First Education

During my time studying for the HSC, like all students I spent a lot of time studying for my exams – so which methods did I use and which ones were the most effective?

The most common and most traditional method would be repetition, performing the same action repeatedly until you completely master it. While this method has its uses it is probably the most misused and over worked method within education, students repeatedly writing out their essays trying to memorise them or mechanically doing 100 math questions of the exact same format is not effective in the long run as it takes away any thought required to effectively answer questions. What is much more important is understanding the concepts behind what we are doing and understanding when we can apply them – which is why answering a range of questions is much more effective. Students can do this by using past papers (if they are available) and if not completing the topic tests in maths textbooks/writing responses to each of the main themes being explored during english class.

Another key skill is managing your own attention, sitting down for 4+ hours and trying to study effectively from start to finish is a lie we have all told ourselves, and with our phones being with us at all times you will almost always end up scrolling for significant portions. A way to manage this is breaking your work down into blocks or setting smaller achievable goals – such as completing a set amount of short answer/extended response at a time or completing specific pages of questions. Then after each milestone is reached, taking a short break where you can go walk around/have a drink of water and get your mind off studying for a moment, allowing you to reset. Doing this, you can often studing for much longer periods and stay on task much longer – making your study much more efficient.

Charlie Curran

Today I observed Airi’s mathematics session with a younger student, navigating through a topic which can be very confusing for younger students, working with money, Airi made each problem easier for the student by explaining the problems in a way they can better understand, asking “how much did you get from the tooth fairy?” and outlining how many teeth they would need to lose to save up a certain amount.

What I specifically noticed which I will try add to my own tutoring is how she communicates with her younger students to better guide them through questions and help them reach their own conclusions. Instead of pulling the student up on mistakes, she instead continues to ask them questions that work up to the final answer – by breaking down the larger question into smaller, more digestible parts the student is able to work their way up to the final answer easier.

Additionally, instead of using negative language such “no” or “don’t” when the student would make an error, she instead would ask questions such as “why?”, to make the student think about why they are performing certain actions and would often realise their mistake themselves – allowing them to find the solution on their own accord.

Charlie Curran

Effective communication is one of the most important skills for tutors, especially when it comes to handling difficult conversations with students. Whether addressing academic struggles, behavioural issues, or personal challenges, these discussions require sensitivity, empathy, and clarity. Here are some key strategies to navigate these conversations effectively.

Create a Safe and Supportive Environment
Students are more likely to open up and engage in a constructive conversation when they feel safe and respected. Choose a private setting where the student feels comfortable, and approach the conversation with a calm and nonjudgmental demeanour.

Listen Actively and Show Empathy
Difficult conversations often stem from complex emotions and challenges. Practice active listening by giving the student your full attention, maintaining eye contact, and nodding or providing verbal affirmations. Paraphrase their concerns to show understanding, such as: “It sounds like you’re feeling overwhelmed with your workload. Is that right?”

Validate Their Feelings Without Enabling
Acknowledging a student’s feelings helps them feel heard, but be careful not to excuse inappropriate behaviour.

Work Towards Solutions Together
Instead of simply pointing out problems, collaborate on a plan to address the issue. Ask the student what they think could help and provide guidance as needed. This empowers them to take ownership of their actions and growth.

Follow Up and Offer Ongoing Support
A single conversation may not resolve the issue entirely. Check in with the student later to show that you care and to assess progress. Whether it’s a brief chat after class or a scheduled meeting, continued support can make a significant impact.

Allegra Pezzullo

As a tutor with five years of experience guiding students through the HSC, I’ve witnessed noticeable changes in the structure and difficulty of exams, particularly in mathematics. Over the years, predicting the types of questions that will appear has become increasingly challenging. Previously, exams typically consisted of around 16 questions, but now they feature approximately 36, while still being worth 100 marks overall. This shift has not only altered how students approach their studies but has also raised questions about the fairness and effectiveness of this evolving assessment style.

The increase in the number of questions has led to shorter, more diverse problems that require students to think quickly and apply their knowledge across various contexts. While this approach can better assess a student’s overall understanding, it also places more pressure on time management. Many of my students find it difficult to maintain both speed and accuracy, especially when faced with unexpected question formats.

This trend towards more unpredictable and complex exams seems to be driven by the increasing number of students undertaking the HSC each year, as shown in the attached image. With more students competing for university placements, harder exams may be intended to better differentiate high-achieving students. However, this raises an important question: is increasing exam difficulty the best way to achieve fair and accurate scaling?

