5 Great Back to School Tips For Students

With a new year comes a new load of successes, challenges, and adventure – and, just around the corner, a brand new year of school and learning!

 

We at A Team Tuition are incredibly excited about this schooling year, and all the wonderful things that will happen! For us, we’re especially excited about celebrating our expansion into Brisbane with a $10,000 Tutoring Transformation Scholarship for students in the city! Check out our website and blog post for more details.

 

Most importantly though, whether you’re a student from Brisbane or Gold Coast – or any other city – you’re probably getting ready to get back into the swing of school life. We want to help you get your best foot forward – so here are our top 5 tips for how to get ahead of the education game right from the very start of the year!

 

Tip 1. Plan for the year ahead

 

If there’s anything this blog is aimed at doing, it’s making plans for the year ahead!

 

It’s so important in life to have a specific plan in mind for whatever you’re tackling. Without having a plan, it’s guaranteed that you will be caught unaware, and react last minute to new things that suddenly happen in front of you.

 

This is especially true when it comes to school. A Team Tuition firmly believes that school is not something you should simply stumble through blindly – your education should be an opportunity for you to succeed, and it needs specific strategies and planning to tackle it effectively.

 

The best way to do this is to plan, using the resources that are provided to you. Many schools have Academic calendars available with lucrative due dates for your assessments (this can sometimes be called an assessment calendar).

 

These are vital to helping you succeed! Having these due dates will allow you to pencil them in ahead of time, and therefore plan when to start them, what days to work on them, when to study, and so on!

 

 

If your school doesn’t provide an assessment calendar, don’t fret! Assignments and exams actually have a typical term structure anyway – you will usually have an assessment of some kind during weeks 5 to 6, and then again around weeks 8 to 9 of term. This is because your teachers will typically measure your progress halfway through term, and see if you grow in understanding and level of effort through until the final weeks.

 

To help you plan for this, consider having a diary or day planner! They are super useful not just for school, but also for helping you plan extracurricular activities, social events, and any other personal events!

 

Make sure, too, that you allow breathing space for things to not go according to plan. Make sure you have things in place, like extra time/days or potentially people to help you, if you find that what you originally had in mind becomes far too much! Life can suddenly throw things at you without notice, be it sickness, a sudden holiday, or any other event or element.

 

Tip 2. Set goals, review goals

 

Yes, yes, we know – you hear this all the time when a new year comes around. Everybody’s telling you to set goals, be practical, use the SMART method – trust us, we hear it from everyone too!

 

However, there’s definitely a reason we hear it from everyone! Setting goals is one of the main ways to help yourself stay on track and focus on something specific, rather than just blunder around in the dark.

 

Having goals, essentially, is having vision.

 

Vision is so important because it helps to give you direction and purpose; without it, the decisions you make are usually influenced by how you feel in the moment. In school, this usually results in avoiding things (like homework) until you have no choice but to do it (hello all-nighters).

 

This is vital in any area of life, not just school. Imagine yourself as an archer, hoping to shoot an arrow into a bullseye for a grand $100,000 prize. With clear sight of the board in front of you, it’s far easier for you to hit the target, and nab yourself a ton of cash.

 

But imagine if someone suddenly puts a blindfold over your eyes, and you can’t see anything, or aim for anything in particular.

 

That’s what not having goals is like. You still have a chance of achieving success, but without the clear vision and focus that goal-setting provides, there’s a far heavier chance that you’ll miss.

 

 

My advice? Set your goals this year. Make them SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Don’t make your goal “I want to shoot a bow and arrow” – focus on setting boundaries, and allowing it to be SMART:

 

“I want to be able to shoot an arrow into a bullseye within three months

time so that I can win $100,000. To do that, I will practice shooting with

a bow and arrow every Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday for the next

three months until I can shoot a bullseye.”

 

Now that might feel like an incredibly long goal, but it’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. You also essentially have two goals in one – one overarching goal, with a set place to get to, and another goal that will allow you to get to said set place.

 

Doing this for school also helps you grow and develop your goal-setting ability for your other areas of life! A Team Tuition strongly believes that you should have more than just school goals – it’s also important to have personal goals, and career goals.

 

We want you to achieve success in every area of your life, and having clear goals towards that success helps hone in your talent and abilities. Once you’ve got a clear vision, being successful becomes far easier!

