CountVonChocula
Banned
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
- Messages
- 383
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- 2012
I have so much time on my hands that I thought I would write up a small review on Intuition, since I went there and obviously you don't want to rush into a $4000~ course without knowing what you're in for.
Now, I haven't been to any other tutoring colleges (except private ones) but my expectations were pretty high.
How it works
Don't enrol in Year 11, it's a waste of money. In fact, don't even enrol in Term 1 of Year 12 (As in Term 4 of Year 11), they do the exact same things, in more detail, the next term.
Every week you attend a class. These classes are usually 2.5 hours or 3 hours, depending on the subject. In it, you're given a booklet of notes with a bunch of missing words that you have to fill in throughout the lesson. As for any questions in the booklet, the teacher explains it, writes it on the board and has you copy it down.
It is extremely important to pay attention to everything the teacher says. If you only copy everything down without understanding any of it, you're wasting your money. Make sure to ask any questions.
You're given a homework booklet due by the next lesson. The booklets are actually quite hard, and there are several challenge questions for the really smart kids. The homework booklet is given back at the end of the lesson.
Every week you're required to attend a tutorial (or a 'tute') for 1.5 hours. In this tute, with 4 students per tutor, you have to literally re-do every question you got wrong, ending up with 0 mistakes for your homework (challenges aren't compulsory). If you can't finish by the end of the tute, you can book an extra tute for free.
The entire course for all the subjects is finished by the end of Term 3 Year 12 (halfway through the year). For Sciences, this means doing two modules a term. From then on, you enter a period called ESP (Exam Success Program) where you do an HSC-style test every week. This means you have to go to Intuition for an extra 2.5/3 hours every week: Test, Class (Exam review), Tute. There are a total of 9 ESP exams.
The teachers/tutors
Okay, some of the teachers and tutors are fantastic. If you do end up going to this place, try and end up with Victor as your teacher for Maths and Sanj as your teacher for Physics. They are, without a doubt, the best teachers in the place. Personally, I wouldn't pay for any other teachers. One of the great things about Intuition is that you can easily change your class.
As for tute tutors, new tutors come in and out every year so try and shuffle around. There are lots, and I haven't had many of them. Personally, I really liked Louise (fast, to the point, nice and helpful), Hari (funny, smart and helpful) and Tom (genius but sometimes off on a tangent). Try to end up with them.
That said, some of the other teachers and tutors are absolutely horrible. I'm not going to name names but you'll figure it out, they're not worth the money.
Customer service
They have a group of people called SS (not sure what it stands for) who sit behind the counter and type a bunch of stuff into Microsoft Excel. They're generally nice, and they (usually) call you up if you don't make it to a lesson/tute. They'll help you with lots of stuff, but if they refuse to let you do something (use a textbook, book one-on-one tutes, any other help) go directly to Max (owner) or some other high up teacher.
Max, the owner, is extremely nice. He will keep the place formal, but is willing to bend lots of the rules to help the students. I know he gave my mum a nice discount (our financial status) and he's helped a lot of my friends.
The good stuff
So I liked a lot of stuff at Intuition.
ESP - really saved my ass when I didn't do my own past papers.
End of year party (free alcohol).
The ease of interacting with other students.
Some teachers/tutors.
The way you can go in there any time and study in an empty room.
Some people (lots of my friends) became really attached to the place. They felt it was like a second school that was better than their real one.
Changing classes/tutes any time, provided they're not full (tutes were all filled up by the end of the year).
The bad stuff
I also disliked a lot of stuff at Intuition.
The leniency - A lot of friends, and myself, got away with skipping classes, skipping tutes, not handing in homework, not marking down homework... etc.
The fail teachers/tutors.
The way SS puts potential customers (visiting parents) as a top priority.
Sometimes there are huge classes (15~ people),
And none of them asks any questions, ever.
The tutes are often ineffective as there are 4 people for the tutor to pay attention to.
The bias - The teachers/tutors/Max/SS will 'like' a few students other than others. Lots of my friends were granted privileges that I wasn't even though I paid more (did more subjects than them).
Retarded marking - Some of the tutors mark like fucking morons.
Tutors don't know everything - They're given answer booklets which they relay to you, sometimes not understanding themselves (scroll up for the tutors that I liked, they barely used the answer booklets).
Often, a room will have 2 tutes at once - This amounts to 10 people in one room.
