COVID-19 and national lockdown laws impacted us all greatly, but for the students who are completing their final year of high school in the midst of a pandemic, the situation for some has been nothing short of disastrous. 

Students were sent home to undertake home learning, with digital learning becoming a part of their new everyday life. Study groups were no more, in fact, contact with anyone outside their own household was off the cards. 

On top of navigating the education obstacles, there were also emotional challenges to deal with, such as the loss of regular physical and extracurricular activities, and mental health strain.

Here are three integral steps you can take now to help your student go from struggle and stress, to straight As in time for the QCE.

Trying to navigate ATAR? Read our ATAR FAQ’s

1) Determine the cause for the grade slip

There could be many reasons your child has seen their results go backwards. The first step is to determine what could have caused the decline in the first place. For example – is your child overwhelmed with all of the changes and the rapid rate at which their educational goal posts are moving? Did the change in their daily routine leave them with feelings of anxiety or simply struggling to get back into the daily grind of being back in the classroom with assessments coming at them thick and fast? Have they experienced social issues with changed friendships since they were last in the classroom? 

Whatever the cause, it is important to address the reason behind the results. Ask them how they are feeling about all of the recent changes in their life, and see if you can get to the root of the problem. If you are having trouble – it might be worthwhile seeking professional assistance such as an appointment with the school counsellor who can help you in facilitating a meaningful conversation with your teen. 

2) Did their time management and goals change?

Without the need to rise early in the morning and get themselves into the classroom, did your child struggle to get up and get moving in the mornings? Has this impacted them greatly with fatigue issues now that they have returned back to their school campus? A shift in a young adult’s energy levels could be part of the reason they are finding school a little more difficult post-lockdown. 

It is also possible that the career goals of your child have changed since being in lockdown, meaning particular subjects have become less appealing to them and the focus has been shifted. 

It can be tough to rally the enthusiasm for that last push after twelve and a half years of schooling, but it is really important to help your young person find that motivation to get across the finish line and get the ATAR score they have been striving for. If you need to implement structure and routine back into their day, the school holidays are a great time to hit the reset button and help them to hit the ground running for the start of their final term at school. 

Help them to define what their goals are, and clarify the steps they need to take to get them back on track to success. They may need help structuring a new routine to help them with their study goals – whatever it is they need, your support is going to be key in the last few months of their school career. 

3) Did the mid-term assessments reflect their learning preferences or is this an anomaly?

Did your child see a dip in grades in the first semester of Year 12? Did the absence from the physical classroom mean that they missed the push from their teachers to knuckle down and treat their mid-year exams like a trial run for the QCEs? It could be really easy to blame COVID and assume that all other students across the state were similarly impacted, but it’s time to bring the focus back onto your child and what went wrong for them.

Was the learning language unfamiliar to them? Could a tutor be the answer to sharpening your student’s study skills leading up to their final exams? 

A Team Tuition helps students – particularly those in their final stages of learning – to reach their full potential, and it’s not too late to enlist our help for your child. Learn more about how we helped some kids change their results from Cs to As in less than six months. 

Turning it around is about diagnosing the setback and putting real, actionable strategies in place to overcome the poor grades. As a parent, you’ve probably had just about enough of this whole “educator” thing.  That’s okay, we offer intensive ATAR tutoring blocks that all start with overcoming everything above. This is your last chance to help your child kick academic goals when it counts the most. 

Could ATAR tutoring be the answer for your child? Contact A Team Tuition today!

The post How ATAR Tutoring Can Help Slipping Grades appeared first on A Team Tuition.

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What Type of Jobs Are in The Creative Arts

Stage Manager

A stage manager organises the day to day running of a theatre company. They make sure the whole production from inception to the final performance runs smoothly by working with people such as the director, choreographer, composer, lighting designer and costume designer, bringing all the different elements together to ensure the show runs smoothly. If you have done drama but on but wanted to be more involved with the backstage running of the production, this may be the career for you. Studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama or acting, Bachelor of Theatre or a Bachelor of Creative Arts are university pathways for this career.

Music Business Manager

A music business manager is someone who represents artists and musicians and focuses on the financial side of things. They will work with advertising, negotiating contracts, how to collect royalties and how to invest and collect their money. If you like doing music as a subject, don’t want to be a musician but still be involved in the industry, this may be the career for you. There are very few music business degrees, but a Bachelor of Business can also help you get into a career in music business management, especially if you do a minor or take classes in music or arts!

