Success Spotlight: Nick Faulks And Sam Robinson

 

At A Team Tuition, we know that establishing healthy study habits as a foundation for learning is not simply ‘important’ – it is absolutely vital for developing success.

 

This is especially important for junior high school students when transitioning into their senior years. With QCS, OPs, increasing content difficulty, and the added strain of an ever-expanding workload looming, students need to feel confident about their learning processes and academic strategies to be successful even when under pressure.

 

For Sam Robinson, nearing the end of his junior school journey at The Southport School (TSS) brought this need into the foreground, and his mother Kim soon jumped at the opportunity to provide Sam with a supportive mentoring system.

 

“Sam was finding in Grade 9 that the work got progressively harder. He was struggling with how to revise and study effectively, so I thought that A Team would create a more mentoring environment where he could learn these skills,” Kim remarked.

 

Sam himself admitted that he regarded school as a place to socialize and hang out with his friends. However, the entry of A Team Tuition tutor Nick Faulks helped change that drastically.

 

“When I first began tutoring Sam, I knew I had encountered a kid with tremendous academic ability,” Nick remarked.

 

“He struck me as expressive, intelligent, witty, and sarcastic, but he just didn’t seem to see what the big fuss was all about with school!”

 

Most importantly, Nick realized that Sam need help developing essential skills and learning processes in a way that was best suited to his personal needs.

 

 

“What many teachers had told Sam was his ‘lack of ability to focus’, I knew was just a misguided expression of energy, enthusiasm and humor present in most young men attending school.”

 

“Sam may struggle with paying attention and pushing himself to focus on content he does not personally take a liking to,” Nick admitted.

 

“But by crafting a fun, yet effective learning environment that is suited to his visual learning style, that struggle to focus transforms into a pure drive to achieve.”

 

Adapting Sam’s learning environment to his specific learning language was a pivotal part of educating him on how to learn smart.

 

Sam himself mentioned this:

 

“One thing that I’ve learnt from Nick that I’ll keep with me forever is that process is the most important factor in achieving success. You can work incredibly hard, but without having a clear process to follow along the way, all your hard work can go to waste.”

 

“I know now that hard work is important, but that working smart is just as important as working hard!”

 

Evidently, the fact that Sam’s learning process was now better suited to him and allowed him to work smart did not eliminate the need for working hard. That is one thing that students often forget – and one thing that, even with a tutor, is not always easy!

 

Sam himself found this quite difficult at first, especially before he was able to see results.

 

“I’d never even really spent time studying after school before, let alone writing several pages of summary notes about my weekly topics and answering in-depth questions in time that I normally spent watching YouTube and playing video games.”

 

“Adjusting to the level of intensity of having to do any work outside of school was tough, but it has taught me a lot along the way,” Sam noted.

 

And his hard, smart work definitely paid off – Sam ended up achieving his very first A+ in English after a few months of tutoring with Nick.

 

“Nick is the best thing Sam could have hoped for,” noted Kim. “He pushed Sam to achieve his potential without being overtly bossy. He is reliable and courteous, which helps as Sam has gained no only a tutor, but a role model as well.”

 

“Along the way all the hard work seemed tedious and challenging,” Sam remarked, “but in the end it was worth it to achieve an amazing result.”

 

“I feel like Nick has helped me through a lot of hard things and work, and although he sets some pretty high standards, I know that what he has shown me as a tutor helps me manage all my responsibilities – at both school and at home.”

 

 

Having Nick as a tutor has provided relief as well to Sam’s family by helping to remove any stress or anxiety, as Kim herself noted:

 

“There’s no more need for me to constantly check if Sam is up to date with everything, as Nick has taken that burden from me and ensures that everything is under control.”

 

“It was important to us that Sam was in a good study routine before he started senior school, and that goal has certainly been achieved.”

 

“I feel that I was very lucky to contribute to Sam’s life so far,” Nick himself notes. “The most significant thing I think I have contributed to Sam’s life so far is a new outlook on life, and a new approach to school.”

 

“Teaching young men, in particular, the importance of taking ownership of what you do, accountability for what you have done and responsibility for what the future holds is something that schools can struggle to instill in young people these days due to time and curriculum constraints,” Nick remarked, “and this is where I feel privileged to be able to fill the gap!”

