First off going tutoring doesn't necessarily mean you will get amazing marks. This can be seen in the high number of people going tutoring and the low number of people getting 99 ATAR, so it isn't pay to win. Students and parents often think that going to a tutor who achieved a high mark will also lead them to get a high mark, there is much more at play to achieving such a result.
Being someone who got 99 ATAR and went tutoring for some subjects, didn't go tutoring for other subjects and is currently a tutor I can offer you some insight into the benefits of tutoring and what is actually needed to get a 99 ATAR.
Tutoring can be helpful in some ways in achieving a high ATAR, which include:
- If you go to a qualified and dedicated tutor (this is often hard to find as they might have already filled up months prior to the Year 12 starting, so if you are thinking of doing any tutoring in Year 12, best to start looking now), they will be able to provide guidance on how to answer questions in terms of structure and how the markers think. This is the main benefit of tutoring in my opinion, which is learning how to write high quality answers by seeing answers from a tutor who scored well.
- Resource access, tutors often have compiled some type of resources such as exam papers and notes. The extent of this will probably vary with the experience of the tutor and if it's in individual or group lessons. Normally in the individual most of those resources you can probably find on the internet if you look hard enough and know where to look, as the tutor won't have much incentive to go into doing something like making a bunch of resources as it takes a large amount of time and they are only paid for the lesson time. In small group tutoring and tutoring centres, the resources are usually more detailed and will probably be things like theory notes and homework questions, but best to ask for samples to confirm this.
- Marking, most tutors offer some variation of marking. It will depend on the subject but this could be things like essay marking for english and homework questions marking for subjects like the sciences, where the answer quality depends on things like level of detail, inclusion of diagrams, equations etc.
- Questions, ability to ask questions during the week on concepts you don't understand and having someone who can explain it to you in a clear way and the approach to get to the answer can be more helpful than looking at a solution written in the answers and trying to understand it yourself.
- Sad to say this but if you're teacher is not up to par and unable to explain things properly. This happens sadly far too often. In my experience as a tutor, I have seen teachers doing things like skipping whole sections of content, not covering things properly or rushing them, giving worksheets from the internet that don't really reflect HSC questions and going over content that is not even in the syllabus. In these cases, a tutor can be very helpful as doing practice by yourself via exams is something that is possible but trying to learn all the content by yourself while not knowing what's important and what isn't is more difficult.
In saying these benefits though, the tutoring itself won't lead to high marks. The people who are going to get a 99+ ATAR would probably still get high ATARs or in the 99s as it depends on a large number of factors as tutoring is only once a week and for probably 1-2 hours. This limited time means just attending tutoring once a week for a couple hours can't result in high marks. The large majority of what leads to a high mark is not what happens in the tutoring but outside of it. The student needs to be committed to their own learning and take initiative by doing things like making notes, taking time to understand concepts in their own time, practicing exam questions throughout the year and continually trying to improve by assessing what areas they are lacking in. You have to work extremely hard to get such an ATAR and be willing to sacrifice much more of leisure time than other students. The tutor can help facilitate some of these things by guiding you on what questions to complete or what they can see you are lacking in, but it will be dependent on if the student then uses this feedback and goes away in their own time and addresses them. You also need a level of natural ability academically to perform well across a range of subjects, which a tutor can't influence.
In summary, tutoring can help you in making the path clearer to getting a high ATAR if you use it effectively, but won't be what carries you all the way as this will ultimately be dependent on the student, their choices, study habits and ability.