 

Tip 3. Have an accountability partner

 

The reason most people fail in achieving their goals is because they attempt to go into it alone. An accountability partner is someone who you tell your goals and aspirations to, and who then help keep you on track towards achieving those goals.

 

You’ll find that if you establish an accountability partner for yourself, you will be kept on track far more than if you just stumbled around alone. Even with clear goals set in mind, having someone back you up and keep you accountable is amazing for the days where you genuinely just don’t feel like putting in the effort, or you’re struggling to have the confidence to believe in yourself.

 

When picking an accountability partner, you should be very particular about who you go with! Pick someone who is dedicated to their school work, but will not hesitate to encourage you, help you, or pull you back in line if you’re slacking off. This can be a good friend, a class partner, or, ideally, your Academic Personal Trainer! Tutors have been trained to keep their students accountable and help them through any struggles they’re facing in meeting their goals.

 

 

You should aim to utilize them – and any other accountability partners you have – as a way of discussing your strengths and weaknesses with someone who can help you develop and grow! They also should be able to help motivate and inspire you, especially when things don’t go according to plan (as mentioned in tip 1) or you struggle to meet your goals (tip 2).

 

Tip 4. Become familiar with your learning language

 

Very few people will think to familiarize themselves with their learning language. However, we at A Team Tuition believe that your learning language is the crux of your schooling, and one of the most important things you need to know about yourself.

 

We won’t go into too many details as to what a ‘learning language’ is – you’re welcome to read our previous blog all about it to gain some insight. The most important thing to know is that your learning language helps classify the exact way you learn best.

 

There are three main learning languages: visual (learning through what you see), aural (learning through what you hear), and kinaesthetic (learning through what you do). Figuring out which one you are might seem tricky – luckily our tutors are trained specifically to help you recognize your learning language, and how to fit it to the way you learn and study!

 

For more info on learning languages, make sure you read our other blogs all about the different types and how they help optimize your learning! It’s incredibly important to do so, as it affects the next tip greatly:

 

Tip 5. Know & grow your study habits

 

Study habits are vital to helping you become the absolute best student you can be.

 

To do your best work, you need to know how you learn best. Whilst the aforementioned learning languages are an important factor of knowing your study habits, there are so many more aspects to consider.

 

Have you ever thought about when your mind is most active? Or what environment you feel most comfortable learning in? Or if you have different ways of learning for different subjects?

 

 

If not, you definitely need to!

 

Being self-aware about your learning and personal habits is incredibly important. It helps stimulate comfort, and helps make learning feel like something you want to do, rather than something you have to do!

 

For example, when I write, I hate sitting still at a desk or staring at a blank wall. I would much rather be sitting on a comfy, soft couch, or propped up on my bed, typing away for hours. I love to be surrounded by visual aids like mind maps or pages of hand-written colour-coded notes.

 

My mind also doesn’t feel active at all in the early mornings, so my best writing tends to come when I write from mid-afternoon onwards.

 

Now, I can still write if the conditions aren’t what I like best, but my writing will actually take longer because I’ll be feeling sluggish, and often even get frustrated at the work I’m doing.

 

I know all these things because I sat down with people who helped me reflect on myself and my habits, and what habits were being detrimental. Since doing that, I’ve been able to make my writing better, and be faster at it as well!

 

There are so many other habits, and definitely ones that factor in with your learning language – such as which study methods are best for you, or what your best study habits inside the classroom would be.

 

I would encourage you to do some self-reflection on your schooling, either by yourself, with a studious friend, a family member, or your A Team Tuition tutor.

 

Within no time, if you pay specific attention to these things, you’ll find yourself finding school not only much easier, but also a lot more fun!

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How to Get an A in Biology [7 Steps]

Biology is hardly a subject that you can pick up in 2 seconds. It incorporates a little bit of Chemistry and Mathematics, mixed with its own principles – which makes it complex to say the least!

In saying this, the amazing thing about biology is that it is obvious in world around you.

Every plant around you has similar processes in its leaves, and every human has the same organ system driven by cells that work and replicate millions of times over the course of a life span. While there is a lot to learn and it is content heavy, biology is something that you can really apply to the real world!

This makes arguably easier to remember than other subjects like English and Maths. How a new protein is catalysed in the muscle or how your DNA replicates itself can stick easily since you’ll see it when your body operates and moves. If one of your friends or family gets sick, Biology explains how it happened and what the treatment options are.

