/weaknesses are. science tutoring is not really necessary (as the previous person implies) bc there are so many free resources you can find online, but if you can afford it and it helps then thats also great. i replied to a similar kind of message before so hopefully ^ may help you out a bit.

your post is so informative thank you so much. a lot of people don't tell us where they go for tuition(no idea why) if help is needed for maths science and English in the lower grades what would be the best places to go to? New to all this.

 

[momothemonkey]

no problem, glad it helped!! i personally didn't begin tutoring for science until year 11 and i currently dont do english or math tutoring but i've had some past experience. some people say not to start tutoring until year 11/not to do it at all but if you can afford it and need extra help/want to get ahead i think it can be very beneficial

for math (wanting to get ahead): a lot of people i know began at dr du in year 7 (or some even accelerated by taking a year 8 course in year 7) as starting this early allows students to familiarise themselves with and adapt to dr du's teaching style and pace (/decide if it works for them). often in years 11 and 12 they either stay with du or switch over to kurt for HSC.
for math (needing extra help): i would recommend project academy (they only start math courses in year 9 though) as they go through content a lot slower and have various ways of supporting different student's learning paces. if you wanted to start even earlier then that perhaps try to find a really good private math tutor if you find yourself/your child falling behind as they can truly figure out their students' weaknesses and target them specifically. i would recommend trying to find an ex-teacher rather than hiring some random uni student who graduated with a high ATAR as in my experience a lot of them will only put in the minimum effort required in order to get paid.

for science almost everyone ik only started science tutoring in year 11/never started. i know of perhaps 2 people that went to matrix's junior science courses so maybe you could check those out?

for english i also think private is the way to go. since you're starting so early you have the advantage of time to trial a few different tutors and find the best one that works for you. this will be especially helpful starting year 11 if you had a reliable private tutor that can help you edit your skeleton essays, etc. however, if you would prefer a class i know a few people that went to JP English (not sure how good it is though).

your post is so informative thank you so much. a lot of people don't tell us where they go for tuition(no idea why) if help is needed for maths science and English in the lower grades what would be the best places to go to? New to all this.