Although I liked Sanj (great teaching), he's a complete faggot. He's smart, he's rich and he puts himself up on the pedestal (too cool for us).
You can see through lots of the forced niceness of the tutors (some are genuinely nice).
The notes aren't that great. I never looked at my Physics notes ever again after the lessons. For Maths, whenever I re-read the notes, they didn't help me at all.
In fact, I was looking up something in Physics on Wikipedia and guess what? Some of the notes were literally copied and pasted from the page.
They skip lots of things from the Syllabus, especially in Sciences - virtually all the experiments were skipped. All of my school's assessments were experiment-based, so naturally I became worried. I told this to Sanj (the complete faggot) and he replied with:
They addressed this issue on their site:
The price tag
The price can range from $25-$35 if memory serves me right, I'm not too sure how low it can go (some stupid rule about paying less if you enrol earlier).
Now, $25 might seem like a decent price. But remember, it's not private tutoring, there are over 10 other people in your class.
Also, remember how often you go per week. 2.5 hour lessons + 1.5 hour tute = 4 hours. That's $100 a week. Add ESP into that (3 hour exams) = $175 a week.
That's assuming you're not doing 3 hour lessons. I did 2 subject until I realised how much money I was wasting, so I dropped Maths and picked it up again at the end of the year for ESP. It was expensive.
My opinion
You have to realise, even though I disliked many things, they did help me a lot for my studies. Perhaps I just liked Physics and I would have done as well without them, perhaps I only did well because I was with them. Either way, you have to do your own study to make up for what they don't teach you. You should be studying by yourself to do well anyway, even though Intuition takes so much time.
Do you have thousands and thousands of dollars to spare for your education? Do you want to do well in a specific subject? Are you doing well in subjects that you are not going to enrol in Intuition for? Do you have lots of time, and are willing to dedicate all that time on studying, most of which will be spent on Intuition, leaving not much time for your other subjects? If yes, go for it.
If you're not doing well financially, I would advise against this. Find a cheaper tutor.
Now, I haven't been to any other tutoring colleges (except private ones) but my expectations were pretty high.
How it works
Don't enrol in Year 11, it's a waste of money. In fact, don't even enrol in Term 1 of Year 12 (As in Term 4 of Year 11), they do the exact same things, in more detail, the next term.
Every week you attend a class. These classes are usually 2.5 hours or 3 hours, depending on the subject. In it, you're given a booklet of notes with a bunch of missing words that you have to fill in throughout the lesson. As for any questions in the booklet, the teacher explains it, writes it on the board and has you copy it down.
It is extremely important to pay attention to everything the teacher says. If you only copy everything down without understanding any of it, you're wasting your money. Make sure to ask any questions.
You're given a homework booklet due by the next lesson. The booklets are actually quite hard, and there are several challenge questions for the really smart kids. The homework booklet is given back at the end of the lesson.
Every week you're required to attend a tutorial (or a 'tute') for 1.5 hours. In this tute, with 4 students per tutor, you have to literally re-do every question you got wrong, ending up with 0 mistakes for your homework (challenges aren't compulsory). If you can't finish by the end of the tute, you can book an extra tute for free.
The entire course for all the subjects is finished by the end of Term 3 Year 12 (halfway through the year). For Sciences, this means doing two modules a term. From then on, you enter a period called ESP (Exam Success Program) where you do an HSC-style test every week. This means you have to go to Intuition for an extra 2.5/3 hours every week: Test, Class (Exam review), Tute. There are a total of 9 ESP exams.
The teachers/tutors
Okay, some of the teachers and tutors are fantastic. If you do end up going to this place, try and end up with Victor as your teacher for Maths and Sanj as your teacher for Physics. They are, without a doubt, the best teachers in the place. Personally, I wouldn't pay for any other teachers. One of the great things about Intuition is that you can easily change your class.
As for tute tutors, new tutors come in and out every year so try and shuffle around. There are lots, and I haven't had many of them. Personally, I really liked Louise (fast, to the point, nice and helpful), Hari (funny, smart and helpful) and Tom (genius but sometimes off on a tangent). Try to end up with them.
That said, some of the other teachers and tutors are absolutely horrible. I'm not going to name names but you'll figure it out, they're not worth the money.
