MentalBlank

[Collin Li]

Why was the thread about MentalBlank deleted?

I'm sure other students would like to see opinions about this site on here.

[enwiabe]

It was deleted, pursuant to a defamation claim levelled at VCENotes by solicitors acting on behalf of Mental Blank. What do you think of Dobos now?

[Collin Li]

It was deleted, pursuant to a defamation claim levelled at VCENotes by solicitors acting on behalf of Mental Blank. What do you think of Dobos now?

You're speaking as if I thought of him as a god, which I never did.

I was just defending the transparency of student opinion (which was largely negative anyway) - but it's good to get an explanation.

[Collin Li]

And if anyone thinks there's something wrong with thinking of him as anything more than a scammer, then I disagree.

Although we should all be skeptical of marketing and sales techniques, free seminars where he advertises his other products are hardly a 'scam' - at most an inconvenience (which I don't have an opinion about, since I've never been).

Many honest companies use the same model: offer a free product (lure) and convert x% of lured clients into customers.

[Eriny]

^ I don't have issue with offering free seminars at all. I think it is unscrupulous to get money out of students and their families by undermining their confidence and convincing them that they need skills that they really don't need, but that doesn't make it a 'scam'. It definitely lowers my opinion of what he is offering - if it's so great then you really don't need scare tactics and exaggeration.

I remember when I was in grade 1, some company gave us a free in-home seminar on maths education. I had to do a bunch of equations and I got one wrong (my parents think that it was a trick question, although I'm pretty sure it was just a silly mistake because the questions were so easy). The person trying to sell the product said that because of that one mistake, my ability at maths compared to state averages would diminish every year. My parents did not buy the maths thing. I have no idea how you can prove something so silly like that, and I carried on with maths until year 12 and did relatively quite well. For me, that is closer to a scam  - flagrant lies in the form of speculation.

[Collin Li]

^ I don't have issue with offering free seminars at all. I think it is unscrupulous to get money out of students and their families by undermining their confidence and convincing them that they need skills that they really don't need, but that doesn't make it a 'scam'. It definitely lowers my opinion of what he is offering - if it's so great then you really don't need scare tactics and exaggeration.

I remember when I was in grade 1, some company gave us a free in-home seminar on maths education. I had to do a bunch of equations and I got one wrong (my parents think that it was a trick question, although I'm pretty sure it was just a silly mistake because the questions were so easy). The person trying to sell the product said that because of that one mistake, my ability at maths compared to state averages would diminish every year. My parents did not buy the maths thing. I have no idea how you can prove something so silly like that, and I carried on with maths until year 12 and did relatively quite well. For me, that is closer to a scam  - flagrant lies in the form of speculation.

TSFX comes to mind with their mid-year spam about trick questions.

Did MentalBlank do this?

[Eriny]

I can't remember them doing it, really. They said that learning to speed read is a valuable skill for VCE, but I don't think that counts as a scam. Maybe someone who went to the seminar-thing more recently would remember better. I think I went in 2006.

[nbalakers24]

from the free seminar he focused more on how to fill out the sheet thaan whatever he was trying to teach/help us.

[physics]

on the age carrerrs expo day they made me sign to get a free cd worth $$$ some amount but i nvr got it

[Collin Li]

I went to one of his pitches today and I was quite impressed. I mean, sure he spent the last 10 minutes selling, but the first 40 minutes was really engaging and I learnt something.

If his initial (selling) seminars are like that, I don't know why people are complaining...

He's a good public speaker, that's for sure.

[darkphoenix]

on the age carrerrs expo day they made me sign to get a free cd worth $$$ some amount but i nvr got it

Don't you have to wait for them to send it out?

[pooshwaltzer]

I tutored this guy.