English Tutoring

Hi, I'm Luke, and I'm here to help, whether your aim is for you or your child to be set up for success in further study, or to maximise ATAR performance by getting an insight into how to impress the markers with what they are looking for.

I graduated high school as a student councilor and winner of the 'All Rounder Award', with an ATAR of 99.25, including a raw WACE exam score of 95% in methods.

Throughout my school experience I found the most important thing was to maintain a clear school/life balance, making sure to separate my time for friends and family and time to knuckle down and study. I also gained a great respect and gratitude for my teachers, leading to me being eager to learn and improve, something that I would love to pass on to current students.

When I'm not spending my time studying at the University of Melbourne, I love visiting my family and friends back home in Perth, playing community and social cricket, or simply going out for a coffee.

Hey there! My name is Jeff, and I graduated as the Dux of Xavier College with an ATAR of 99.95. I'm currently a final year medical student at Monash University.

High school is unequivocally challenging - VCE aside for a moment, balancing your social life, home life and extra-curricular activities can seem quite daunting. I was in your position not too long ago and had an incredibly full-on schedule. And perhaps like you now, I dreamt big - I wanted to go into medicine after high school. This meant juggling all my commitments while being in the top 0.1% of the state academically. Frankly, I had my doubts.
But I made it.
Since graduating high school, I have made it my mission to help passionate, conscientious students who dare to dream to attain their full potential. Having tutored and mentored more than 100 students, I am very confident in helping you to score the best marks possible and get into your desired uni course.

And unlike some, I didn't sacrifice my social life and hobbies in year 12. I have gradually developed a series of strategies to study efficiently and maximise every second of my revision to maintain good grades. These have helped me to attain perfect study scores and Premiers' Award in Physics and English. And perhaps more importantly, I had an eminently enjoyable and personally enriching experience throughout the six years of high school.

My teaching style is concept-oriented, meaning I prioritise helping you to fully understand the underlying ideas using well-written and clear notes before walking you through example questions. In other words, I wish to train and guide the way you think and approach questions. Having been tutored myself by a VCE methods examiner, I'm confident in helping you to develop an "exam-perspective" to understand just exactly what the examiners are looking for. Moreover, I aim to cultivate the skill of studying efficiently rather than abundantly within all my students, an ability that will undoubtedly assist you in time management and achieve success in your future careers - after all, that's what VCE is all about!

Hey guys! I’m Elena and I’m here to say: I get it. VCE can be difficult. So no matter whether you’re aiming for the top or just trying to survive this crazy thing we call school, my ultimate mission is to help make things easier for you. I can be your certified secret weapon!

Here’s a little bit about why:

🏅Graduated with a 99.60 ATAR

🏅Scored a raw 50 in English

🏅Premier’s Award for VCE English

📈 Over 1200 hours of tutoring experience

📈 Over 5 years as a Saturday School classroom teacher

📈 Over 40 previous students

📈 Over 30 different texts taught

I know, I know. There are a lot of high achievers out there. And I am the first to admit that having good grades does not make someone a good teacher. I’ve been teaching for a long time (and have studied teaching at Monash) and I can tell you that communication skills and a high EQ are the important ingredients. That being said, please don’t think of me as just another teacher!

As we at KIS like to say, tutors should feel like ‘genius best friends’, and that is absolutely my tutoring philosophy.

When I’m not tutoring, I work part time as a kindergarten teacher (is it harder to teach teenagers or three year olds? 🤔that’s been my ongoing question!) - and as any parent can tell you, young children can be brutal! One thing I’ve learned definitively is that students will never learn from someone they don’t like. Hence, ‘genius best friends’. I prioritise getting to know you, your likes and dislikes, your ‘learning turn off’ (the thing that makes someone hate coming to class)… because I believe that knowing your personal context behind why you’ve started tutoring is vital to making sure you actually get something out of it.

I don’t want to be just another authority figure, and I don’t believe in handing you copious amounts of homework when you might already be struggling to stay on top of your regular schoolwork. Even the best multitaskers struggle with having multiple different streams of learning at once (between orchestra, theatre, leadership roles, academic competitions, public speaking competitions, dance, a part time job and debating, I definitely learned this the hard way in high school!).

I absolutely do give out recommended reading and exercises, and have an extensive bank of practise prompts, sample essays, study guides and other resources to share if you want them! But I’m not going to crucify you if you don’t do it.

Rote learning is very different to core conceptual understanding. Cultivating that is my goal.

Ultimately, what I’m saying is that I know what it’s like to be a student! I still am one (at university). I try to tutor the things students need to know, in a way that you can understand it. I also received tutoring while I was in high school, so I understand where you’re coming from.

Therefore as a tutor, my ideals are to combine personal experience as both the student and the teacher to create a balanced, tailored, welcoming and relatable tutoring process for you.

What I offer:

✅ Regular lessons according to your schedule (weekly, fortnightly, 30, 60, 90mins…whatever you feel!)

✅ Ad hoc lessons before SACs or exams (there’s always time to improve!)

✅ Essay marking for my students (with a 36 hour return policy)

✅ Independent, personalised curricula (if you want to be ahead of your class / do something different)

Aside from the content itself, as a VCE survivor I am able to help out with general tips and tricks- all the things that will ultimately help you help yourself!

My role as a tutor can be summarised in one word - I am a de-stresser.

So whatever that means to you, wherever your stress is building up - let me know and I’d love to help.

I left high school happy with my six years there - a feeling which I hope to impart to you. Whether that means improved grades, better studying skills or a greater enjoyment of a subject, I will be there to help that happen and have some laughs along the way!