From my experience, while some students thrive under the challenge, others who have a solid understanding of the material may struggle to demonstrate their abilities within the time constraints. This can lead to stress and anxiety, which ultimately impacts performance. As educators, our goal should be to help students develop both knowledge and confidence. Striking the right balance between assessing critical thinking and maintaining a fair testing environment is essential. Moving forward, it’s crucial to consider whether the current approach truly reflects students’ capabilities or if adjustments are needed to ensure a more equitable system.

Theo Tselonis

I had the opportunity to observe Lottie’s session with Isabella. Lottie introduced her to algebra. Given the significance of this area in Maths, I find that this moment is vital for students who are starting to learn it and there may be trouble if they don’t grasp the initial concepts involved. I find that students can get caught up in the new vocabulary and the new ways of expressing already familiar operations such as multiplication. Lottie methodically introduced her student to algebra in various stages, starting with familiarising her with the terminology – ‘pronumeral’, ‘terms’, etc., which was an excellent starting point. Her explanation aided her student in understanding that the lowercase letters are used to represent an unknown number, and that sometimes you cannot ‘solve’ these equations as they may just be “expressions” (which had been a point of confusion for the student). Lottie worked through the various forms of algebraic questions – equivalence, simplification, substitution and expression writing; engaging her student with each by getting her to independently solve questions. By doing this, Lottie could immediately identify the faults in her student’s thinking process as her student would describe back to her how she attempted to solve the question – and Lottie could swiftly correct it. Her attitude was encouraging and eager to answer any questions her student had. A great aid in helping her student understand adding like terms conceptually was by comparing it to fractions – this use of comparison, with a topic that the student is familiar with is a great and quick way to get a student to better understand what they need to do and why. She continually reminded her student of the algebraic conventions, such as how multiplication is not expressed by using the multiplication sign – as well as explaining what words such as ‘sum’ and ‘product’ mean. By covering these details early within this topic, Lottie is helping her student in the coming weeks and in the future where she will certainly engage with the topic in school until the HSC. Overall, it was a great session to observe, thank you Lottie!

Sofala Vogt

Managing students effectively is key to creating a productive and supportive learning environment. Student management goes past discipline, t’s about engagement, motivation, and mutual respect.

Establish Clear Expectations
From the beginning, set clear guidelines for behaviour and learning goals. When students understand what is expected of them they are more likely to stay engaged.

Build Support
A positive student-tutor relationship enhances learning. Take time to understand each student’s strengths, challenges, and interests. This fosters trust and helps tailor learning approaches to individual needs.

Use Positive Reinforcement
Encouragement goes a long way. Recognising students’ progress, no matter how small, can boost their confidence and motivation. Instead of focusing solely on mistakes, highlight improvements and effort.

Keep Sessions Structured and Interactive
A well-organised session minimises distractions. Incorporate interactive elements like discussions, problem-solving activities, or quick brain breaks to maintain engagement. Variety helps students stay attentive and absorb information more effectively.

Address Disruptions Proactively
Instead of reacting harshly to disruptions, use a calm and proactive approach. Redirect attention, ask engaging questions, or modify the activity if necessary. If a student struggles with focus, addressing the root cause (like frustration or fatigue) can help.

Encourage Accountability
Help students take ownership of their learning by setting goals and reflecting on their progress. This instills a sense of responsibility and fosters self-discipline.

Allegra Pezzullo

If I look back on my time at school, its not the 2pm physics classes that dragged on for what felt like 4 hours, nor the wave of relief that I felt after “Pens Down!” rang out in my final HSC exam or even the canteen’s cheese and bacon rolls (which were still pretty damn good) that I reminisce on, but rather the relationships I cultivated day-in-day out over the course of my schooling. Whether that be with my closest friends, who I still see weekly 4 years out of school, my teachers; especially my year 12 maths teacher and even my tutors, I can say with full confidence that these people have molded me into the person I am today.

That is the type of approach I take with my tutoring, because I know that trig formulas end up fading into the abyss after school but the impact consequential people have does not.

Whilst of course, ensuring that my students DO understand why they need to know that the hypotenuse is equal to the square root of (a^2 + b^2) is still very important, it’s the way they approach learning, problem solving, and even challenges that really lasts. I always try my best to foster an environment where students can feel supported to ask questions, and confident in their abilities, and thats not just to ace their exams, but to develop skills that will serve them well beyond the classroom.

