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Project Academy for English Adv?? (1 Viewer)

academicwannabee22

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hi ive just started yr 12. ive asked around my friends whove just graduated and a bunch of them recommend project academy really highly for english but say tutors are hit and miss and some markers are bad. has anyone had any experience with this and if so do you have any advice? im not terrible at english (usually high Bs) but I really want a band 6. any help or tutor recs is appreciated thanks sm!
 

xtraacc22

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i did project for english and id say its reallly good, and imo one of the better subjects run at project. u do this thing called LEAPS which is basically an exam each week for a whole term. its hard but its good. theyre so right about the marking being kinda mid sometimes. theres this one guy who marked a few of my papers and literally just chucked ticks in random spots then consistently gave me 17-19s, no matter whether my essay was horrible or amazing. his tutes were also mid, he would just really not put any effort in. im not gonna name drop but its pretty clear who he is especially cos most of the english tutors are girls lol. there was also another tutor who just dissappeared and stopped marking in the middle of the term. she was really bad though, showed up half an hour late for a tute once. OTHERWISE everyones pretty good. some of the older tutors at project start to care less, but theyre all pretty knowledgable. the chem tutors are really good if youre interested in doing chem. out of my experience with english, there were two really strong tutors (like AMAZING. saved my english, particularly right before HSC), and Marco is the best class teacher by miles, though i really only had 2 teachers cos i started late. i hope this helps - i really think project is good they def saved my english even if the whole faculty isnt great.
 

Elephant157

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i would say save the cost of going to project and get a private tutor... you're basically paying to get taught the same content as at school and the analysis of your texts are going to be the same resources. a private tutor thats going to read through your essays and give you feedback is the best part and its costs less than having to attend project for classes and for tutes. The main reason people want english tutoring is for the feedback and whilst project was good at this its not worth the amount you pay for it. Leaps are great but again, nothing that a hsc or free online trial paper and a private tutor can't give you feedback on. In all honesty my english marks improved in the year not because of tutoring but beacuse you learn pretty fast that critical readings are your best friends and offer new ways of explaining things that go beyond what 90% of people get taught at school/tutoring.
 

Whatmathsdoineed

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i would say save the cost of going to project and get a private tutor... you're basically paying to get taught the same content as at school and the analysis of your texts are going to be the same resources. a private tutor thats going to read through your essays and give you feedback is the best part and its costs less than having to attend project for classes and for tutes. The main reason people want english tutoring is for the feedback and whilst project was good at this its not worth the amount you pay for it. Leaps are great but again, nothing that a hsc or free online trial paper and a private tutor can't give you feedback on. In all honesty my english marks improved in the year not because of tutoring but beacuse you learn pretty fast that critical readings are your best friends and offer new ways of explaining things that go beyond what 90% of people get taught at school/tutoring.
Exactly. Why spend all that money for group classes 💀💀

also project just sucks generally
 

Elephant157

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hey there ! it doesn't suck its just an overly expensive investment for something that is a very personalised subject like english which is where you need personalised advice not a group class. if you have family friends or ex-year 12s from your schools that's a better use of your time than a 3 hour yap with your class. i would also say the environment at project is mixed. Hornsby campus is fab and the culture there tends to be less competitive than chatswood which is over run with people in a small space. But also they have about 4 core teachers for english, where their advice really varies from being superb to just mid. Project is great for maths adv and other things where personalised learning is not such a big focus. Hope this helps!

honestly would just reach out to any friends you may have in year 12 - they know whats best and what works, might even offer you tutoring since the hsc is basically done
 

Forenza

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TL : DR : Don't go to Project for the tutoring during the term, focus on completing your English assignments, trials and all practice tasks befor trials to the highest degree. During which, talk to your teacher frequently for marking, feedback/what you can improve on in terms of exam strategy.
After that, before trials, go to Project for LEAPs (if you have money to burn) as it is a way to discipline yourself to consistently practice under test conditions.