In the long run, you become more understanding and appreciative of the world around you, and how it works.

Through all the complex processes and knowledge that you’ll face in Biology, always relating the concept back to its relevance in life and how it can help people is a great way to maintain motivation throughout the year. Maintaining that motivation, plus utilising all of the following 7 key tips, will guarantee your stance as an expert A-level Biology student!

1. Accept the Long, Difficult Work

Biology is a content based subject

At some point in Biology, there’s going to be a terms list that your teacher will give you with the instruction to simply “learn it”.

I’ll talk about the importance of knowing all this language a little later on, but you need to be prepared to have your brain overflowing with terms, knowledge and processes that are all unfamiliar, hard to learn and downright weird.

For how long will you need to be prepared to be able to recall this knowledge?

In my opinion, you’ll need to know it all year – if not across your entire time in Biology class.

Over your 40 weeks of school, you learn something new every day from each teacher in each class, and you’re expected to retain this information constantly. That system doesn’t change at any point, no matter what year of school you’re in – so it is up to you to take it in, and accept it.

One of my favourite teachers in school once told us that school should be looked at as if it’s the Tour De France.

When cycling in the Tour De France, you know it’s going to be hard work. You don’t embark on the journey expecting it to be easy, for everyone to just cruise along together – especially not if you’re wanting to get that golden first place.

No athlete in their right mind would head into the race complaining about how much work it is, how much effort they have to put in, and how much they want to give up. Losing is not an option for them.

But when we look at the incredible amount of work that is ahead of us – be it in Biology, any other subject, or even in life in general – and give up out of sheer fear, we make losing our only option.

Motivation is the key that will allow your effort to rise and meet your goals. Only when it does can you truly achieve highly.

If you know you’re struggling with motivation, make sure to check out our blog all about staying motivated and putting in a complete 100% effort in your schooling.

2. Know your language

As I mentioned earlier, there will be many terms that you need to learn. Are all of them important?

The answer is, unavoidably, yes.

Just like the words “and”, “but”, and “the” in the English language are completely necessary to allow the language to flow, various terms in Biology have a specific meaning that allow you to explain various processes when writing an assignment or in an exam.

The difference between a chromatid and a chromosome or hominin and hominid may seem minuscule, but confusing those terms can make your responses nonsensical and may cost you some serious marks.

It also goes beyond just knowing the language, as you need to understand the key concepts to perform better in assessments.

“But Gyan”, you ask, “aren’t knowing and understanding the same thing?”

To that, I say, “Nope!” There is a distinct difference between knowing a concept and understanding the concept – see below:

Knowing a concept is memorising a flow chart or paragraph that relates to the concept and how it works. Understanding it is when you know how the concept applies in every context. It’s about understanding why something happens and what would happen to each factor if something changed the circumstances.

Take, for example, the term ‘Founder effect’. If you know that the Founder effect is the variation of a population that’s all well and good – but what happens if you get an applied question where you’re given information, and asked whether the Founder’s effect applies to them?

Are you going to be able to apply your knowledge to answer the question? What if new variables are thrown in?

Students who simply know the content will be great in knowledge sections, but can struggle intensely when it comes to understanding and applying of their knowledge. Those who not only know but also understand what they’re learning are those who truly have a leg up on their education!

3. Diagrams and flow charts are your best friend

One of the best ways to retain a lot of information about biological principles is to create diagrams and flow charts.

It can often be very hard to remember a lot of information if it’s simply written out onto a page. Often the words will start to blur and you won’t want to remember anything that you learn.

Instead of making a hard subject even harder for yourself, make it easier by using these visual aides to guide you through the more difficult concepts:

• Flow chart of all subheadings and headings
• Definitions of broad concepts, and their effects on other concepts (use different colours for different
• Mind maps

Knowing the headings and subheadings for concepts is critical, since it helps your flow of thought when answering long and broad response questions.

Having visual aids allow you to see the process to an answer in your mind, making it easier to retain the information (especially if you’re a visual learner).

Visual study techniques are also advantageous for studying in time-stressed situations. If you’re about to head into a test, it can be difficult to write out full answers to questions and revise in that way. With diagrams and flow charts, you can still bring back to mind certain content, and process a far larger amount of information in that short time.

