An idea - any feedback welcome (1 Viewer)

[SimpleXiong]

Hi there

I wanted to get your views (positive and negative) about an idea I have. I don't know anyone in high school personally as I graduated a while back so that's why I'm here.

I was inspired by this community and was thinking of setting up a website like Bored of Studies myself except a little more niche and specialised. I'm thinking about getting people like yourself to craft up really high quality answers to not just HSC papers but also textbooks which normally wouldn't have the full set of answers available.

The answers themselves would not only be easily understood but also have exam and study tips embedded within them. There may also be a lot of other quality of life features.

I'm curious as to whether people would have any interest in such a service. Essentially it would be a one stop shop like BoS except that there will be a premium service vetted by qualified people and would cut down on the amount of research and time around needed by people looking for what they want. Furthermore, the people who contributed the answers can essentially get free publicity for their own tuition businesses.

Of course, I understand that there are a lot of resources out there which are free but it just seems to be so fragmented.

I totally expect to be shot down but any courteous and constructive feedback is welcome!

 

[SimpleXiong]

Thanks sinophile.

But what do you think conceptually of the idea? What features would you want so that you are willing to part with your hard earned cash?

 

[strawberrye]

The problem with high quality answers is
1. Who is going to determine whether they are high quality or not? A lot of people who got high ATARs did it by rote learning... being able to remember answers is very different to being able to think independently of good answers.

2. Having one answer is also very problematic because it suggests there is no other way to structure or answer a question. Of course, you could say 'this is a sample answer', but when I was in high school, I did not find sample answers super helpful, because it did not give me much feedback on how good my own answer actually was. In this respect, having a marking service would have been better than trying to compare a sample answer to your own and not knowing what is flexible or not in a good answer. Embedding study tips in an answer or with it is very problematic because I am looking often for a simple, straight answer, rather than a long one with unnecessary information in it for the exam.

3. Getting exposure to one's tuition services is probably not worth the significant amount of time-and it will be significant to make sure the answer is foolproof and absolutely accurate-then if someone just posts an ad or apply for a tutor position or open their own business-they get students much quicker that way. You could argue they get to put stuff on their resume-but given the significant commitment involved-at least for myself-I probably would back down.

4. It will take you a significant amount of resource, time and ability to gather a significant amount of people to determine which textbooks are worth writing sample answers for and etc. A lot of textbooks that 'doesn't have answers' actually does-they just sell it in a separate textbook, so the fact you probably won't be able to assure the answers are absolutely correct, or you will spend a lot of money trying to say those answers are 'accredited by an official examiner' or 'multiple teachers'.

I think it won't do very well, you will need to be willing to invest in a significant amount of time and resources to get this service up, to get people to trust your service, and then get them to pay for it if that's your end goal. Good luck though-you can probably do it, but whether the cost outweighs the benefits, only you will be able to tell.