Do students need tutoring to succeed in the VCE?

[funkyducky]

I think it really comes down to specific cases - the student, the subject, how good the school teacher is, how good the tutor is, how much they charge.
On the one hand, I got 50 in Methods last year without a tutor. My parents offered to get me tuition and I tried a couple of lessons but it was useless, as I had no questions to ask and nothing to gain, so I stopped. On the other hand, I've been going to a French tutor weekly this year, because a LOTE is hard to practice for by yourself, especially with the Oral Exam (which is now over, yay!).
And I find that there's about a 50-50 balance between kids with and without tutors amongst the top students in my year level (the ones who will get 99+)

[spaciiey]

i didn't get tutored at all. i got 97.9

the dux of my school last year spent well over a hundred bucks a week on tutors. he got 98.05, with the asian five.

he smashed my spesh score. i smashed his english score.

he also smashed my methods score, but i dont think that that counts because i jumped right in at 3+4 level (with a horrid teacher) and he didnt, and i did non-cas and he did cas. plus, i did methods 3+4 in year 11, not year 12.

-shrug-

truth be told i think it's a personal choice. i dont think that being tutored would have made a difference for me.

~~~

*edit* having said that though, i realise i am being a hypocrite because this i AM a tutor and i had (and still have) enough kids lined up to make a decent living from it. and with the kids i've had, talking to their teachers i get the idea that yes, it has helped them to be tutored. with tutoring you gotta remember though it's not a bandaid -- you yourself have to be willing to work and not be under the impression that an extra hour a week will suddenly make you understand everything.

then again i dont really work with kids who are trying to go from an a to an a plus like i imagine most of you are here. i work more with struggling students who want to go from d's and e's, to b's or c's.

but you have to remember that i want to go into teaching and always liked it and was fair good at it anyways, even throughout high school. soooo yeah... i guess the quality/enthusiasm/whatever of the tutor also counts for something.

[VivaTequila]

97.10. Never paid for a tutor.

Go figure, you might pay your way into a better score but imo it's not worth the money.

but that's just my opinion, paying for a tute will undoubtedly increase your score.

Edit: Also for the sake of it, never attended a revision lecture either. I just used my textbooks and the internet.

[max payne]

but that's just my opinion, paying for a tute will undoubtedly increase your score.

really? i strongly disagree with that statement. paying for a tutor wont UNDOUBTEDLY increase your score. It might in some cases but IMHO i dont see what a tutor can provide that a 1 on 1 teacher session cant provide. If your teacher doesnt have the time or is not a very good teacher than go to the internet. There are millions of videos and resources from highly educated people on the net. In fact, VCE is practically designed so that you can achieve any score withought the need for out-of-school help. All you need is the text book and some determination. I self learn practically every subject cause i personally cannot learn a thing when someone trys to explain it to me. Im the kind of person that needs to read it for my self and do the questions to understand. So my opinion might be biassed. Although I have absolutely nothing against tutors at all. In fact i wouldnt mind doing it. In the end if the student is happy and wants to do it, why not make money off it?

[acinod]

Is Dr. He considered tutoring? He calls it coaching. Is coaching and tutoring the same thing?

[WhoTookMyUsername]

yes...


to OP No.
I didn't have a tutor for Bio and got a 50. I don't plan to have a tutor for any of my other subjects except English (which is less self tutor able). Especially for maths / science all you need to do is learn the course (if you struggle here, get a tutor) and then spam application (prac exams etc.)

[thushan]

Hmm, I had a tutor for Englang like from August onwards when I was having enormous trouble trying to self-teach the course (teacher's lessons weren't very good, and it wasn't helped by the fact that our class was very disruptive!). Helped heaps because I have someone who knows his stuff with whom I could discuss my ideas and theories with.
Chem, never had a tutor, but I did learn ahead (had to, Olympiad and that) but my teacher at Year 11 was amazing, and I think that's what helped me the most.
Physics, never had a tutor - teacher wasn't great, selftaught most of the course and repeatedly sought help from one of the other physics teachers (our physics department was AWESOME )
Spesh/Methods: never had tutors for these, but I did kumon when I was younger, and that helped heaps
German: had a tutor for that, he helped a fair bit in that I could simply practise my german
Bio: parents forced me to grab a tutor for this, he had excellent resources, teaching wasn't great - I couldn't understand his accent!
So all in all, I guess I had some help along the way...

[paulsterio]

I couldn't understand his accent!

LOL!!!! That's mean
Anyways, in my case, I didn't have tutors for Software Development, Chem, English, Methods or Spesh, I just didn't feel like I needed a tutor. Self-teaching was good enough for me

For English, I had a tutor, I guess it helped me, but most of my improvement in English throughout the year was just from my own work, I didn't really feel as if I gained much from tuition, but I guess just the discussion and that would have helped me develop as a writer.

[thushan]

I couldn't understand his accent!

LOL!!!! That's mean

Not mean when you start spelling 'transpiration' as 'ranspiration!' Lucky I never had to write that in the exam
I only realise it was spelt 'transpiration' when my tutor started talking about 'ranscription' and 'ranslation'

[VivaTequila]

but that's just my opinion, paying for a tute will undoubtedly increase your score.

really? i strongly disagree with that statement. paying for a tutor wont UNDOUBTEDLY increase your score. It might in some cases but IMHO i dont see what a tutor can provide that a 1 on 1 teacher session cant provide. If your teacher doesnt have the time or is not a very good teacher than go to the internet. There are millions of videos and resources from highly educated people on the net. In fact, VCE is practically designed so that you can achieve any score withought the need for out-of-school help. All you need is the text book and some determination. I self learn practically every subject cause i personally cannot learn a thing when someone trys to explain it to me. Im the kind of person that needs to read it for my self and do the questions to understand. So my opinion might be biassed. Although I have absolutely nothing against tutors at all. In fact i wouldnt mind doing it. In the end if the student is happy and wants to do it, why not make money off it?