Sound Technician

A sound technician sets up, tests and operates equipment for the specific area such as tv or radio production. Sound technicians are employed by tv studios, radio stations, film production companies, concert venues, theatre companies, sound recording studios and some work freelance. This is a great career for anyone who loves music or the audio and sound element of film & tv subjects. Suggested university degrees such as Bachelor or other degree in Audio or Audio Production or a Bachelor of Creative Industries are University pathways that can help kickstart a career as a sound technician.

Production Assistant

A production assistant works on film or tv sets and completes a very wide variety of tasks such as discussing with the director how a scene should be shot, setting up props on set, calling out when filming, inputting computer data, completing errands for any person in the production team and working with extras or actors.  If you love film subjects at school, this may be a career for you! This is a position that there is no formal study needed, but a degree in Film and TV or a general Arts degree can help you get into this field. There is also tons of room for growth in this role to move on to being a producer or director!

Graphic Designer

A graphic designer communicates concepts through images, words or other types of graphics to build visuals that can be used in advertising or promotions. Their goal is to make the brand recognizable and memorable; this can also include collaboration with other creative professionals such as other artists and animators. For someone that does visual art and loves creating but can also work well with creative computer technologies, this would be a great career. Specific degrees such as Bachelor of Graphic Design, Media Design and Digital Media Design or a Bachelor of Fine arts, majoring in graphic design can launch graduates into this type of career.

Community Arts Worker

An arts educator identifies aspirations, gaps or areas of need in a community, through consultation and discussion. They then design strategies to facilitate and encourage community arts projects, events and activities to improve the community cultural value. Community arts workers can be for any area of the arts, there can be visual arts projects such as a town mural, as well as theatre projects for youth or music concerts. A university degree or extensive experience in your specialist field of arts is necessary for this role, although a degree in Community Services would also be helpful.

Arts Educator

Arts educators operate in museums or art galleries, educating the public on the types of works in the gallery or art in general. They can run classes or workshops for many different groups of people, from beginners to advanced and kids to adults. This is a great career for someone who loves visual arts and wants to educate others but not necessarily in a school setting. A Bachelor of Arts, Creative Arts or Fine Arts majoring or specialising in anything is a university degree to get into this career.

Production Manager

A production manager is one of the most important people on a film or tv set. They are in charge of budgets, hiring of crew, finding location, shooting schedules and management of day-to-day life on a production. This career would suit someone who enjoyed doing film & tv subjects. There are many university courses such as a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Communications, Bachelor of Media Studies or a Bachelor of Acting or Theatre, that can help get you into a career in this area but they aren’t totally necessary for a career in production management.

Teacher

Teachers share their love of their chosen creative art with students in a school setting. As you know (being in school) these teachers can inspire, support and encourage students. There are teachers for early childhood, primary or secondary across all of the arts, including drama, visual art, dance, music and film & tv. Doing degrees such as Bachelor of Education or a double degree with a Bachelor of Arts or Creative Arts and Bachelor of Education are the beginning of a pathway to this career.

Set Designer

A set designer takes the vison of a director or a script from a writer and turns it into a set for a live theatre piece, a tv show or a movie. They research, design and supervise the construction of sets and scenery. They work with artists of all kinds to turn this vision into a reality. If you love doing large scale art works in Visual art at school, this could be a career for you! Having a degree in Fine or Creative Arts or Bachelor of Design can help you get into this career.

Marketing Officer

There are many different roles within a marketing team but generally they develop a company or brand image, build marketing materials and identify and analyse an organisations strengths and weaknesses to develop marketing strategies. They also make decisions about specific products for example the pricing, labels, distribution and advertising. This career combines the creativity of the visual art with the people skills developed in drama, if you love either of these subjects, this may be a great career for you. A Bachelor of Business, Commerce, Business Administration, Marketing or Communication are great degrees to help you get started in the marketing industry.

There are so many different options if you love doing creative arts. Here at A Team, we can help you get the marks you find the creative career that is right for you. Your academic personal trainer will work with you to set goals and figure out the path that is needed to get you where you want to be!

The post What Creative Career Is Right For Me? For Those Who Love Creative Arts appeared first on A Team Tuition.

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“Cecilia is bright, but it wasn’t reflected in her marks.  It was affecting her confidence and how she felt about herself.  This was my biggest concern” says mum Lizzy.

Cecilia Meets Primary School English Tutor Michaela

Now in grade five, and tackling the burgeoning workload of upper primary school, CC’s lack of confidence began to have a serious impact on her grades – and her self esteem.  Mum Lizzy called in Academic Personal Trainer, Michaela to help CC get through her homework, assignments, and exams.  Michaela could tell that CC lacked the confidence she needed to fully embrace study.  She had the “I can’t” attitude and that, more than anything was holding her back.  CC is a bright girl.  She’s creative, and funny and a passionate young artist.   In the classroom, however, she was reticent and uneasy.