In saying all of this, visual information can be less in depth – which is why the next tip is so important:

4. Be aware of everything – attempt to know all things

I know, it’s a little intimidating being asked to know everything in a subject. Ultimately, though, to get an A, that’s the mentality you have to develop.

There isn’t much of a difference between those who get B’s and those who get A’s:

• Graphic of A’s vs B’s students – yet to make

5. EBI Tests – make sure you’re prepped properly!!

EBI Tests are used to assess your ability to ‘E’valuate ‘B’iological ‘I’ssues. Essentially, schools will want to see how well you can use your brain to analyse information presented to you in articles. Your responsibility is to back up your ideas with reliable and valid evidence.

So… how do you do that?

I’m glad you asked!

It starts with knowing your source. Be the person in class who always knows the author, the date published, where it was published and a few things about the author’s expertise in the area.

Once you know that, make sure you know the article’s themes inside out, so you can write about other relevant articles and connect them. Finding common themes between articles allow you to connect multiple sources, making your response that much better!

With unseen questions, make sure you’re very specific about what you do. Highlight key information so as to keep yourself on track, and answer all parts of the question thoroughly, especially if it relates to an article you’ve been given. Know your articles well, and apply the knowledge you get from them into your answers!

6. Plan for the assignment and exams coming up – long term

Since there’s so much you need to know and so many notes you’ll need to make, planning is the key to knowing when and how much work you need to do throughout the term.

Studying is analogous to sport. When training, an athlete must be aware of their intensity and volume of training so that they don’t burn out. When they have a break from competition and want to make serious gains in their fitness, they will up their frequency of training and train at a medium intensity in order to maintain consistent gains, but avoid becoming exhausted and burning out in the process.

However, when competition comes closer and they need to perform at their peak, they will up the intensity but decrease the frequency of their training, so that they are performing at a high level but still avoid overwork and burn out.

Similarly, you need to study in a way that allows for you to work hard in the lead up to exams and assignments, without you burning out due to over-stressing and pure exhaustion. The best way to do this is to plan before the term starts what the intensity and frequency of work for each week of term will be, based on the amount of school work that you’re going to get.

Now I’m not saying that you’ll get those allocations right straight away, but at least by knowing when your busy times of the term are, you know when you need to be putting in the effort and when you can relax a little bit. You also then allocate time to get ahead with content if you have spare time before exams or assignments.

In saying this, the best planners can work with a holistic plan that covers all their subjects – meaning that they know when to up the intensity of their study of subjects individually. These people are those who seem to have a lot of time. Realistically, they’re just in control and know exactly what is needed from them at any given point in time. They don’t do any more or any less, and that reduces stress for them.

You definitely want to get to that state, and early preparation is key in that regard!

7. Summaries – make them good, make them often

Last but not least, putting time into your study notes allows you to keep track of what you’ve learnt and when. If you’re not making summaries and revisiting the concepts that you learn in class within the next week, it becomes very challenging (as in almost impossible) to learn all concepts to an A level in the limited time that you have during the term.

This is a challenge for all of your subjects, but especially for Biology, as you will be overloaded with content on a day to day basis. This content can’t simply be learnt and then forgotten – every day following, the content you previously learnt will be expanded on. Therefore, you need to find a place to store daily information, so that you can return back to it.

The best way to do this is to write out summaries. HOWEVER, it’s not enough to only write it – you need to make it appealing to look at. Use diagrams when describing mechanisms or labelling things, flow charts when there’s a process you’re summarising, and make sure you highlight your written concept notes so that the main points jump out at you from the page.

After this, studying becomes merely rewriting what you have highlighted into more succinct sentences, until you understand the concept completely.

Setting aside time every week to do this specifically will allow you to stay on top of your work, but you must develop a habit of doing it. Healthy habits like this will help you absolutely ace Biology, and might even flood over into your other subjects, propelling you towards success in all areas of your education!

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We’re Celebrating Our Brisbane Tutoring Expansion by Giving Away a $10,000 Scholarship!

 

It’s a widely accepted past time that with a new year comes new dreams, goals, and possibilities. For us at A Team Tuition, we have acquired a brand new goal, which has been part of our company’s dream for years: expanding our incredible tutoring service out of just being in the Gold Coast region, and spreading our tutoring properly into Brisbane.

