TL : DR : Don't go to Project for the tutoring during the term, focus on completing your English assignments, trials and all practice tasks befor trials to the highest degree. During which, talk to your teacher frequently for marking, feedback/what you can improve on in terms of exam strategy.
After that, before trials, go to Project for LEAPs (if you have money to burn) as it is a way to discipline yourself to consistently practice under test conditions.
I think for a subject like English, the marking styles and feedback from your current teachers on your essays and Mod C assignments and how they teach you the syllabus, how they teach you to write a cohesive paragraph will be your biggest determinant of whether you need tution outside of school, Project Academy or otherwise. The thing with starting at Project for English in year 12, is yes, there is an initial high of being ahead in the subject because you get familarised with the texts quicker than you would have at school. However, because you have started with your tutoring homework and tutoring resources, you get dependent on those resources to bring you to success. One rule you'll find in year 12, if you do external tuition, is that your teachers want you to listen to them and how they teach their text, not a tutoring center and the feedback your tutor give you- and you should follow this rule. I was very lucky that my teachers were generous with their time for feedback and questions about assignments and marking annotations you would get when you got your Task 1, Task 2, Task 3 back. I wish I used them more wisely looking back. When looking over the Project resources and how they taught Eng Adv compared to my teachers, the lack of depth, fluidity and sophistication was very apparent. This is for the sake of efficiency when it comes to tutoring such a large group of students- its completely necessary to do this as a means to to streamline the course for students. I was glad for that I did not START with Project Resources because then my stream of thinking for my theses would be dictated by shallow analysis rather than what I got out of my teachers and discussing mutual analysis of quotes with my peers.
So I wouldn't disregard getting better in English without tuition at all if you have above average teachers and you have a solid conceptual understanding of your texts (please read them! Like sit down and read them! You'll be ahead of a good amount of your cohort if you just read your texts when you are meant to). I found English Advanced much harder than most of my subjects but it was mainly because I rushed most of my preparation towards writing essays in the end under the guise of, "I got this, how hard can it be to write under pressure,pshhh, lightweight." Like people tell you not to memorise essays, but my friends that did, did very well and I have come to the conclusion that you do need to memorise very large chunks. I learnt this the hard way :/
Eng Adv is still a subjective course at the end of the day and like others have said in the thread, I would be wary of group classes for English. You're already taking English Ext 1 which is a large chunk of your time gone as well. Ask yourself if you have the ability to manage your time efficiently to be able to score well in both your English-es and your other subjects. If you can keep up with the workload to make sure you get to a stage of practicing making paragraph and forming thesises statements to different essay questions as quick as you can, you can definitely succeed with just your teacher's feedback.
I think the LEAP course is a good way to get in the habit of practicing writing English essays under Exma room conditions.
1)I didn't have the discipline to do practice paper under timed condition so it helped craft that discipline.
2) I was much too scared of "failing" my practice tests. Which is strange but I had such crippling perfectionism that wouldn't submit school tasks at times because it wasn't "perfect." Doing the LEAP exam program definitely helped breaking the seal of exams for me. Also you kind of get pressure to do better or beat your last best attempt, so I was more motivated to study for myself during a time that I needed to.
3) They also offer a service to go over your mistakes in the mock exam with a tutor. This is important and as long as you show up to them, they can clarify where you need to improve, it is also a chance to get quicker feedback from someone who isn't your teacher and a pair of eyes that is more experienced than you. This is good for refining essay plans when you have them, and at its worse will have a neutral effect on your writing.
If you end up going, Freya was always very helpful when talking to me about where my paragraphs lacked cohesion and flow, where I can link back to the thesis, where my point was completely disconnected from my topic sentences.
4)Project are good at teaching exam strategy if your teachers do not.
Off topic, but I saw you were doing Econ as well, I'd consider going to Project for eco. Writing Eco essays/short answers are a lot more systemised than English and Project have streamlined their course so they have the system for answering and breaking down questionsand how to teach you these exam strategies in a very tidy manner. Just something to think about. Do not be naive as to rely on tutoring resources, exploit the help of your teachers as much as you can.