Michaela began by working on CC’s confidence, helping her to adjust the way she thought about her school work and how she related to the curriculum.  Michaela introduced “learning through play” to reinforce the reading and writing fundamentals that started CC’s journey towards poor academic achievement.  Where most tutors would push CC to rote learn spelling and grammar, Michaela helped CC to develop an interest in words and language, and the learning simply followed.  Primary school English tutoring is about helping a child discover their own talents – if you force lessons upon them they’ll end up disliking the subject more.  We believe in educating a child to follow their curiousity, to embrace their ideas and to pursue the curriculum via their own passions and interests.

“Michaela has been amazing for Cecilia.  She has gone to so much trouble to find out what is important to CC and how to connect with her.  Cecilia has really opened up to Michaela and I can see that in her confidence.  She really looks forward to her weekly tutoring sessions”, says mum Lizzy.

Learn more about our primary school English tutors.

CC’s Achievements are More Than Just Grades

“At my last parent-teacher meeting, Cecilia’s teacher said that her confidence and participation had notably improved.  She said some of the other teachers had also noticed” says Lizzy.  During her time at primary school, CC has never achieved above a D grade in English.  She’s always struggled with English especially and it’s been an uphill battle for mum and dad – not just to get her to fully engage at school but also to balance encouraging CC to keep trying while watching her performance destroy her confidence.

In the two semesters, CC has worked with Michaela, she’s gone from a D to a C and now, a C to a B.

She’s on course to becoming an A student in a subject she’d never once passed just six months ago.

While mum and dad are very proud of CC’s grades, for them, primary school English tutoring was never about what comes home on a report card, it’s 100% about how Cecilia now sees herself, and her self worth. And that’s the most powerful result any parent could ask for.

“Cecelia has never passed English before, so we’re really celebrating but more than that, her teacher, teacher’s aide, reading group leader – they’ve all said she’s far more confident, she’s putting her opinion out there, and she’s finally feeling confident to read out loud. This has been a big celebration in our house. ”  

The post Primary School Student Finds Her Groove appeared first on A Team Tuition.

How do I get my child to sleep?

Where do you start when you feel like your child is not going to sleep? These are our top 10 tips on how to make a child sleep:

• Establish a regular bedtime. Some studies have indicated that the regularity of an individual’s sleep cycle is more important than the number of hours one sleeps each night. For those asking “How do I get my child to sleep?” it is important your child goes to bed at roughly the same time each night. Their body’s production of melatonin (the chemical responsible for tiredness) will align more closely with their sleep-wake rhythm, minimising feelings of grogginess in the morning.

• Set up a bedtime routine. On top of implementing a regular bedtime, creating a bedtime routine – bath, reading, meditation, etc. – will allow your child to relax and mentally unwind before falling asleep. Cortisol, the hormone associated with stress, negates the body’s ability to shut down and rest. Establishing a relaxing bedtime routine will minimise stress, and increase your child’s chances of falling into a deep sleep (also known as slow wave sleep), the stage of sleep in which information is consolidated in the brain.

• Establish regular waking times. We know children love to sleep-in on the weekend, particularly teenagers, but it may not be the best move in the long-term. Similarly to setting a regular bedtime, it is beneficial for your child to wake up at approximately the same time each day. Again, this helps to align their body’s production of melatonin with their sleep-wake cycle.

• Napping. Rather than encouraging sleep-ins, it may be more beneficial for your child to have the occasional nap if they’re feeling a little tired. As we all know from experience, though, naps need to be kept to a 20 minute maximum. Any longer, and your child will begin to fall into a deep sleep, confusing their body clock and making them feel too tired or too alert at the wrong times.

• Ensure the bedroom is suitable for optimal sleep. Generally speaking, bedrooms need to be dark and quiet. If your child is a little anxious or afraid of the dark, a night light may be a happy medium. Other things to consider are temperature and clocks. Try and regulate temperature with a heater, extra blankets, an air-conditioner, a fan, or by opening a window, to allow for an uninterrupted sleep. Constant checking of the time may also cause restlessness or anxiety about sleep. If this is the case, try and move clocks so they’re not readily accessible from the bed.

• Eat at the right time. The digestion of food requires our bodies to be active. With that in mind, it is important to allow enough time for the body to complete this process before going to bed. If an individual tries to sleep immediately after eating, part of their body will be alert and active, hindering the mind’s ability to switch off and rest. Additionally, if someone is too hungry before bed, their brain will emit signals to this effect, also impeding adequate rest.

• Be active during the day. Physical activity is important for good health, but it also plays a role in establishing good sleeping patterns. If we exert ourselves over the course of the day, we will naturally be in need of rest come the evening.