Interesting actually... I still believe that paying for a tutor will definately, incontrovertibly, 100% increase your score. It might be questionable as to how much, but considering that spending time with a tutor is essentially time spent collaborating and investing time and effort into your studies whilst getting (hopefully) insightful input, feedback, and contributions from the tutor, it's hard to argue the opposite way. It's also hard to argue that it will have absolutely zero impact on your score. I just can't see it doing nothing or working the opposite way which is why I am saying that it will definately help. There's also the matter that tutors exist; people must be utilising them for something, and presumably the system works and tutors do in fact help your score.

Again, I'm not talking in the realms of degrees of efficacy, because I don't think they would help all that much in the majority of cases. But I don't think they can damage your score, and I don't think that you'd break even if you utilised a tute. The only way to go is up.

[brightsky]

Is Dr. He considered tutoring? He calls it coaching. Is coaching and tutoring the same thing?

it's as if he considers maths to be a sport.

and in response to OP: no. most vce subjects merely involve learning a set course and applying the knowledge garnered to different questions. given that you're efficient with time, you should be able to master this yourself, without external aid. that said, it can at times be difficult to find resources that expose you to a sufficient variety of questions such that you are fully prepared for exams/sacs, and tutoring centres such as dr he can help a lot in that regard. furthermore, many find self-learning an entirely new course rather confronting, not to say that often the logic that you develop during the learning process with which you use to tie all the concepts introduced in the syllabus together can be erroneous. given that you have a good teacher, or can be bothered searching through the net for answers, these misunderstandings can often be rectified in good time, however having a tutor can sometimes reduce the time and stress it takes to do so. what is more, i believe many (good) students find a tutor purely for psychological reasons; they either seek reassurance or somehow believe that not going to a tutor will render them 'behind' in the competition that is vce.

[abd123]

I'd say most of the 99.5+ kids in my year didn't have tutors...

Thats hard to believe...

Realistically, I reckon the 99.5+ kids had tutors along the way, and they also must have been studying a lot.

It's common sense.

[max payne]

but that's just my opinion, paying for a tute will undoubtedly increase your score.

really? i strongly disagree with that statement. paying for a tutor wont UNDOUBTEDLY increase your score. It might in some cases but IMHO i dont see what a tutor can provide that a 1 on 1 teacher session cant provide. If your teacher doesnt have the time or is not a very good teacher than go to the internet. There are millions of videos and resources from highly educated people on the net. In fact, VCE is practically designed so that you can achieve any score withought the need for out-of-school help. All you need is the text book and some determination. I self learn practically every subject cause i personally cannot learn a thing when someone trys to explain it to me. Im the kind of person that needs to read it for my self and do the questions to understand. So my opinion might be biassed. Although I have absolutely nothing against tutors at all. In fact i wouldnt mind doing it. In the end if the student is happy and wants to do it, why not make money off it?

Interesting actually... I still believe that paying for a tutor will definately, incontrovertibly, 100% increase your score. It might be questionable as to how much, but considering that spending time with a tutor is essentially time spent collaborating and investing time and effort into your studies whilst getting (hopefully) insightful input, feedback, and contributions from the tutor, it's hard to argue the opposite way. It's also hard to argue that it will have absolutely zero impact on your score. I just can't see it doing nothing or working the opposite way which is why I am saying that it will definately help. There's also the matter that tutors exist; people must be utilising them for something, and presumably the system works and tutors do in fact help your score.

Again, I'm not talking in the realms of degrees of efficacy, because I don't think they would help all that much in the majority of cases. But I don't think they can damage your score, and I don't think that you'd break even if you utilised a tute. The only way to go is up.

Actually I do believe it can have the opposite effect and I have seen it happened as well. In some cases kids can rely TOO heavily on tutors and tend to not develop independent skills which are vital for exam study. This is mostly seen in kids who have been tutored from a young age. Sure it can help with things such as concepts and discussing ideas especially in subjects like English. But I do know people who don't study at all for tests and even exams because they think "oh I'll just ask my tutor". but of course I'm not saying all cases are like this, just that it is possible that having a tutor can have negative affects, again especially if you've had a tutor for most of your schooling.

[Sickle]

Hm. Some people will benefit more than others from tutoring - as taigz (I think it was taigz) said, some students have learning styles that are suited to tutoring. I know quite a few kids who managed exponentially well by self-teaching (99+) - and this could have been due to their learning style which flourished on dissecting and deriving things for themselves. I tried a few tutors at the start of the year, and quit them like funkyducky did (although my motivation was mainly laziness ._.) - and ended up with a fairly good score.

Also, abd123 - 'Realistically, I reckon the 99.5+ kids had tutors along the way' - only some, not all. Won't deny that a lot of them must have studied a lot - as it tends to take studying to achieve precision and speed in subjects such as maths, although I do know a few kids who are just natural geniuses and aced vce with significantly less effort than the rest of their cohort (they are a minority).

[Stick]

I was talking to someone who graduated from PLC last year with an ATAR of 98.45 and she got tutors for every single subject because she didn't want to sound stupid asking questions in front of her classmates. I think this sums up my opinion on tutoring.