Is it necessary to go to the tutor?

[cloudyy]

Is it really THAT necessary to go to the tutor in order to get in to selective schools? I don't really want to do tutoring because I feel like it's too much money to spend for tutor but if I dont go to tutors, i feel like im missing thngs that everyone knows. If u didnt go to the tutors and got into any one of these selective schools, how did you study for the exam?

[The Special One]

Not necessary at least not usually but they do definitely help.

You can get good tutors who only charge $30 an hour

[006896]

Hi!
I went to tutoring for Selective schools and definitely got into a good school. But looking back, I realise that I wasted so much money on tutoring, because I never did my homework! I just turned up to lessons and hoped for the best.
You don't need to go tutoring for content but you do need help with exam technique and exam-style questions. If you don't want to go to tutoring, buy some books with practice papers/questions. Understanding the exam format/layout is a major way to stay confident during the real exam!
I'm not going to lie, everyone that I've seen so far, who've gotten into good Selective schools, have gone to tutoring. But how you utilise tutoring is the most important thing. Like I said, I went every week, but NEVER did my own homework. How I did so well is a mystery to me...
I know some places offer Selective 'crash course' style preparation, where tutoring is only offered in the holidays, or in the weeks leading up to the exam. Maybe you should consider this style of tutoring.
Otherwise, practice questions and ask your teachers, parents, older siblings or friend's older siblings for help!
Hope this was helpful!

[William1103]

Hey i used to go to a tutor specifically for selective entry exam preparation and ended up getting in
I found it useful that i always got handed loads of paper and whenever i finished my tests and didn't understand something, my tutor would go over it with me. Honestly, now that i look back at it, it was only helpful because i was lazy. I procrastinated and said i would start studying at the start of the year, but realistically only started like less than two months before the actual exam (which was when i started getting tuition).

 If you can grab a lot of practice tests e.g. from spectrum tuition (the questions come with solutions), smash out heaps of them under timed conditions and be self-disciplined, there's really not much need for a tutor. The more practice you do, the better you get.

[quinn_03]

YOU DO NOT NEED TUTORING *EVER*. I have never done any tutoring in my life. I got into Macrob and last year, John Monash. However, you do need to put in a lot of effort at home and self study. Personally, I am against tutoring and I don't think it's worth it.

[mi-xao-14]

Well, in my opinion, it depends the circumstances. I have tutoring only because I don't know what to study, and that I don't have any older siblings (well, I'm actually the only child). However, if you have older siblings, like quinn.03 (I'm friends with her), then it's not worth wasting your parents' money to hire a tutor. Instead, your siblings can help you to prepare for your selective high school entry exam.

[hegihugo]

I think it does help, I'm trying out for Y10 entry into MHS, and have just attended some of the Henderson's courses, and they're great. They give a crap tonne of work for you to do, and I think it has definitely benefited me; however I think it's really expensive, so I would just attend what you need (I attended the numerical, verbal reasoning and comprehension).

[TheLlama]

Maybe a different opinion on this. If you're aiming to get into a selective school, then hopefully that's because you're looking for a place that will extend your thinking and challenge you a little. That's largely the point of those schools: they're looking for students who aren't necessarily being challenged in a regular classroom, so they'll expect that you're already at a certain level. Also, the pace often tends to be quite fast (more content is covered, or there is greater depth than you might see elsewhere).

If you end up relying on tutoring to get in, it can become this vicious cycle where you need tutoring to feel like you're on top of your studies. Or you might feel that everyone else is doing all these extra classes, so to do otherwise would mean missing out.

When I was a student, I didn't actually do any special prep before taking the test. If you're curious by nature and prepared to do useful things (working on your writing, reading some more complex material, looking at going beyond the math stuff you do in class), you should find that you manage well. Ask yourself why you're looking to go to a select entry school - if it's because you would benefit from it, just go for it and don't worry about what everyone else is doing.