0419 806 706

Tutoring to Learn Study Skills & Exam Technique

Just Doing Homework is Not Enough to Ensure Success at High School and Beyond.

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Before you consider working with us, we invite you to discuss your concerns about your child with a Specialist Teacher, either by phone or online.

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Study First – Homework Second

By Year/Grade 8 or 9, your child should be doing at least 30 minutes of personal study per day – not just on top of his/her homework – but before even starting the homework and assignment. Any student who does not study before doing homework is not an independent learner and so is at serious risk of crashing in Senior High School or 1st Year University or College.

Cramming Doesn’t Work in the Long Term

Cramming just before exams only puts information into the short-term memory so it is usually lost soon after the exams. This is demonstrated every year when often more than 50% of students fail or drop out of 1st Year University despite ‘successfully’ completing matriculation and uni entrance exams the year before. The main cause for this terrible result is that many students do not learn how to be independent learners in High School.

How to Tell if Your Child is an Independent Learner

Independent learners are pro-active:

  • Independent learners study each topic before it is taught in class thus ensuring that they have learned and understood the vocab, and have a list of questions ready to ask the teacher. This means that by the end of each lesson the student fully understands the topic.
  • Independent learners prepare summaries and concept maps of a topic BEFORE beginning their homework and assignments on that topic. This ensures that homework is an opportunity to apply and test their knowledge and understanding.
  • Independent learners are able to get help from their teachers by asking very specific questions. Students who haven’t studied before asking questions often do not even have enough vocab to frame a clear question, let alone understand the explanation.
  • Independent learners know what they know, and know what they don’t know because they are able to test themselves and have a mind set of learning from their mistakes. When students who do not do proactive study are asked what they don’t understand they often reply ‘All of it.’ Most teachers are not able or even willing to help these students.

Exam Technique

Adequate preparation using high powered study skills is obviously necessary for high marks in exams. However, many students lose more marks from not answering the exam questions than from not knowing the correct answers.

Essentially it is an advanced comprehension problem with many students not knowing the meanings of:

  • The instruction words (such as describe, analyse, discuss, etc.)
  • The technical and jargon words (such as element, force, revolution, factorise, etc.)
  • The qualifier words (such as usually, often, or, and, always, completely, etc.)

Other problems that contribute to poor grades in exams include:

  • Slow or illegible handwriting
  • Poor essay writing skills
  • Not using stress management techniques in exams

The Best Time to Learn Study and Exam Skills is NOW

We provide expert one-to-one study and exam training at our office in Adelaide, or in your home using the internet. Contact us now on 0419 806 706 to find out how we can help.