james an versus VIE-ICP for selective school exam prep

[sheikh]

Hi all,

I am currently preparing for the selective school exam on 23rd July,2022. Already have a private tutor but am still stressed about time management and exam preparation. I am thinking of joining either James An or VIE-ICP as Hendersons is too expensive for me.

Anyone who cleared the exam in 2022 or even before, what would you recommend? Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks

[OckTheOctopus]

Hi all,

I am currently preparing for the selective school exam on 23rd July,2022. Already have a private tutor but am still stressed about time management and exam preparation. I am thinking of joining either James An or VIE-ICP as Hendersons is too expensive for me.

Anyone who cleared the exam in 2022 or even before, what would you recommend? Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks

Hello!
I sat the exam last year and got in with 3 superiors and an AA. I didn't go to any tutor and just self-studies from Khan Academy, but I have heard good things from James Ann (for the English tests) and Hendersons (for the maths tests and mock tests in general).

Hope this helps!

[Kim Krystal]

Hi, I myself go to a selective school and to be honest I think both of them is just a waste of not only time but also money, like yes the resources are sometimes helpful but they don't teach for those who are willing to learn, they teach for those who already have knowledge on specific topics and want to do better. Trust me all you need is on the internet, Khan Academy is a very very great resource so you use it!!!!

[justaperson_]

Hey!
So first things first. both tutors are pretty good and doing any of them can be beneficial if used correctly. I've also been to both so I'll give me opinions. Firstly, VIE course. So I remember you had to sit an exam (like the selective one) to get into the tutoring. This was used to find which level of tutoring you should enter. I think there was A class (being highest), B class and C class (being lowest). I got into the A class but if I'm going to be entirely honest, there's barely any actual difference with being in A, B or C class (maybe only like the people in your class might be more 'like minded'). But anyways, they will give these practice tests and you will complete them for homework and then at the actual class they will go through it. The practice tests were... fine. I say this because we only got a practice exam every week and they were decent. The math was pretty easy tbh but the english was decently good. Next is JAC. Jac is known for spamming heaps of practice tests which can be a good and bad thing. I think the practice tests from JAC were pretty good. They are also known for having extremely hard math and nr tests which I would personally say SOME were harder than the actual test. I attended the online classes and if im going to be entirely honest... I didn't attend any online lectures (maybe like 3). Personally, I just found them useless (as there was a video which directly gave solutions in a direct and quicker way) but also because there would be about 200-300 students in each lecture.

In all honesty, if i could go back in time, I would do JAC and grind their practice tests whilst just self studying for the test. I personally think that the teaching from tutors can be a bit useless as there are so many other ways of getting taught (e.g youtube, khan academy,  friends and even people from the selective discord who are willing to help)

Anways GOOD LUCK and I hope this helped just a tiny bit

[MariaJohnson]

Thanks for the suggestion.