• Avoid screens in the evening. The continual advancement and accessibility of technology has made this one harder and harder to manage, but that does not detract from its importance. The production of melatonin is directly linked to the body’s exposure to light. Too much screen time late in the evening will delay feelings of tiredness, making it harder for a person to get to sleep. Furthermore, research suggests that staying off screens an hour before bed allows a child to gain 21 minutes extra sleep a night. That’s more than 2 extra hours a week!

• Avoid caffeine and other stimulants. This one’s pretty obvious. The purpose of caffeine and other stimulants is to assist people in being alert and awake. A small amount of caffeine might be manageable for an older teen, but as a rule of thumb, it is best avoided in the afternoon and evening in order for the body to naturally prepare itself to switch off. In younger children, caffeine and other stimulants should be minimised as much as possible, if not avoided altogether. It is worth noting that we are not just talking about coffee and energy drinks here; tea, cola and chocolate are also stimulating products.

• Get plenty of sun. As mentioned, the production of melatonin is directly linked to light exposure. Getting plenty of light during the day helps to bind the body clock to the natural cycle of day and night.

Getting your child to sleep can be a hard task and cause a lot of stress on the household during the evening. Follow our tips and restore the peace at bed time!

The post What Can Help My Child Sleep? Our Top 10 Tips! appeared first on A Team Tuition.

These terms and more will define the next two years of you and your child’s life… but don’t waste your time trying to understand every nook and cranny of the system. Seminars, although informative, focus on the maths behind how ATARs are calculated, not what is in store for your child during their last years in high school.

By answering the most frequently asked questions, I will introduce the all-consuming world of life for a Year 11 or 12 student in NSW; plain and simple.

Year 11

How are the senior years connected?

Year 11 is called the Preliminary Course. It is during this year that your child will be introduced to content not assessable in Year 12 but emulating the structure of study that will be undertaken during the HSC Course. The purpose of the Preliminary Course is to allow the students to get acquainted with new assessment formats, test strategies, and academic expectations. A perk of the senior years is that the teacher for each subject follows your child through Year 11 to Year 12.

Is Year 11 important for my child’s ATAR?

Not exactly. Although Year 11 results do not inform any part of your child’s ATAR, these results are becoming increasingly more important to form conditional offers or early entry offers at some universities.

On a different note, Year 11 will be the chance for your child to try new and adventurous approaches to their studies.

How many units is easiest to balance?

Units are the means of calculating a student’s pattern of study for the HSC exams. Each subject has a unit value where most subjects are 2 Units with extension courses being an additional 1 Unit. Your child must complete a minimum of 10 Units whereby 2 Units must be an English course.

In terms of how many is too many, it depends on your child whether they want to extend themselves or use Year 11 to try a lot of subjects. No matter what approach is taken, subjects can be swapped or discontinued up until the beginning of Year 12.

Why is Year 11 only 3 Terms?

Some schools approach Year 11 differently, but the wide-spread approach is that Year 11 is 3 terms to allow more time to cover Year 12 content. As the HSC exams take place in what would be Term 4 of Year 12, schools condense the Preliminary Course into three terms with the Preliminary Yearly exams conducted in Term 3. As a result, Term 4 of Year 11 becomes Term 1 of Year 12.

Year 11 isn’t too late…

Get high-school tutoring now!

Year 12

What is the difference between HSC and ATAR?

The HSC, or Higher School Certificate, is obtained after your child completes their Year 12 studies. By completing the HSC, your child is eligible to receive an ATAR, or Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank, which is a translation of their HSC results into a percentile number to compare their marks with everyone else in the state (e.g. an ATAR of 98 is in the top 2% of the state). UAC, or University Admissions Centre, uses the ATAR to connect your child to courses on offer at UAC supported universities.

How is the ATAR calculated?

To not bore you with numbers and statistics, HSC marks are calculated by finding the average between your child’s internal (within school) assessment marks and external (HSC exams in October) exam marks. HSC marks are then assigned a performance band from

Band 1 to Band 6 for that course (eg. Band 6 = mark of 90-100, Band 5 = mark of 80-89, etc.). Bands have no impact on the ATAR, but are rather a guideline of your child’s results.

Your child’s HSC marks for each subject are put into a percentile ranking of all the students who completed that course. Using some complex mathematics, each course’s percentile is compiled into one, being your child’s ATAR.

Learn more about our specialist ATAR Intensive Tutoring Programs

What does Year 12 look like?

Year 12 commences in Term 4 of Year 11 and is conducted over the next 4 terms. In each term, each subject will have an assessment to make up the internal assessment mark. Trial exams are in the fourth term of Year 12 (Trials are the closest replication of the HSC exam period), and the HSC exams take place at the end of October to early November.

