Many people may argue that writing skills are built over the course of your entire life. As a student of either primary or secondary school, your talent for penning powerful prose awakens. Will engaging a private tutor only in your final year of English have a significant impact on your exam scores? Some say late-stage tutoring is not going to determine whether you are able to structure your arguments and essays in an organised, concise and coherent manner.
In fact, those same nay-sayers believe that tutoring yields only limited benefits. They aver that tutors are best suited for more memory-based subjects. They're right. Tutors can indeed improve your proficiency in subjects such as maths, specialist maths, biology, chemistry and physics. But can a private tutor really not help you express yourself in your mother tongue?
Do I Really Need a Tutor for QCE English?
Engaging a tutor for any subject certainly can be worthwhile. One should not be so quick to dismiss the notion of a tutor for English studies advancing your writing skills. Such a master is perfectly capable of guiding you to excel when it comes to your final QCE English study score. Let's look at some of the reasons why.
You will improve your writing abilities with targeted, personalised feedback. Your tutor will find the mistakes you make consistently in your writing. They will explain where you erred and sit with you while you work to fix your miswrites. Those writing flaws could be syntactical. Or it could be that your paragraphs are too long or too short.
Maybe you contradicted an earlier argument rather than build on it. Wherever you fall short on the written word, an accomplished English tutor will be able to tell you why it's a mistake. And then, they'll set you on the right path to perfect prose. That way, you'll be sure your essays are as good as you are capable of producing.
They will also help you understand how to structure your essays. Going over the essays you have already produced, your English tutor will focus on how you build your arguments. These professionals have specific systems and catchy ways to present information in essay form.
If you don't yet have a strong grasp of how essays should be structured, this is the guidance you need. Your tutor will teach you how to build a new system for writing essays from scratch. This new way of penning essays is likely to see you producing powerful narratives that stand out to your teachers and assessors. And why wouldn't it? You learned this technique from a master, after all.
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Finally, penning an essay isn't just about dashing out your thoughts on a topic in a certain logical flow. Organising your essay is important but so is your choice of vocabulary. For instance, if you're writing an argumentative essay, you will use shorter, more sharply defined words. By contrast, if your essay is meant to be descriptive, you'll want to pepper your work with evocative words to convey principal ideas.
Let's say you're to write about the effects of bees on flowers. An argumentative work would describe cross-pollination, nectar extraction and how flowers make themselves more attractive to bees. Not necessarily in that order. Conversely, a descriptive essay would reveal flowers opening their petals wide to invite their buzzing guests. It would detail the somnolent drone of industrious bees and their paths as they buzz from bloom to bloom.
Same topic, a dramatically different presentation. To score well on any exam essay question, you must demonstrate that you know its intent. And then, you must write accordingly. A tutor specialising in your native language can help you do all that. Are you now convinced that engaging an English tutor is worthwhile?
QCE Tutoring Brisbane
Of course, you can find tutors for all QCE subjects, be they core, enrichment or advanced. As you likely know, to earn your Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE), you have to earn 20 credits across various courses of study. Those include Maths, Sciences, Health and Physical Education, Technologies, The Arts and, naturally, English. If that were all there was to ending your compulsory education, it might be a snap.
But then, you have to factor in what you need to reach the highest possible Australian Tertiary Assessment Rating (ATAR). If you, like so many other Brisbane high schoolers, intend to continue learning at university, you have to earn your best ATAR. Otherwise, you might not get slotted into your desired university program.
Let's not beat around the bush, here. You're under a lot of pressure. You have a lot of information to go over and much to remember. One may even say this is an overwhelming workload. You might need a bit of help just figuring out where to start.
Your QCE tutor specialises in that very thing. First, they will assess your scope of work. They will then talk with you at length to get your perspective on things. You might say you're good with maths and science but language concepts stymie you. Or maybe you're fine with English but writing assignments always lower your scores.
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Based on this information, you and your QCE tutor will set up a revision schedule. It will outline which subjects to study and revise each evening. You may go so far as to specify how much time to spend on each subject. The ones you're least certain of your performance in, you and your QCE tutor will go over together. Those you have a fair grasp on, you might go over on your own.
Your tutor won't leave you in the lurch on any of your subjects. One tutor I know who helps students in Darwin with their English has no qualms about jumping in on Social Sciences studies. Tutors may not have in-depth knowledge of every one of your subjects. But they know your exams. They will certainly share all of the test-taking strategies they know.
So what happens after you've organised your studies and set up a schedule? Your QCE tutor will be a master of the 'work smarter, not harder' variety. They know that simply poring over your notes and combing through your textbooks is the least revision you might do. And maybe the least effective. Repetition likely won't bring new insights, will it? Read on to find out how QCE tutors work their magic.