 

2017 was an absolutely incredible year for A Team Tuition’s tutors and students. We’ve heard so many incredible life-changing stories, like that of Mae Le, Jordan Abbott, and Aleks Everstets. We’ve helped over 87% of our students move into achieving A-standard grades – but most importantly, we have had the honour to help change students’ lives for the better.

 

We want to continue doing that in the Brisbane region – an area that we believe is filled to the brim with students who are simply oozing with potential, motivation, and passion, and simply need the academic strategy and coaching to achieve their dreams.

 

We know that we can do this for students, because across 2017, we did it in two incredible students as a part of our first Project Limitless Transformation Scholarship! Read on in this article to catch a glimpse into the history of A Team Tuition and the journey our company has been on to get to this monumental expansion, and all about the life-altering journey our incredible Team Limitless scholarship students, Waide and Skylah, were on throughout 2017.

 

Most importantly, make sure you read to the end to hear about the mind-blowing $10,000 scholarship that we will be giving away to one very lucky Brisbane student!

 

A Look Back at Project Limitless: Gold Coast

One thing we know we are absolutely brilliant at here at A Team Tuition is seeing potential in people, especially when they can’t see it in themselves.

 

This ability is a direct result of our cornerstone belief: that any student, anywhere, can achieve an A with the right mindset, support and strategy. This belief isn’t just restricted to our students and their schooling, but also applies to the company as a whole, from our CEO to our newest tutors.

 

Helping people harness their potential is something we pride ourselves on, and was the reason we decided to provide two Miami State High School students with a $5000 Transformation Scholarship. This scholarship would allow us to show those who feel defeated by the rigors of the education system that being intelligent has very little to do with being successful.

 

Enter our two winners, Skylah Rambold and Waide Carson, who were chosen out of 106 applicants. It was originally intended to give out only one scholarship; but upon meeting the both of these students and hearing their stories, it was clear that we would have no option but to provide two scholarships for these two.

 

Both were selected for their potential and desire to be achieve far higher than they were; for us it was merely a question of providing the tools they needed.

 

As with all students, both Waide and Skylah were incredibly individualized, with completely different personalities, needs, and wants. For this reason, they needed very different approaches. For Skylah, it was always a question of confidence. Having gotten herself from a D to a C- earlier in the year, it was clear that she needed to believe that she could do better.

 

Through working with her tutor, Skylah learned study strategies that worked for her, the ability to question her tutor and teachers, and most importantly to take ownership of her learning! You can read more about Skylah’s transformation here, and gain some insight into how she felt about her A Team journey!

 

For Waide, whose story you can read about here, it was about making the decision to accept the difference between wanting to be better and working to be better. Pushed by his tutor, Waide began to understand that school is not just a means to an end – it is the way you apply yourself to learning, like anything in life, that will grant yourself the opportunity to reap the rewards.

 

Fast forward three terms and the results speak for themselves! Both students are officially A students, achieving everything they had set out to do; but more importantly to us, they are truly understanding the power of their own potential.

 

The Next Step

Hot on the heels of the astonishing success of our first Project Limitless (Gold Coast) Scholarship comes our second venture: the official launch of our scholarship in Brisbane! And this time, it’s valued at $10,000 – double that of our first!

 

Open to all Brisbane high school students, the scholarship includes multiple elements that we at A Team Tuition believe will help propel a student towards success. This includes:

 

• 100 hours of tutoring across the year
• Access and guidance through our Parenting Blueprint Program (focused on assisting the parents of the student)
• Sessions with two-time Olympic Swimmer and Commonwealth Game Ambassador Cameron McEvoy, and
• Lunch with some of our incredible OP1 tutors.

 

Our scholarship amount is set higher than ever before, for the purpose of allowing a student to achieve higher than anyone would ever believe possible.

 

“Our goal,” remarks CEO Hayden McEvoy, “is to see how far we can go, how much we can achieve. We’ve proven that our scholarship has the capability to propel a student from C’s to A’s – this next scholarship is in pursuit of pushing the boundaries set by the education system. We want to prove that it could help a student go from the lowest point, all the way to being set up to Dux their grade.”

 

 

If you are a student of any Brisbane high school, we highly encourage you to apply! Just submit your application through our website. Applications open Friday 19^th of January, and will close Sunday February 18^th at 11:59pm, so make sure you get your application in as soon as possible for this amazing opportunity!