What can I do for my child?

This question is infrequently asked but the most important. The biggest thing you can do is just ask them how you can help. Every child is different.

Depending on how your child operates, being involved and taking an interest in their work and their schedule can make all the difference. Acknowledging that this time in their life is busy and important is the ultimate supportive foundation that any student needs.

Additionally, be proud no matter their results or your expectations. Just know they worked their hardest, and achieved their best; which might be enough to achieve their desired ATAR.

Lastly, be conscious of the pressure Year 12 can exert. Every day your child is surrounded by its gravity, and it can be rather consuming for some. Constant reminders from teachers coupled with the seemingly endless countdown to the tests is stressful. Maintain an open dialogue with your child about their wellbeing and be the escape from their studies.

Understanding the most important years of your child’s schooling is the best thing you can do to help them through it. Year 11 and 12 has changed. The HSC is different and requires a new level of effort and commitment that is all-consuming. With the evolving times, there will undoubtedly be even more changes in the future.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but the rest is up to you and your child to find out along the way.

The post The HSC and the ATAR in NSW – What You Need to Know appeared first on A Team Tuition.

If you think you might need those bonus points to get into the university course of your dreams, we’ve got all the insider info to get you on the right track. We’ll help you navigate the tricky world of understanding ATAR bonus points, and whether you’re eligible for them. And we’ll address those pregnancy rumours you’ve been hearing so much about! Read on to find out more.

What are ATAR bonus points, and how does it work?

With all the crazy rumours flying around, it’s never been more important to understand what ATAR bonus points are and how the system works so you can make the right decision for your future.

Bonus points are now known as adjustment factors. It’s important to know that any adjustment factors don’t actually add to your overall ATAR score. They’re just extra points that tertiary institutions (such as TAFEs and universities) add on top of a student’s ATAR to boost their selection ranking when applying to a specific university course. Your ATAR remains the same.

Each institution has its own specific criteria for what these adjustment factors are and when they apply. They might not be applicable for all courses or even for all students. All institutions limit the maximum number of adjustments that apply to your ATAR or selection rank. Some may choose to limit the increase to your score by only 5 points. Visit the website of the university you’re interested in to see if they provide information about their specific criteria. The Queensland University of Technology (QUT), for instance, provides its applicants with a maximum of 10 adjustment factors or ATAR bonus points.

What types of criteria exist? How do I know if I qualify?

There are a few common types of adjustment factors that most universities agree should boost your score. These include:

• Experiencing financial hardship
• Disruptive home environments
• Increased responsibilities at home
• A disability, injury, or illness/health condition
• A disruption to your education – the coronavirus this year is an excellent example of this!

When you apply to your university course through QTAC, you’ll be able to select these adjustment factors through the Educational Access Scheme or EAS.

In special circumstances, there are also other types of adjustment factors that may apply to you. These can include:

• If your school has a strong relationship with a particular university, you may apply for adjustment factors.
• If you’re excelling at a particular subject that applies to the degree you’re interested in, you might apply for bonus points.
• If you’re a current Year 12 applicant and you’ve undertaken specific secondary subjects or university enrichment courses, you may be eligible for bonus points. This is known as subject adjustment.
• If you live or attend a school that is rural or within a particular region, you might find a few extra points padding your ATAR. Universities might refer to this as location adjustment.
• If you excel at a certain sport, or you’re talented at music, dancing, debating, drama, or anything of this sort, then you might have lost a fair amount of study time due to other commitments. Universities can take this into account, and offer ATAR adjustment factors.
• If you live somewhere the university deems important, you might receive bonus points.
• If you didn’t do as well as you’d hoped with your ATAR score despite killing it in the grades department at school, recommendations from your teachers or your school could go a long way in convincing your university to fling a few points your way!
• If you’ve displayed exceptional leadership qualities or you were the school captain, you might also qualify for adjustment factors.
• If you’re of Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander descent.

Is pregnancy something that is considered?

So if illness or hardship is something that universities take into account, that should mean that pregnancy would be considered as an adjustment factor, right? Not necessarily. If you’re looking to get pregnant simply to increase your ATAR bonus points, you’ll likely wind up disappointed. Pregnancy is not the same as illness, cancer, or coronavirus, and given that bonus points are added at the discretion of the university you apply to, it’s highly likely they’ll choose to decline. If anything, you’ll be adding to the barriers preventing you from gaining entry to the university course of your dreams, and in time, the career you’ve always wanted.

You might have heard that you or even your entire grade may be eligible for ATAR bonus points if one of your classmates gets pregnant. This is also false.