Sam himself is incredibly proud of his own progress, and has a new spring in his step.

 

“I feel positively about school now as somewhere where I can now go to focus and learn, as well as reinforce the process that guides my academic success.”

 

“Having tutoring has changed my view of the world. I now look for opportunities to make my self accountable and responsible even in situations where things are not ideal.”

 

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How To Get An A In Legal Studies In 7 Steps

 

Legal Studies has acquired a reputation for being one of the most content heavy subjects you can do during high school, but fear not! Despite the extra reading you may have to do, it is just as easy to achieve an A in Legal Studies as it is to achieve an A in any other subject – provided you follow a set of steps.

 

Now, before I jump into these steps, I thought I’d mention something very important. Prior to actually using these tips myself, I was sitting on a C+ for Legal Studies at the start of Year 11.

 

However, once I sat down and started doing the following steps, I found myself topping the subject at the end of Year 11 before eventually starting my dual degree of Bachelor of Laws and International Relations at Bond University. I’ve even been fortunate enough to take my legal skills internationally and represent Bond in Hong Kong!

 

So, forget what you may have heard on the latest episode of Suits or your latest Netflix binge of The People v. O. J. Simpson, because the secret to achieving an A in Legal Studies is actually found in the following steps!

1. Give context to the scenario, don’t assume we know everything!

A lot of students make the mistake of jumping straight into analysing a legal problem without actually explaining the context at all!

 

While in some situations you can assume that your audience may be educated on perhaps Australia’s political system, there are other situations where they may not be familiar with the topic at all.

 

So, first things first; write about why there is a legal problem. For instance, if you’re given the topic “Address the legal issues surrounding laws governing assisted reproduction technology in Australia”, you wouldn’t just dive into relevant case law. You would firstly start by explaining that Australian law is complex and convoluted in this area, which has caused numerous human rights violations.

 

 

Establishing the context of your legal problem allows the readers to have a greater understanding of the issue itself. The greater their understanding, the more likely they will follow your analysis.

2. Know the technicalities!

Students often lose marks in Legal Studies based on technicalities. A technicality could be using the correct language throughout your legal assessment – for example, using “plaintiff” or “defendant” when referring to the people involved in a suit.

 

Another example would be knowing the Australian court hierarchy, and making sure you refer to the correct court in your assessment. The best way to know the technicalities has A LOT to do with the next step:

 

3. Background reading is your best friend.

Something that I realised halfway through Year 11 was that it simply wasn’t good enough to be able to write a succinct analytical essay for Legal Studies. I actually needed to understand what I was talking about.

 

In order to understand what I was talking about, I needed to do as much reading as possible.

 

There is no denying that there is a lot of reading in law. Just accept it! There is nothing you can do about it. Skim reading is not acceptable, you will miss out on the difficult points! Sit down and read everything the first time – trust me, you’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have to go back to refresh your memory!

4. Plan your assessment

You’ve received your Legal Studies assignment and you’re keen as a bean to jump straight into writing-

 

STOP!

 

The best way to maximise your chances of receive an “A” is not to word vomit on the entire page. Always plan your work before you start. Chances are, if you start writing your assignment before you’ve actually thought about what you’re writing, your perspective will change hallway through the assignment.

 

Plan your arguments, find your legal sources and draft your recommendations before you put pen to paper. This will maximise your writing time because you won’t be stopping and starting as you dig up those references!

 

5. IRAC saves lives (literally).

Legal writing follows a similar structure to what you would see in English. In English, you would typically follow the TEEL (also known as PEEL or SEEL) rule (Topic, Evidence, Elaborate, Link). Legal writing follows a more propositional method: IRAC (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion) but it is essentially the same thing!

 

I: Issue

Firstly, students should identify the legal issue. A legal issue could be something as simple as “whether or not the accused is guilty of murder”.

 

R: Rule/Principle

Secondly, students should identify the legal principle (also known as the legal rule). This is where it becomes tricky. Legal principles are generally elemental. Maybe the accused is not guilty of murder… Maybe he/she is guilty of manslaughter.

 

How do we know this? We turn our attention to the legal principle that relates to unlawful homicide.

 

SIDE NOTE: One of the most important things students should know when learning the law is understanding the two sources of law: common law and legislation.

