Physics, Chemistry or Biology tutoring? (1 Viewer)

[nic1375]

Hi, I'm going to be going to year 11 next year and I'm getting kinda stressed about my science subjects. My subjects for next year are 3U Maths, advanced English, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Geography.

I am already doing English and Maths tutoring but I'm really scared of how I'm going to cope with my science subjects. I want to try to get two of my sciences to be tutored but I don't think my parents will be able to afford it. So I was wondering between the three sciences which one should I get tutoring for or is it possible to not get tutoring at all.

If anyone knows also where I could perhaps go for the tutoring that would be much appreciated

Also if anyone has any tips on studying three sciences, that would also be greatly appreciated!

 

[cchan334]

Usually people don't go tutoring for biology as it is predominately content (the same reason why people wouldnt go tutoring for geography, economics or legal). Your school might offer edrolo (basically an online tutoring service, teachers go through syllabus points and there are notes and topic tests), if not there are still other resources you can use. E.g. learnable (170 dollars a year for year 11 physics). For year 11, I dont think tutoring is necessary even if you are taking 3 sciences, what is more important is your time management skills and being able to prioritise. I reckon for year 11, just make sure you really understand all your concepts in chem and phys (esp chem, because a lot of the skills carry over, not so much for phys). Biology content in year 11 doesnt really carry over to year 12 either (from what ive heard from my classsmates, i dropped biology). Anyway for prelim i reckon doing a lot of exam style questions (phys, chem, bio and math) will get you through without a hitch. The more important thing is that you go tutoring in year 12, where tutoring centres are really good and predicting exam style questions and offer a lot of practice as well as another explanation of the concepts so that you remember and understand better.

 

[nic1375]

Don't go to tutoring for bio. Also go tutoring for whichever of chem/phys is harder for you personally.

Ahh ok yeah I might need to try it in school then make that decision. Thank you!

 

[nic1375]

Usually people don't go tutoring for biology as it is predominately content (the same reason why people wouldnt go tutoring for geography, economics or legal). Your school might offer edrolo (basically an online tutoring service, teachers go through syllabus points and there are notes and topic tests), if not there are still other resources you can use. E.g. learnable (170 dollars a year for year 11 physics). For year 11, I dont think tutoring is necessary even if you are taking 3 sciences, what is more important is your time management skills and being able to prioritise. I reckon for year 11, just make sure you really understand all your concepts in chem and phys (esp chem, because a lot of the skills carry over, not so much for phys). Biology content in year 11 doesnt really carry over to year 12 either (from what ive heard from my classsmates, i dropped biology). Anyway for prelim i reckon doing a lot of exam style questions (phys, chem, bio and math) will get you through without a hitch. The more important thing is that you go tutoring in year 12, where tutoring centres are really good and predicting exam style questions and offer a lot of practice as well as another explanation of the concepts so that you remember and understand better.

AHH thank you so much, this was really helpful! I'll check out learnable and keep these in mind. But overall, thank you so much!!!!

 

[nic1375]

What school I can give a better insight

Cheltenham

 

[dumNerd]

Cheltenham

Also what atar you aiming for

 

[nic1375]

Also what atar you aiming for

maybe and hopefully above 90

 

[nic1375]

If you are a slow learner who doesnt prefer large groups iv heard @jazz519 is good for chem. For phys I go to sigma (paramatta) but it's a bit expensive (classes of 15)

Ahh OK thank you so much! I'll check it out

 

[Drongoski]

Even if you can afford it, a tuition in every subject is not a good idea. You have only 24 hours a day. During term time you have only the time after class to attend tutoring. For any subject you need to spend a fair while doing your own work; learning is not a passive activity. The more questions you do the better you understand the subject. When you cannot do some standard questions, it may indicate you do not understand the relevant area; so you need to restudy it, ask your teacher or friends for help. You always need to spend time chewing on the material, ponder over it, struggle over challenging material etc. You need to do, do, do ... a lot. No one can do the thinking for you.
Perhaps you should have tutoring in no more than 3 subjects. Use the coming long holiday to do some self-study. Would be great to have a study group to help one another and to benefit from a cross-fertilization of ideas. Would be good if at least one in the group is pretty smart and generous.

 

[nic1375]

Even if you can afford it, a tuition in every subject is not a good idea. You have only 24 hours a day. During term time you have only the time after class to attend tutoring. For any subject you need to spend a fair while doing your own work; learning is not a passive activity. The more questions you do the better you understand the subject. When you cannot do some standard questions, it may indicate you do not understand the relevant area; so you need to restudy it, ask your teacher or friends for help. You always need to spend time chewing on the material, ponder over it, struggle over challenging material etc. You need to do, do, do ... a lot. No one can do the thinking for you.
Perhaps you should have tutoring in no more than 3 subjects. Use the coming long holiday to do some self-study. Would be great to have a study group to help one another and to benefit from a cross-fertilization of ideas. Would be good if at least one in the group is pretty smart and generous.

That's very true!! Thank you for this! It gives me much to consider. I'll definitely be doing some self-studying but I'm not quite sure where to start? Should I start self-studying the first module of the subject?

 

[Drongoski]

I'm in Epping, which is close to Cheltenham. If you like, you can arrange for a time to come over and we can have a chat and we can discuss what your difficulties are and how you can get started.
You can message on my number below. You don't need to pay me.