For more information on ATAR scores, ATAR tutoring, or ATAR adjustment factors, visit A Team Tuition and book a tutoring session today!

The post Get Pregnant for ATAR Bonus Points? The Truth Behind the Rumours. appeared first on A Team Tuition.

There are so many options to choose from yet if you have no idea what you want to do, it can be even harder to know where to start.

Whether you have it sorted, partially pieced together, or completely clueless, many different strategies can be used to choose a university course.

You’ve just got to take it one step at a time.

Which University Course Should I Choose? Where to begin

With courses, careers, qualifications, and prerequisites, how are you supposed to weigh all the requirements?

Consider taking a deeper look into the biographical bullseye charts from the Department of Education, Skills, and Employment. Each poster asks you a simple question about an interest of yours. From there, they spread the potential careers into levels based on the qualification needed.

Another approach that is not nearly used enough to sift through careers and courses is eliminating what you already know you don’t want to do.

Some may think this approach might be limiting, but for the time being it is a start. This can be canceling a field (trades, sciences, maths, etc.) or a particular career (IT, hospitality, what your parents do, etc.).

From then, you can sift through the remaining courses and the careers they lead to, or from ideal careers, to the qualifications you’ll need to get there.

Learn more about our specialist ATAR Intensive Tutoring Programs

Careers to Courses

This methodology works for those who have an idea of what they want to do as a job and requires research into the pathways that can get them there.

For example, an aspiring medical mind wanting to become a doctor will research courses (eg. Bachelor of Medicine) and what the course provides. After talking to a few doctor-friends of your parents, they might mention something that would help your learning such as hands-on experience. That’s where internships, work experience, and other similar programs will give you an edge.

For those who haven’t quite gotten to that stage, have a go at these steps:

1. Visualise your dream job

In order to see a potential career for yourself, answer the following questions:

• What field do you want to work in?
• What ideas excite you?
• Where do you want to work?
• Do you want to work in the office or out in the world? With a large group or on your own? Traveling or staying in one place?

If you can piece together what your ideal work environment looks like, that can inform the type of career that accommodates it.

2. Career Quizzes

Career quizzes are great for pitting your options against each other to grant you the opportunity to compare and pick which appeals to you more. By completing these quizzes, you can start the career search based on the options presented to you at the end. From the favourable comes the reverse-engineering of what qualification will get you there.

The first quiz provides a breakdown of your personality and connects you with your strengths, areas for improvement, what you would look for in a role and a list of potential careers. After creating a free account, you will be able to use the resources attached to your account to keep track of your ideas and pathways to get there.

Another quiz follows the same format as the previous but instead of the additional extras, the careers given as results have additional information attached to them about salary, popularity, future demand, and the skills required.

3. Research

The best way to learn is from experience, so seek someone with experiences to share. Through talking to people in the field, you can gain first-hand insight into what they do day-to-day, what their work looks like, commitments and opportunities, and what they wish they knew in your position. On top of this, ask them about their qualifications, where they studied, and if they would suggest any studies they wished they undertook. All of this information will bring to light the pathway to a job that might be your perfect fit.

Research companies that provide that kind of position, attempt to pair your dream job with a hobby and don’t forget to take into account lifestyle.

Of course, if it doesn’t work out for you, try another one.

Get tutoring from tutors who care!

Get high-school tutoring now!

Courses to Careers

Contrastingly to the process above, this method works for those who have an idea of what they want to study beyond school but don’t know where that will get them.

For instance, an Arts degree is a broad degree that allows freedom for the student to pick various electives from multiple fields whilst majoring in their main interest. Yet such a broad scope of learning won’t always lead to a specific career.

1. What you need to know

For this process, you’ll need to have an idea of what field you want to go into. This allows you to direct your course choice in the right direction. Then it is a matter of researching what courses are offered at which universities and comparing the experiences you will have.

Using a Bachelor of Arts as an example again, it is offered at almost every university. So when it comes to differentiating where you will study, that’s when researching which universities offer particular electives and additional experiences is vital.

2. Course Seeker

As you can imagine with as many as 40 universities each with over 700 diplomas, bachelor degrees, masters, and doctorates on offer, it is a drain working your way through every option at every university site.

Some websites compile all the available courses in one place from universities around Australia. This gives you a one-stop-shop to search and compare preliminary information about various courses (ATAR, duration, location, etc.).

It is highly advised that when you pick courses to pursue, visit the university site to view the study patterns and what you will be learning to predetermine if the content will interest you.

3. Research

Alike to the first method, research is best conducted through conversations with people who have gone through the process before you.

If you are starting to think about choosing a university course, there are so many options out there and that’s why starting early, talking about it, using the people around you, and running with multiple ideas are crucial strategies that will lead you to the course and the job of your dreams.