As a tutor, I really strive to help students grasp the confusing and occasionally convoluted content but also to instil a sense of curiosity to get them to ask themselves why are they learning, for example, that a simile can manipulate the readers’ mood. Whether it’s breaking down a tricky concept, giving the real life application of the importance of media literacy, or simply being someone they can rely on to find advice and support in, I want my students to leave each session knowing that they are more than capable and understand the reason WHY they are learning what they are learning. Not only does that help clear up their understanding and spark interest in the content, it also assists in students connecting the dots between theory and real life; an invaluable skill.

Because in the end, schooling is not just about memorising facts, it’s about learning how to think, adapt, and grow and that is something that doesn’t just simply fade with time.

Teg Philmara

In tutoring, especially with younger children, the smallest victories can lead to the biggest breakthroughs. While of course, learning and mastering content is crucial, building confidence is so so important. A child who genuinely believes and feels they can solve a problem is far more likely to keep trying, particularly when the work gets harder and more dense in older years.

Small wins, for example correctly spelling a tricky word or finally understanding simplifying fractions (without a calculator), create a strong sense of progress. These moments reinforce the idea that learning isn’t about instant perfection—it’s about growth, and is something they can achieve. When a tutor celebrates these little achievements, a student starts to internalise the mindset that they are capable, and that continued effort leads to success.
For younger children, this is especially vital. Their academic self-esteem is still forming, and early experiences with learning will shape how they approach challenges later in life. If they associate schoolwork with failure or frustration, they may disengage and give up. But, if they see learning as a process where persistence pays off, they’ll develop resilience—one of the most valuable skills they can carry forward.

Confidence fuels motivation. Instead of just focusing on correcting mistakes, it is important that we, as tutors, focus on celebrating progress! Over time, these small wins accumulate, turning hesitant learners into engaged, self-assured students.

Ultimately, tutoring isn’t only about teaching content—it’s about shaping a child’s belief in their own abilities, and allowing them to love what they are doing!!

Shyla Gloster

Today I observed Sophie’s lesson with her Year 9 Maths student. Firstly they were working on working with square numbers and rules with positive and negative numbers. Then they started to focus on the topic that her student is doing in school, which is significant figures and rounding. Sophie started to go through some of the previous exercises that her student had done at school to see how she was finding those sub-topics which is also a great form of revision.

I liked how Sophie would not immediately tell her student if she was making a mistake and instead tried to lead her to the right answer, especially with her student’s weaker areas like negative numbers.

Sophie also made sure to tell her student other methods of working out particular questions which is a great things as different people prefer using different ways of figuring out a question. I also liked how Sophie encouraged her student to write down her working out if she’s stuck instead of trying to do it in her head.

I also liked that after figuring out what kinds of questions her student was slightly weaker at during the revision papers, Sophie made sure to select new questions that matched those weaker areas. This is good as it allows the student to perfect those areas so that she is strong overall in the topic. I thought it was great that Sophie encouraged her student to try and do some of the addition and multiplication questions in her head before saying that she could use her calculator.

This was a great lesson to observe. Well done Sophie!

Sophia McLean

Marina’s tutoring session on the unitary method demonstrated several effective teaching techniques that any tutor could apply. Her structured approach ensured that the student grasped the concept gradually, starting with fundamental ideas before moving on to more complex problems. This method prevented confusion and built a strong foundation for learning.

One particularly useful strategy was encouraging the student to verbalize their thought process. This not only reinforced understanding but also allowed Marina to identify and address any misconceptions in real time. Rather than simply providing answers, she used guided questioning to help the student work through challenges independently. This approach promoted critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Marina’s handling of mistakes was also noteworthy. Instead of immediately correcting errors, she gave the student space to recognize and fix them on their own. This approach fostered confidence and a sense of ownership over the learning process, which is crucial for long-term retention.

Her pacing throughout the lesson was effective, gradually increasing the difficulty of problems to ensure the student remained engaged without feeling overwhelmed. Each step built upon the previous one, reinforcing key ideas while introducing new elements naturally.

Finally, Marina emphasized the importance of applying the unitary method beyond the lesson itself. By encouraging the student to think about how the concept could be used in real-life situations, she reinforced its relevance and practical value.

This session highlighted the importance of clear explanations, active student participation, and strategic guidance. Marina’s thoughtful approach ensured that the student not only understood the unitary method but also gained confidence in their ability to apply it independently.

Nabil Harrar