Revising with a QCE Tutor
Your first few revision sessions together will probably consist primarily of reviewing your knowledge stores. For your mentor to guide your studies, they need to probe your level of comfort with the material. Once they have a good idea of where you stand in all of your subjects, they will start introducing learning and revision tools.
Let's say you're having trouble keeping dates and events aligned for your history exam. They might show you how to connect all that information with a mind map. Or maybe you're having trouble with molecular compositions in chemistry. They will show you how much easier it is to remember how molecules are structured with flashcards.
From the start of your time together, you will develop your working relationship. At first, you may respond to your QCE tutor like you would your teachers at school. Soon, you'll warm up to the fact that this instructor has the time to answer your questions. In fact, they welcome them. It won't be long before you let go of the image of them as an authority figure. And then, like student-tutor pairs from Sydney to Perth, you'll discover the magic of mutual respect in learning.
As you revise for exams, you'll discover your QCE tutor brings one more benefit. You can tell them things that you can't share with your parents or other family members. Maybe you could tell your mates these things but would they respond the way you need them to? They're probably stressing over exams and their future just as much as you are.
Exam stress is a very real phenomenon. It can cripple students even before they head into the testing room. We're not talking about anything so pedestrian as a headache or upset stomach, here. Students report having anxiety dreams for weeks ahead of their exams. Those lead to poor sleep which, in turn, leads to poor focus during exam revision which then causes dreams of failure. And the whole cycle repeats.
Your mates are your mates but they probably don't have the psychic energy to process your fears on top of their own. Your family members have a great deal of empathy for your turmoil but probably don't have much to offer in the way of relief. Your QCE tutor does, though. They get it.
It's a good bet all of their other pupils are anxious. In fact, you could safely say that they have vast experience coaching their learners through attacks of nerves ahead of exam season. The best tutors share stress reduction techniques and maybe even meditation exercises like breathing or counting. Those calming manoeuvres are portable; they will serve you even in the exam room.
Those strategies and others are great for managing acute stress conditions. But they do nothing to address the chronic condition underlying all that stress. Here, too, tutors excel. You see, self-confidence lies at the root of anxiety. If you're confident in your knowledge and abilities, you have less reason to dread and fear exams. But if you've internalised that failure is your brand... Well, it will be.
Even if you had no exams to prepare for, your academic coach would help you boost your self-confidence. With the help of a tutor, you'll no longer stumble through your classes. You'll understand the material your schoolteachers present. But even better than that, you'll know how to use that knowledge. In itself, that's a confidence booster.
QCE English for Speakers of Other Languages
If English is not your first language then you might find yourself taking English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes. These lessons, although very similar to traditional English classes, look at this language differently. You won't study this the same way native speakers do. So you should look for resources aimed at helping you master your second language. You can also learn with a specialised ESOL tutor.
My friend, who is an English tutor in Hobart, often tells me about the ways she helps speakers of other languages master Australia's national tongue. She works with her students mainly on their pronunciation and listening skills. But learning QCE English means you have to do a lot of reading and writing. So when you look for a QCE tutor, be sure to ask them if they will give you extra practice in those skills.
It's not just maths and science students who can benefit from private tuition. Every student can accelerate their abilities with a QCE tutor. It doesn't matter if English is your first or second language. Just like science subjects such as biology, you can help advance your language skills by learning with private English tutoring online. You can study together online or face-to-face.
Put in the hours and you will get the results. As long as you have the right mentor to guide you, you have every chance of succeeding academically. The 'right' teacher is the one you click with. The one that boosts your confidence. The one with whom revision time is most effective when used to work on the areas of study that you need improvement in.
It doesn't matter whether the learner is in high school or a primary school child. Anyone can benefit from extra-curricular education. In some cases, the earlier the better, particularly for ESOL students. Remember that the habits learned early and well will set you up for a lifetime of great writing. Why not get started today?
Find Your QCE Tutor on Superprof
With Superprof, in a matter of clicks, you'll be connecting with English tutors in your local area. The site easily allows students and parents to search for teachers in their area who are experts in their subjects. This can be done with private QCE English lessons, literature lessons, or even maths classes. Just enter your query into Superprof’s Australian website and you will find many results from your local area.
To contact your english tutor vce and book a lesson, you will have to pay Superprof’s $49 monthly subscription fee. This gives you access to the contact details of as many teachers as you wish to get in touch with for one full month. Not just for English tutoring, but for any skill you wish to improve.
Superprof is a great way to find a qualified and passionate tutor in your local area. It's a safe and cost-effective way to find a mentor. Don't bother chasing around for the mentor you need; Superprof fits that bill already.
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