So get on it, there is work to do!

The post How To Choose A University Course In Australia appeared first on A Team Tuition.

The study versus sleep dilemma is one that all students (and parents) will confront at one time or another during the schooling years, particularly as children go through adolescence and seem to want to sleep all the time! Sleep, or a lack of it, has a profound effect on academic performance. In order to give your child the best chance of success, it is important to understand the role sleep plays in humans, and in particular, how it can impact learning and functioning.

So, Why is Sleep SO Important?

As human beings, we need sleep in order for our body to re-energise its cells and clear waste from the brain. When completed successfully, this process enables us to feel sharp and switched on the next day, and therefore allows us to better engage with the demands of our lives. With respect to how sleep impacts a child’s academic performance, two factors play a crucial role: the amount of sleep a child receives, and the regularity of a child’s sleep pattern.

How Much Sleep Do Children Need?

Research suggests that children and teenagers need between 8 and 10 hours of sleep each night in order to grow and function properly. Unfortunately in Australia, however, they tend to average just 6.5-7.5 hours, and this is problematic for a number of reasons.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, too short a sleep reduces the time a person spends in slow wave sleep. During slow wave sleep, the brain replays information learned and processed during waking hours, allowing the brain to store this information in its long-term memory. If a person does not spend adequate time in this stage of sleep, it can compromise their capacity for memory consolidation and information retention.

Secondly, sleep deprivation can negatively affect a child’s mental well-being, including increasing the risk of depression and anxiety. This, in turn, can weaken a student’s level of engagement with schooling, with their grades suffering as a result.

Lastly, too little sleep can cause a reliance on caffeinated beverages and foods high in sugar, as students look to combat tiredness with a quick energy boost. These dietary choices have their own drawbacks, but with respect to academic performance, they can cause fluctuations in concentration and also affect a child’s sleep cycle. Which brings us to the matter of the regularity of a student’s sleep pattern…

What Does Melatonin Do?

Our brains naturally produce a chemical called melatonin. Melatonin controls the feeling of tiredness, and helps to regulate our body clock. A relic from our Neanderthal ancestry, the production of melatonin is heavily linked to the amount and timing of light exposure a person receives. For ancient peoples, this process enabled humans to sensibly align their body clocks with the rising and setting of the sun. In modern times, however, technological innovations ranging from the humble lightbulb through to televisions and smartphones have interrupted this cycle by introducing sources of light into our routines outside of daylight hours. As a result, the body’s production of melatonin has gotten out of sync with the natural rhythm of daylight. Compared with humanity’s ancestors, we tend to get tired much later in the evening, and feel more groggy and out of it early in the morning. When it comes to school then, the average student is unlikely to reach optimal brain functioning capacity until the middle of the day, effectively compromising their ability to learn and perform for the first half of each school day. That’s 50% of class time negatively impacted!

What’s the solution?

Should your child cram into the early hours, or are they best off getting a good night’s sleep? In short, their best bet is to get to bed at a reasonable hour. Of course, time needs to be made for study, but if they don’t sleep long enough for this information to be stored properly by the brain, or they are not adequately awake and alert come test time, research suggests it may be self-defeating. The trick to optimising your child’s academic performance is to ensure they receive at least 8 hours of sleep each night, and maintain a regular sleeping pattern.

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When I was in school, I ended up choosing English, Maths B (now called Maths Methods), Biology, Chemistry, Economics and Music which gives me a diverse understanding of the different elective areas and I used thinking steps to help me choose these subjects. I hope the advice that I used can be useful to you in picking the subjects that will give you the most success and fun in your last 2 years of schooling!

Why Are Electives Important In High School

Regardless of what career pathways you’re interested in, it’s important to choose elective subjects that relate to what you’re considering. Even if they aren’t prerequisites for the degree you’re interested in, exploring those subjects further can help you gain a better understanding of whether you’re genuinely interested in going forward with it as a career and can give you an extra “edge” if you eventually study it in university.

Also, you should always check what elective requirements you need for certain degrees. You can find this information by going to university websites and travelling to the degrees you’re interested in. All universities are slightly different with their requirements but this is a general guide of suggestions and common requirements you often need.

Electives For STEM pathways

For STEM related degrees, many universities require you to do Math Methods as a requirement as well as General English so those are essential. Without these subjects, most universities won’t accept you. In terms of recommended subjects for science, I’d recommend one or even two science electives based on what sciences you’re interested in as some universities such as UQ require one science not including Psychology.