 

[jazz519]

If you are a slow learner who doesnt prefer large groups iv heard @jazz519 is good for chem. For phys I go to sigma (paramatta) but it's a bit expensive (classes of 15)

Thanks for the mention. I think most of my spots are filled at the moment but if the original poster is interested please contact me as soon as possible as my classes will be starting this coming week / weekend, as if there is any vacancy after I check my planning I can try fit them in

 

[jazz519]

To answer the question of the original poster. You shouldn't really be getting tutoring for every single subject because as you have mentioned it can be very expensive and in most cases not a value for money. This is because tutoring should just be something that improves your marks in things you can't do yourself or if you want access to more materials for a certain subject, rather than completely substituting what you are learning at school and self study. In Year 11 it is not necessary to get tutoring for everything. If you still want to get that kind of all subject tutoring stuff, do it in Year 12 and just go to tutorings that you think you will benefit the most in Year 11 as the assessments and content is not as demanding in Year 11. In terms of subjects that I would say tutoring is recommended English is probably the main one as this is something that not everyone can just learn themselves or improve as there is no like work more = you end up improving more. This is because it is more about changing how you write and think vs doing more practice that leads to the better marks in my opinion. A school teacher can't always help you with that because they have limited amount of time and can't mark like essays every week for each student which a tutor could do. It's also something that the skills you learn in Year 11 are transferrable to Year 12 so it will have the most beneficial impact. Tutoring for maths can sometimes be a waste of money. This is because it is inherently a subject where you can self learn and improve by just doing practice yourself and there are a large amount of resources in terms of past papers and textbook questions. If you are going to the tutor for maths just to do some questions then this is not really worth it. I would only say maths tutoring is worth it if you are going ahead in the content at tutoring so you are learning ahead or you are doing practice questions consistently outside the lesson and then going to the tutoring to ask for help in solving certain questions you couldn't get out. For sciences from what I have heard from friends Biology is not something that needs tutoring as it is mainly about content and so that will just be a case of spending the time learning it.

Physics and Chemistry are quite common subjects students get tutoring for. These subjects the tutoring is only beneficial if the student is actively doing stuff outside the lesson. The reason for this is because the content in my opinion in these subjects is not insanely hard but students lose marks for reasons such as forgetting how to do questions, poorly structured answers and silly mistakes. These are the things that a tutor for these subjects can help you improve but a large onus is placed on the student to do practice questions that the tutor provides or the student has sourced themselves as it is a subject where exposure to more questions is what improves knowledge and performance. So therefore you should go to a tutor who is not only experienced but has knowledge of marking and provides you with consistent homework. The reason for the homework is because school homework is often not that great for these subjects, as schools just tell you to do a simple worksheet with repetitive problems that won't mirror the questions you may receive in an exam.

 

[nic1375]

d I'm getting kinda stressed about my science subjects. My subjects for next year are 3U Maths, advanced English, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Geography.

I am already doing English and Maths tutoring but I'm really scared of how I'm going to cope with my science subjects. I want to try to get two of my sciences to be tutored but I don't think my parents will be able to afford it. So I was wondering between the three sciences which one should I get tutoring for or is it possible to not get tutoring at all.

Personally I would start on chem module 1 early very content heavy compared to its other modules. Phys mod 1 is quite easy and for maths I go tutoring so ill have finished that by the holidays (try and stay ahead of your school with your tutor especially in maths)

Ooooh ok!! Yeah, I was looking modules and I was wondering which ones to start first. Thank you so much for that!!

 

[nic1375]

To answer the question of the original poster. You shouldn't really be getting tutoring for every single subject because as you have mentioned it can be very expensive and in most cases not a value for money. This is because tutoring should just be something that improves your marks in things you can't do yourself or if you want access to more materials for a certain subject, rather than completely substituting what you are learning at school and self study. In Year 11 it is not necessary to get tutoring for everything. If you still want to get that kind of all subject tutoring stuff, do it in Year 12 and just go to tutorings that you think you will benefit the most in Year 11 as the assessments and content is not as demanding in Year 11. In terms of subjects that I would say tutoring is recommended English is probably the main one as this is something that not everyone can just learn themselves or improve as there is no like work more = you end up improving more. This is because it is more about changing how you write and think vs doing more practice that leads to the better marks in my opinion. A school teacher can't always help you with that because they have limited amount of time and can't mark like essays every week for each student which a tutor could do. It's also something that the skills you learn in Year 11 are transferrable to Year 12 so it will have the most beneficial impact. Tutoring for maths can sometimes be a waste of money. This is because it is inherently a subject where you can self learn and improve by just doing practice yourself and there are a large amount of resources in terms of past papers and textbook questions. If you are going to the tutor for maths just to do some questions then this is not really worth it. I would only say maths tutoring is worth it if you are going ahead in the content at tutoring so you are learning ahead or you are doing practice questions consistently outside the lesson and then going to the tutoring to ask for help in solving certain questions you couldn't get out. For sciences from what I have heard from friends Biology is not something that needs tutoring as it is mainly about content and so that will just be a case of spending the time learning it.

Physics and Chemistry are quite common subjects students get tutoring for. These subjects the tutoring is only beneficial if the student is actively doing stuff outside the lesson. The reason for this is because the content in my opinion in these subjects is not insanely hard but students lose marks for reasons such as forgetting how to do questions, poorly structured answers and silly mistakes. These are the things that a tutor for these subjects can help you improve but a large onus is placed on the student to do practice questions that the tutor provides or the student has sourced themselves as it is a subject where exposure to more questions is what improves knowledge and performance. So therefore you should go to a tutor who is not only experienced but has knowledge of marking and provides you with consistent homework. The reason for the homework is because school homework is often not that great for these subjects, as schools just tell you to do a simple worksheet with repetitive problems that won't mirror the questions you may receive in an exam.

Wow thank you for this clarification!! I really needed this information. I'm going to take this into deep consideration and I'll be discussing this with my parents too. I really appreciate it!!