Tutoring or not? (1 Viewer)

[shadowrealm]

This is going to sound very convoluted but please read the whole post before saying anything. I'm just a bit frustrated that there are some really intelligent untutored students in the grade who are topping every subject (particularly maths and sciences). I just don't know what they're doing that I'm not. Even though I do get tutored for some subjects, I acknowledge that it doesn't make everything 'fine'. I always make sure to make my own notes, find my own questions to do, do the work set at school (I know many tutored students who don't even pay attention at school) etc. Am I doing something wrong, or are those people working even harder than me (more than I realise)?

 

[B1andB2]

there are SO many people who say they dont go tutoring but actually get private tutored. At the end of the day as long as you study smart you will be rewarded.

 

[Drdusk]

Am I doing something wrong, or are those people working even harder than me (more than I realise)?

More than likely this is probably the reason. No one really tells you how hard they're working so you don't really think of it but it's probably the case. Tutoring is a great asset if used correctly. Many people think tutoring does all the work but then fail to actually work hard at the subject themselves. You may have to work a bit less than the Non-tutored kids or you may even have to work more than them. Everyone is different and peoples abilities vary in each subject.

Ask them how much they study and how they study. No harm in adopting their techniques and seeing if they work for you.

 

[_rakelt]

Hey hey calm down.

Tutoring does NOT guarantee your intelligence because at the end of the day, its YOUR hard work that gets u the high atars. I grew up in an asian house hold and I was tutored for around 5-6 years of my schooling life. And you know what? I didn't pay attention alot and it wasn't getting me anywhere. People used to shit on me saying i was "smart" because I was tutored but in fact, I didn't do maths extensions or english extensions even with SO MUCH tutoring down the drain.

Then year 11 came around and i realised how fked I was if I didn't step up my game. And thats when i TRIED REALLY hard and it got me in my 90s. Yes, tutoring is great and gives you more opportunity BUT you STILL have to put in the effort. Not that im saying tutoring is useless (bcos most kids getting high atars do tutoring), but know that your hard work and motivation is what keeps you on top of your work no matter what.

But moral of the day: its your hard work that gets you better grades.

 

[Drdusk]

Just continuing an example is if you ask a 16 year old Math Olympian with no tutoring to sit the 4u HSC, even though I was tutored for 4u by an amazing tutor, I could not match up to their ability in the subject. There's a 99.99% chance they would end up beating me no matter how much tutoring I get because their ability is much much greater than me, and sometimes it just is like that. There are always people in this world better than you at anything. Although this is an extremely rare example it shows that tutoring doesn't always mean you are working harder than others because you never know what your peers are doing.

Tutoring is more of a 'helping hand'. Say you get tutoring for Maths 3 hours on a Sunday, well the Non-tutored kids could spend those 3 hours at home studying themselves and retain as much information as you because some people can do that while others can't. This basically means that tutoring is giving you no 'edge' over them.

 

[Drongoski]

Some people a simply smart. Most of us are just so so.

 

[jazz519]

This is going to sound very convoluted but please read the whole post before saying anything. I'm just a bit frustrated that there are some really intelligent untutored students in the grade who are topping every subject (particularly maths and sciences). I just don't know what they're doing that I'm not. Even though I do get tutored for some subjects, I acknowledge that it doesn't make everything 'fine'. I always make sure to make my own notes, find my own questions to do, do the work set at school (I know many tutored students who don't even pay attention at school) etc. Am I doing something wrong, or are those people working even harder than me (more than I realise)?

You're not necessarily doing anything wrong and so you shouldn't beat yourself up over it. Also, it doesn't mean they are working harder than you. What you have to remember is that tutoring is there to get the highest potential out of a student. So although a great tutor can get the highest potential out of their students and improve their abilities, a large part of how the student performs will be down to their ability level and own hard work in that subject.

Now to give you my perspective as a student who has consistently topped throughout high school and now my uni chem subjects. A lot of the time I get asked by my tutoring students, uni and other friends on how to get high marks or top. There's no one explanation of work harder and you will get the marks. During high school I had friends who similar to you studied more than me but ranked lower than me. So I can see where you are coming from in their perspective they probably felt a similar way. I can see how it would feel unfair as the person appears to be studying less but performing better, this is unfortunately something you can't do anything about so you shouldn't try to focus on this too much.

So rather than focusing on the other people and the amount they are studying, just be confident in your ability and study in a way that you directly focus on areas you need to improve in. Competition is healthy in that it can motivate us to improve, but sometimes we need to also remind ourselves that even if someone achieves a higher mark, it doesn't make your achievements any less.