 

 

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Team Limitless Student Spotlight: Skylah Rhambold and Libbie Rowley-James

Every year with A Team Tuition, we see the seemingly ‘impossible’ become possible. We see students who defy all odds – their previous grades, people’s opinions, and limits placed on them – to achieve to the highest possible level.

 

Skylah Rhambold is one of those students.

 

Despite the beliefs of others around her and extreme adversity, Skylah has risen above all and achieved the impossible: moving from a failing student to one of the top 5% students in her entire school cohort.

 

Skylah started the year on an E grade for Maths, and was placed in the lowest level class for Year 9. But despite the restrictions placed on her, Skylah refused to be boxed in and worked incredibly hard to achieve better.

 

Through her own hard work and resilience in attending weekly mathematic study sessions with her teacher, she moved from an E to a C- within the term. It was at this point that A Team Tuition began to advertise the chance of a lifetime: a tutoring scholarship, valued at $5000, focused solely on providing Skylah with the exact academic strategies and support that she was needing.

 

“Hayden came to one of my year level assemblies, and he explained what it was all about and how it could help me. It was the perfect opportunity to get everything together,” Skylah recalled.

 

“I’m really motivated and I just want to achieve. I was just missing having someone else around who could see the potential in me.”

 

Skylah’s motivation was obvious in both her application and her interview, which quickly led to her receiving the scholarship alongside fellow student Waide Carson.

 

 

She was soon placed with one of A Team Tuition’s star tutors, Libbie Rowley-James, with whom she very quickly formed a very close bond.

“Having Libbie as a tutor was so great. She was so good at listening, and understanding how I was doing.”

 

Libbie herself was gobsmacked at how incredible Skylah’s attitude towards school was, and how desperate she was to learn.

 

“Skylah was one of the most grateful students I’ve ever met, which made her one of the best students to work with because she hung on to every word I said. It was so courageous of her to give me that trust straight away.”

 

“I went through such similar things as Skylah in Grade 9, in that I was in school knowing that I could do better, but that it was going to require some hard work and effort to get there. And I’m so proud that she was willing to do that, from the very start.”

 

It wasn’t long before Skylah began to see a difference in her schooling, particularly when it came to the way she felt before exams and assignments.

 

“I had a lot of trouble with confidence, and I felt really insecure. Before tutoring, when I was in class, I used to cover my work because I was embarrassed about it.”

 

“I was too embarrassed to speak up and ask questions in class, because I didn’t want people to think that I was dumb.”

 

“But after a while, I started to realise that I was understanding everything so much better. We had a tutoring session before I went in for an exam – and while doing all the revision, I realised that from the start of the unit, all the way to the end, there was just a major difference.”

 

 

“I felt like I knew everything. I’d never felt so confident before, and I was so ready to get into class and get everything down.”

 

Libbie notes that this was definitely because of Skylah’s own attitude and motivation.

 

“Skylah was beaming with potential, and that was the catalyst. While she may not have had the exact strategies, and may have been going through some tough things that held her back, she absolutely had the right attitude. She was motivated, and eager to learn, eager to achieve.”

 

“That eagerness and motivated attitude was what allowed her to grab onto the strategies I taught her, which in turn allowed her to jump so high up in her grades.”

 

After only six weeks of tutoring, Skylah had skyrocketed from achieving C- grades in Mathematics, to now achieving straight A’s in almost all of her subjects – even subjects she wasn’t receiving tutoring in!

 

She was finally inching closer and closer to being able to pursue her dream career: being a paramedic.

 

“I’ve always wanted to be a paramedic – just from past experiences, I’m really motivated and committed to helping people.”

 

“That’s why it was so good to have Libbie as an example of how to help someone best – I feel like a lot of the lessons I learnt from her I didn’t even realise until I began to do them myself.”

 

Now that the year is over, Skylah is on top of the world with her results – as are her family members, who are incredibly passionate about continuing to see her succeed.

 

 

“I’ve watched this scholarship change Skylah, and I’ve also seen it change the lives of her parents,” mentions Libbie.

 

“They’re able to look at their daughter and see how she can achieve, and I believe that’s really been such a positive impact on their lives.”

 

“It’s so nice to see Skylah and her family be in a better place, as better versions of themselves.”