Customer service
They have a group of people called SS (not sure what it stands for) who sit behind the counter and type a bunch of stuff into Microsoft Excel. They're generally nice, and they (usually) call you up if you don't make it to a lesson/tute. They'll help you with lots of stuff, but if they refuse to let you do something (use a textbook, book one-on-one tutes, any other help) go directly to Max (owner) or some other high up teacher.
Max, the owner, is extremely nice. He will keep the place formal, but is willing to bend lots of the rules to help the students. I know he gave my mum a nice discount (our financial status) and he's helped a lot of my friends.
The good stuff
So I liked a lot of stuff at Intuition.
ESP - really saved my ass when I didn't do my own past papers.
End of year party (free alcohol).
The ease of interacting with other students.
Some teachers/tutors.
The way you can go in there any time and study in an empty room.
Some people (lots of my friends) became really attached to the place. They felt it was like a second school that was better than their real one.
Changing classes/tutes any time, provided they're not full (tutes were all filled up by the end of the year).
The bad stuff
I also disliked a lot of stuff at Intuition.
The leniency - A lot of friends, and myself, got away with skipping classes, skipping tutes, not handing in homework, not marking down homework... etc.
The fail teachers/tutors.
The way SS puts potential customers (visiting parents) as a top priority.
Sometimes there are huge classes (15~ people),
And none of them asks any questions, ever.
The tutes are often ineffective as there are 4 people for the tutor to pay attention to.
The bias - The teachers/tutors/Max/SS will 'like' a few students other than others. Lots of my friends were granted privileges that I wasn't even though I paid more (did more subjects than them).
Retarded marking - Some of the tutors mark like fucking morons.
Tutors don't know everything - They're given answer booklets which they relay to you, sometimes not understanding themselves (scroll up for the tutors that I liked, they barely used the answer booklets).
Often, a room will have 2 tutes at once - This amounts to 10 people in one room.
Although I liked Sanj (great teaching), he's a complete faggot. He's smart, he's rich and he puts himself up on the pedestal (too cool for us).
You can see through lots of the forced niceness of the tutors (some are genuinely nice).
The notes aren't that great. I never looked at my Physics notes ever again after the lessons. For Maths, whenever I re-read the notes, they didn't help me at all.
In fact, I was looking up something in Physics on Wikipedia and guess what? Some of the notes were literally copied and pasted from the page.
They skip lots of things from the Syllabus, especially in Sciences - virtually all the experiments were skipped. All of my school's assessments were experiment-based, so naturally I became worried. I told this to Sanj (the complete faggot) and he replied with:
You have to spend so much time at Intuition that you don't get time for your own study, or your other subjects - I was spending over 20 hours a week at Intuition during my trials. I had to go every single day. I fell behind in school work, especially my English and Modern History.Sanj said:
They addressed this issue on their site:
This is complete BULLSHIT. The Syllabus wasn't completely covered (although what they did cover was done in depth, usually). They don't give a shit about what you're doing at school, they continue to press on with their 2 modules per term, giving you way too much work. Your study becomes extremely inefficient after joining, as your time is focused on work that your assessment isn't based on. My Physics exams were not helped at all by Intuition.
The price tag
The price can range from $25-$35 if memory serves me right, I'm not too sure how low it can go (some stupid rule about paying less if you enrol earlier).
Now, $25 might seem like a decent price. But remember, it's not private tutoring, there are over 10 other people in your class.
Also, remember how often you go per week. 2.5 hour lessons + 1.5 hour tute = 4 hours. That's $100 a week. Add ESP into that (3 hour exams) = $175 a week.
That's assuming you're not doing 3 hour lessons. I did 2 subject until I realised how much money I was wasting, so I dropped Maths and picked it up again at the end of the year for ESP. It was expensive.
My opinion
You have to realise, even though I disliked many things, they did help me a lot for my studies. Perhaps I just liked Physics and I would have done as well without them, perhaps I only did well because I was with them. Either way, you have to do your own study to make up for what they don't teach you. You should be studying by yourself to do well anyway, even though Intuition takes so much time.
Do you have thousands and thousands of dollars to spare for your education? Do you want to do well in a specific subject? Are you doing well in subjects that you are not going to enrol in Intuition for? Do you have lots of time, and are willing to dedicate all that time on studying, most of which will be spent on Intuition, leaving not much time for your other subjects? If yes, go for it.
If you're not doing well financially, I would advise against this. Find a cheaper tutor.