 

Here, our legal principle is codified into legislation in section 302 of the Criminal Code (Qld) 1899 which outlines the elements for murder in section 1(a)-(e). One out of the five of these elements requires the offender to intend to cause the death of the person killed. However, if the offender did not intend to cause the death of the person killed, then he/she is not guilty of murder. Rather, that person would be guilty of manslaughter!

 

A: Application

This leads us into the third component of IRAC: application of the facts. Let’s imagine that someone is playing with matches and suddenly sets a wooden post on fire, which breaks and falls on a pedestrian, killing them upon impact. Did the person who set the wooden post on fire intend to cause the death of the person killed? Arguably not.

 

Application of the facts is the area in which students will receive the most amount of marks, because it requires students to connect the dots between different legal principles.

 

The best advice I can give to students when applying the law to the facts is to make sure that you consider all possible outcomes, and make counterarguments where appropriate. Perhaps arson could be an alternative charge? Or maybe the accused could rely on an “accident” defence? Make sure to mention these observations in your answer!

 

 

C: Conclusion

Finally, based on their application of the law to the facts, students should choose the conclusive argument which they believe is the strongest and articulate why that is the case. This could be as simple as saying, “Therefore, it is unlikely that Jimmy would be found guilty of murder because he did not intend to cause any harm to the pedestrian.”

 

When concluding, students should sit back and play “the judge” and imagine what finding a judge would make. Most importantly, don’t make your answer absolute! You can never know for certain what the outcome will be, so always make a tentative conclusion! Do this by noting that “it is likely/unlikely that…”, followed by your conclusion.

 

Do all of this, and you’ll receive top marks for your structure!

6. Make recommendations, and identify the limitations

So far you’ve identified a legal issue, you’ve discussed why it’s legal issue, outlined the relevant law, applied the facts and made a tentative conclusion. Now what?

 

You suggest ways in which the law can be improved!

 

For example, imagine you are analysing the law relating to double jeopardy. Double jeopardy prevents an individual being put on trial for the same crime twice. Only recently, the law reformed in Queensland to retrial an individual in certain circumstances if “new and compelling” evidence unfolds. However, this law is not retrospective, meaning that any crimes that were committed prior to the enactment of the new law on the 25th October 2007 are “safe” from retrial despite if “new and compelling” evidence proves the acquitted person guilty of their crime.

 

If you were addressing this scenario for Legal Studies, it wouldn’t be enough to achieve that “A” grade by merely making the above assumption. You would have to make recommendations as to how the law should be improved. Here, you could recommend that the law should be retrospective to ensure that all criminals receive punishment for their crimes. It’s that simple!

 

However, there is a secondary element to this that will push your assessments over the edge.

 

 

The prior steps can be identified as foundational requirements to adequately answer a legal question; but in order to achieve that A Grade, students need to go beyond the bare minimum of merely identifying the parties, issues, legal principles, applying the law to the facts and making recommendations.

 

To demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the area of law, you need to be able to identify whether your recommendations will give rise to any adverse results – in other words, limitations that your recommendations will result in.

 

For example, using the above scenario, you have recommended that the Criminal Code (Qld) 1899 should be amended to ensure that the double jeopardy clause applies retrospectively. A limitation here could be that this recommendation would flood the courts with “cold cases”, which will delay a multitude of cases from appearing before the court.

7. Write about your passions

For most activities in Legal Studies, you can have a little bit of leeway to pick and choose the topic you want. The best advice I could give a student is write about your passions!

 

Sticking to your passions ensures that you will enjoy the time you put into your assessment. Personally, my passion is human rights (which is probably obvious with my above examples). Writing about human rights means that I jump at the chance to read another article on law reform! I can do this for hours, since it’s something I have genuine interest in.

 

So if you stick to something that you’re truly passionate about, you can’t go wrong!

 

Thankfully, one of the great things about Legal Studies is that it covers numerous areas, which means you’re bound to set your sights on something you enjoy. I truly believe it’s one of the greatest areas you can endeavour into, and I wish you all the best in achieving the best grades possible for it!

 

 

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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!

 

The post Team Limitless Student Spotlight: Skylah Rhambold and Libbie Rowley-James appeared first on A Team Tuition.

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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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