 

Skylah will therefore be staying on with A Team Tuition, and continue to receive private in-home tutoring for her later years.

 

“I’ve just loved tutoring so much – I don’t know what I would do without it now,” said Skylah. “It’s just so life-changing.”

 

“I just want to keep doing the best that I can, and keep achieving well, so I can reach my goals and make everyone who gave me this opportunity proud.”

 

Make sure you read our interview with our other scholarship winner, Waide Carson, about his Project Limitless journey! Feel free to also check out where it all began, and any of the blogs following it – especially our final results!

 

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Success Spotlight: Troy Balvert and Aleks Everstets

 

Our A Team Tuition tutors often remark that one of the best – if not the best – parts about working with students is seeing the transformation that they go through. For Troy Balvert and Aleksander “Aleks” Everstets, that transformation was accompanied by something even better – a genuine, true friendship.

 

Aleks first came to A Team Tuition looking to not only improve his grades, but also to find his own personal motivation. With two older sisters who achieved very highly at school, Aleks needed to make his own place in education, and find his own passion for his work.

 

“He wasn’t making mistakes as such,” his tutor Troy commented. “He is a very confident young man, but in his academics he didn’t think he was smart enough.”

 

Because of this, Aleks refrained from trying too hard at school, aiming simply to pass and focused on getting into a job where he “didn’t have to use his brain,” remarked Troy.

 

However, Troy immediately worked on building a friendship between them, and set the standard of expectations for Aleks’ work.

 

 

“We just talked, hung out, spun some good yarns and really got to know each other well. I think we are both similar, in personality, how we are very close with our family, and how our older sibling/s are very intelligent, and we may not feel like we were at their academic level.”

 

“We just clicked. We get along so well that I was able to have a position almost like an older brother for Aleks – someone he could be comfortable around, but also someone he could respect and learn from. I personally think having a tutor who believes in you and gives you that confidence is helpful. I made sure he knew that I believed in him and he could achieve good grades, and that I was going to always push him to get the best results he could. His parents were also on board, which was good too.”

 

“I think I was able to achieve this transformation because I could see a lot of myself in him – but also that I told him we can achieve some great results and that he must trust me. Once that understanding and respect was established, we focused on sorting out some structure into his work.”

 

Their friendship was a profound relationship that established a solid foundation for their work. For Aleks, it meant that he wanted to work ten times harder to achieve highly.

 

“The best part about having Troy as my tutor is that he isn’t just a tutor – he is one of my best mates. That made me want to work even harder, because I don’t ever want to disappoint my best mate.”

 

 

Troy and Aleks’ mateship paved the way for them to establish Aleks’ primary learning language, and tailor his learning process around it. It was almost obvious to see that Aleks was an auditory learner, due to his verbal responsiveness with Troy.

 

Troy then formatted his tutoring around verbal exercises, which he mixed in with typical visual learning exercises such as note-taking. This developed Aleksander’s understanding to a point where he began to excel in a classroom environment as well.

 

Aleks’ hard work paid off incredibly – originally sitting on straight D’s in his subjects, Aleks is now achieving a straight A and B+ average in his classes!

 

The change first occurred on a Maths tests, where Aleks moved from a D- to a B. The change was profound, and saw Aleks completely gobsmacked.

 

“When I first started tutoring I didn’t think it would work at all, because I had never passed a subject in my life of schooling!”

 

“But there it was! I got a good mark, and I was so excited that I could tell Troy that our hard work paid off.”

 

Of course, Troy cannot speak highly enough of his student.

 

“Aleks  has changed my mindset on life and how life is fun, it should be enjoyed, and every moment should be laughing and one to remember.”

 

 

“I’m so proud of him, and his future goals. He is now doing a Diploma of business next year, has set goals for all his subjects, planning investments in stocks and shares; but most importantly, he now wants to go to QUT, and study to become an accountant.”

 

“He will go far, I’m sure of it.”

 

For Aleks, his tutoring journey has completely changed his motivation level, and helped skyrocket him to success.

 

“I feel so much more accomplished when I study hard and get good marks,” said Aleks.

 

“I believe in myself much more academically. Because of that, I’ve changed my career endeavors completely!”

 

“Troy has taught me to believe in myself, which is something I will keep with me forever.”

 

 

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