Success Stories with ATC (No.3):
“There’s only a few months until the HSC and I don’t think our son can make it to his desired university degree”
At the start of term 2 2021, “John Smith” (don’t worry, we will keep our parents’ names anonymous) submitted an online enquiry to see if we could help revive his son’s (“Jim”) school marks and rankings. Jim goes to an academically selective school and has been struggling since year 11 (last year). Before then, Jim plans to study Actuarial Studies at UNSW, however his dreams have been crushed right after receiving his first year 11 semester report where he was ranked close to the bottom of his grade for 2 of his subjects. They were Mathematics Ext 1 and Mathematics (2 unit) which were crucial for his desired degree for university. Up until term 2 of year 12 (2021), Jim has continued to struggle in the same way.
Note: Jim has been attending group tutoring when John contacted us… So why was this studious and hardworking student struggling?
Here’s what we said to John:
Undoubtedly, kids are expected to lose interest in subjects that they consistently performing bad in. Sometimes they’ll also have changes in their desired career paths and in this case, Jim did not. We advised John that his current stagnant plans are not working. The group tutoring does not benefit Jim and was a waste of money and time because it did not improve the situation. Jim was on his way to being rejected by his desired university. With the two terms left to improve Jim’s ranks and grades at his competitive school, John had to be effect and efficient. No more wasting money and time. Jim has got to pick up his pace. Here was a to-do list we suggested for Jim’s maths subjects:
- Re-learn all the topics Jim forgot or never understood – to build familiarity with course concepts.
- Practice, understand and complete as many textbook questions as possible – with the goal to achieve high accuracy in his answers.
- Complete as many past school and HSC papers as possible.
- Ask for help! Never quietly forget about something that is confusing.
To supplement our advice, we suggested for Jim to attend our 1-on-1 tutoring classes:
Realistically, a schoolteacher does not have all the patience and time to help a student to fix all their mistakes, especially when they have thirty other students they need to cater for. Sometimes, a low-performing student may feel ‘too stupid’ to ask their teacher for assistance and will try to avoid their teacher’s help.
John wasn’t sure at first and Jim has never attended tutoring that wasn’t in the group setting. John had always thought that some competitiveness in the group tutoring classroom would spark his son to work even harder. However, with just 2hrs of 1-on-1 tutoring with one of our exceptional mathematics tutors at ATC, Jim was able to:
- Clarify his misunderstandings
- Acknowledge his weaknesses and knowledge gaps
- Ask the questions that he was too shy to ask his schoolteacher who was much scarier to approach.
Now…
Jim is about to sit his HSC exams in November, and he has finished his school trials a few weeks ago. Jim was able to finish his maths exams which was unable to do before attending our tutoring classes. Jim has some hopes that he would make it to his desired university degree.
It’s your turn…
As a parent, it’s important to ensure your child’s education is heading in the right direction. Want more information or to book in a free consultation with our managers about your child’s learning needs? Email us at admin@australiantutoring.com.au or check out our website at https://www.australiantutoring.com.au/ or call us at (02) 8592 8558.