I think for a subject like English, the marking styles and feedback from your current teachers on your essays and Mod C assignments and how they teach you the syllabus, how they teach you to write a cohesive paragraph will be your biggest determinant of whether you need tution outside of school, Project Academy or otherwise. The thing with starting at Project for English in year 12, is yes, there is an initial high of being ahead in the subject because you get familarised with the texts quicker than you would have at school. However, because you have started with your tutoring homework and tutoring resources, you get dependent on those resources to bring you to success. One rule you'll find in year 12, if you do external tuition, is that your teachers want you to listen to them and how they teach their text, not a tutoring center and the feedback your tutor give you- and you should follow this rule. I was very lucky that my teachers were generous with their time for feedback and questions about assignments and marking annotations you would get when you got your Task 1, Task 2, Task 3 back. I wish I used them more wisely looking back. When looking over the Project resources and how they taught Eng Adv compared to my teachers, the lack of depth, fluidity and sophistication was very apparent. This is for the sake of efficiency when it comes to tutoring such a large group of students- its completely necessary to do this as a means to to streamline the course for students. I was glad for that I did not START with Project Resources because then my stream of thinking for my theses would be dictated by shallow analysis rather than what I got out of my teachers and discussing mutual analysis of quotes with my peers.

So I wouldn't disregard getting better in English without tuition at all if you have above average teachers and you have a solid conceptual understanding of your texts (please read them! Like sit down and read them! You'll be ahead of a good amount of your cohort if you just read your texts when you are meant to). I found English Advanced much harder than most of my subjects but it was mainly because I rushed most of my preparation towards writing essays in the end under the guise of, "I got this, how hard can it be to write under pressure,pshhh, lightweight." Like people tell you not to memorise essays, but my friends that did, did very well and I have come to the conclusion that you do need to memorise very large chunks. I learnt this the hard way :/
Eng Adv is still a subjective course at the end of the day and like others have said in the thread, I would be wary of group classes for English. You're already taking English Ext 1 which is a large chunk of your time gone as well. Ask yourself if you have the ability to manage your time efficiently to be able to score well in both your English-es and your other subjects. If you can keep up with the workload to make sure you get to a stage of practicing making paragraph and forming thesises statements to different essay questions as quick as you can, you can definitely succeed with just your teacher's feedback.

I think the LEAP course is a good way to get in the habit of practicing writing English essays under Exma room conditions.

1)I didn't have the discipline to do practice paper under timed condition so it helped craft that discipline.

2) I was much too scared of "failing" my practice tests. Which is strange but I had such crippling perfectionism that wouldn't submit school tasks at times because it wasn't "perfect." Doing the LEAP exam program definitely helped breaking the seal of exams for me. Also you kind of get pressure to do better or beat your last best attempt, so I was more motivated to study for myself during a time that I needed to.

3) They also offer a service to go over your mistakes in the mock exam with a tutor. This is important and as long as you show up to them, they can clarify where you need to improve, it is also a chance to get quicker feedback from someone who isn't your teacher and a pair of eyes that is more experienced than you. This is good for refining essay plans when you have them, and at its worse will have a neutral effect on your writing.
If you end up going, Freya was always very helpful when talking to me about where my paragraphs lacked cohesion and flow, where I can link back to the thesis, where my point was completely disconnected from my topic sentences.

4)Project are good at teaching exam strategy if your teachers do not.

Off topic, but I saw you were doing Econ as well, I'd consider going to Project for eco. Writing Eco essays/short answers are a lot more systemised than English and Project have streamlined their course so they have the system for answering and breaking down questionsand how to teach you these exam strategies in a very tidy manner. Just something to think about. Do not be naive as to rely on tutoring resources, exploit the help of your teachers as much as you can.
 
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itsalovehaterelo

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yeah i agree w most of these responses as a '24 grad. project for english through the terms wasnt super useful, class is interesting but tbh not worth it- its really cool as a one off thing just to look at how they discuss it, but not gamechnaging- but LEAPS are amazing. when u sign up for leaps in term 3 you dont get a class, just unlimited tutes, which is great DEPENDING on your tutor. theres was like 4 core tutors - two of them were not great to be honest. not sure if one of them even works there anymore cos she stopped running tutes and stuff during LEAPS. the other one just got NOTHING done- id send him my essays during tutes and, i kid you not, he would open it, have a look at it, then start chatting to another student- absolutely terrible if you get him youre in for a shitshow. if you have any choice over your tutors ask for Alex or Alice - they are both really good and absolutely saved my english, and they genuinely care too. the resources arent that great, like the stuff in books on the ipad is very surface level, probably not even worth looking at if youre naturally good at english. the typeform marking is okay depending on who looks at it for you. leap marking is mixed- but i feel like the first post in this thread basically got it right. the better thing about LEAP is the tute leap model, and the forced discipline of one exam each week.

overall, if you go to a public/selec school, id CONSIDER proj for termtime just because its good to have that support and learn properly, but if you go private id just stick to asking your teacher for help. but definitely do LEAP- best decision ever.
 

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