If you're studying VCE Psychology or thinking about it, you may be worried that you'll need some extra help with it.
Fortunately, there's a lot of help out there for students and not just from their peers or the staff at their school, students can now find private tutoring for almost any subject or skill anywhere in the country.
Let's see how a private tutor can help, what they're there for, and answer a few of the questions you may have about VCE Psychology itself.
What Is the Goal of a Private Tutor?
Before you go ahead and hire a private tutor, you need to know what they're there for. Tutors can be hired for many reasons, but their goals mostly tend to overlap regardless of what they're teaching.
Once you know what tutors try to achieve, you'll have a better idea of whether they're the right solution for you or your child.
Providing Tailored Tuition
Naturally, every tutor is there to offer tuition to their students. However, where they differ from teachers at school, for example, is that their tuition is usually tailored to a single student.
Teachers do this to the best of their abilities, too, but far more compromises have to be made for the good of the class' overall performance, which is why some learners will struggle. Sadly, a teacher can't just alter their class for one student to the detriment of all the others.
In some cases, certain students' needs or preferred learning approaches are so different to that of the class that the teacher can't possibly ever perfectly tailor their lessons to them.
As private tutors often work with individual learners one-on-one or in smaller groups, they can offer tailored sessions.
Develop Study Skills
In academic settings, private tutors should be teaching their students not just their specific subject, but how to be better at learning.
Study skills are important because students will be looking to learn more effectively in a given subject and while a tutor can always go over something from class with their student, the overall goal is that the student's academic life will improve whether or not the tutor is with them.
These study skills are also one of the ways that a private tutor can work towards creating resourceful independent learners.
Create Independent Learners
Students can work with tutors for several years, but the tutor should never be seen as a permanent solution or a constant requirement.
Tutors should be working to make their students better and more resourceful learners so that they eventually won't require their assistance or at least won't require it on such a regular basis.
After enough time spent with a tutor, the student should be able to take charge of their own learning and have a better understanding of which learning approaches work for them.
The good thing about this is that the student will also become a better student in other subjects, as many of the things they'll learn will apply to all types of learning.
What Are the Benefits of Private Tutoring?
Now you have a better idea of what private tutors are trying to achieve through their tutoring, let's see exactly what the benefits are for the students who work with private tutors.
These benefits can be enjoyed by any student working with a private tutor, by the way, and not just those working with a private VCE Psychology tutor.
Tailored Sessions
We've already mentioned that the goal of every tutor is to offer tailored tutoring, but the reason this is such a benefit for students is that everybody's different.
A student struggling in a class isn't necessarily indicative of their intelligence and students who've spent their whole lives struggling in a certain subject may find that they're just not particularly responsive to the type of tuition they've been receiving at school.
We've all experienced the difference that a good teacher can make and with a private tutor, their goal is to ensure that the way they teach is right for the student.
This doesn't mean that every tutor will automatically find the perfect teaching approach and every tutor has their own strengths and weaknesses, so you must find the right tutor, too!
Go Beyond the Study Design
As private tuition is tailored to the student, that also means that there's more freedom in terms of the content of these sessions.
While the ultimate goal will likely be to improve their academic performance at school and do well in their VCE Psychology assessments or exams, they can study aspects of psychology beyond what you can find on the VCE Psychology study design.
While teachers at school have to focus on the curriculum or the study design, private tutors can look at other topics that may spark a student's interest in the subject.
Better Focus
In a lot of cases, a student's academic performance can be improved by simply improving their focus.
It's much easier to stay focused in a class that you find interesting and students normally tend to do better in these classes because they're paying attention.
In any subject, including psychology, you can't guarantee that every topic will be really interesting so it can help to work on improving a student's focus and drive and this is something that private tutors can work on with students.
With so many students, teachers rarely get the time to teach students how to focus, but a private tutor doesn't have this concern.
Improved Self-Confidence
Self-confidence goes a long way in learning and a student will perform better if they're confident in their own abilities.
Generally, the better a student is in a subject, the higher their confidence will be, but sometimes, students hold themselves back by doubting their own abilities.
This can affect how they participate in class, which is a huge part of learning. By improving their self-confidence in VCE Psychology (or any subject, for that matter), a private tutor can help students to perform better in class even when they're not there.
Sometimes, all it takes is to break a negative cycle to get a student's academic performance back on track.
Academic Performance
This is the most obvious and important benefit for most students and the reason why they choose to work with a private tutor.
This isn't to say that the other benefits should be ignored, but this is usually the driving factor behind hiring a private tutor.
The ultimate goal of working with private tutors in academic subjects like VCE Psychology is to get better psychology exam results than the student would without the help of a tutor.
What this means in practice is that private tutoring is for any student. Struggling students can improve their academic performance just as ambitious students can aim for the very best results available in a given subject.
Better Opportunities
With improved confidence, study skills, and improved academic performance, students will have better opportunities for their academic or professional future.
The better you do at school, the better universities you can go to, and the better jobs you can get. Choosing to work with a private tutor for any VCE subject can come with this hugely important benefit.
Beyond the academic, a student's newfound study skills and self-confidence will also serve them well when opportunities come their way whether they're for work or for study.
How Hard is VCE Psychology?
VCE Psychology is often wrongly considered an “easy” subject because of how the VCE subjects are scaled.
All this actually means is that the scores are adjusted so that the numbers are more representative across every subject and a fairer comparison of different students who mightn't choose the same subjects.
In practice, this means that higher scores are scaled down. This is basically because it's quite common for VCE Psychology students to score higher than the averages in other subjects and while getting a high score may be “easier”, you still have to outperform your peers to do well in the subject.
Is Psychology a Good VCE Subject to Choose?
As psychology isn't really harder or easier than any other subject, it's a completely valid VCE subject choice.
As an English subject is obligatory and maths is pretty much an essential choice for anybody interested in a career in the sciences or engineering, psychology still remains the third most popular subject choice for students in Victoria, which also means it's quite easy to find lots of great resources for VCE Psychology.
Most important, though, is whether or not you're interested in psychology or doing something career-wise with the subject. If this sounds like you, then it's never a bad choice.
And don't forget that if you ever need help with VCE Psychology, you can always look to private tutors.
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