With technology fields, ICT or Technology electives aren’t prerequisites but definitely recommended to choose anyways and with Engineering and Maths, some universities require you to do Specialist Maths as well as Methods so choosing it as one of your 4 free elective spots (with English and Methods taking one spot each) would be useful in the long-run.

Electives For Humanities pathways

Depending on whether you’re looking at creative arts or more theoretical arts such as history, it’s important to cater to what you’re interested in. Luckily, the only elective requirement you need is any ATAR English subject whether that be General English, Literature, English Extension or EAL. For creative arts like drama, music and art, you’re required to go through an audition process or submit a portfolio of your work, so choosing those subjects in high school can help you improve your skills and even become a part of your portfolio or acting resumé after school.

Electives for Classical Arts

Classical arts, such as history and languages do not have any special perquisites but doing Modern history, Ancient history or even both  in school can help you to develop essential research and analytical skills and starting to learn the language before university can be a big help and expand your horizons.

Electives for Business or Law

Business and Law are both interesting to talk about in terms of elective subjects as usually subjects such as Legal Studies, Economics and Accounting are only available in Year 11 and 12. This means you may have never done anything like this before, and it can be hard to know what to expect.

If you’re looking towards business or law as a career, it’s important to choose these electives if they are offered at your school. They will expose you to the field  and help you confirm whether it’s what you really want to do.

In terms of prerequisites for university, English is still a must for both law and business. However, depending on where you wish to study,  some universities require Maths Methods specifically or just any one ATAR maths subject so in order to keep your university options open, it would be useful to choose Math Methods.

Electives for Education

Although there is no specific education elective in school, future teachers need a few subjects up their belt. For people looking towards being a primary teacher, you’re required to pick one ATAR English subject, one ATAR Maths subject and one ATAR science subject. For secondary education teachers, some universities offer secondary education as a single degree or as a dual degree with the teaching area you wish to teach whether its science, arts or something else. Regardless of how you wish to take your degree, all secondary teachers are expected to have one ATAR English subject, one ATAR Math subject and 2 subjects to teach. These 2 teaching subjects can include English and or Maths but its important to start thinking about know what subjects you would want to teach as a secondary teacher and select them as part of your subject selection

Electives for Medicine

For many universities, the Doctor of Medicine (also known as “Med school”) is only available as a postgraduate degree meaning you’re first required to undertake an undergraduate Bachelor’s Degree that is usually related to medicine such as Bio-medical Science. Undertaking the UCAT test in Year 12 and getting a great result as well as an ATAR 95 in most cases can grant you what is called “provisional entry” which is automatic acceptance after completion of the Bachelor’s degree.

Before that however, it’s important to choose Maths Methods and Biology as many of the Bachelor degree options Medicine allows are science degrees which require Methods and one science with Biology being the main aspect of medicine and related studies.  As a second elective you could also choose Chemistry as Biochemistry and Pharmacology are also important aspects of medicine but are not compulsory.

What if I don’t know what I want to do as a career or I change my mind?

If you’re unsure as to what you want to do for a career, there is no pressure to know for certain right now. Even people who seem to be sure as to what they want to do in Year 10, may change their mind between now and graduation, and  may even change their mind during their university degree. This is all completely normal. Whether you’re unsure as to what you want to do or you’re worried you might change your mind it’s important to choose a diverse range of subjects and choose subjects that you’ve enjoyed so far and that you’ve excelled in.

Choosing Based on Your Strengths

Not all of your electives will relate towards your career and if you don’t know what you’re planning to do outside of school, thinking about your current strengths and weaknesses is important, especially when ATAR is based on how well you do in the subjects you choose.A first step to figure out what subjects you’re good at is looking at your past subject marks and results. If music or art were your best subjects then it’s probably good to stick with them in Year 11 or 12 even if you’re not interested in pursuing those arts after school. If science was one of your best subjects, it would be a good idea to choose one or even two sciences as part of your electives.  Other than grades, think about the types of assessment you preferred or were good at. Do you like assignments more than exams? Or maybe exams over assignments? If you hate doing assignments for example, then it’s probably not a good idea to choose subjects with a lot of assignments such as History. Since assignments and exams are what you’re marked on, thinking about what type of assessments you’re good at or enjoy is a crucial step to choosing your subjects.

What do you enjoy?

Subjects that you enjoy may not be your best subject but they’re important as doing subjects you enjoy will in turn, make the work in that subject feel more bearable and easier as a result. These subjects can be the subjects you work on while you need a break from your more mentally challenging subjects

“I have one more elective I need to pick but nothing else seems good/interesting”
If this is you, then it can seem difficult to decide what else you want to do. You’ve picked all the subjects you want but it’s still not enough subjects.

In that case, I first recommend having a look at all the new elective options that weren’t available until now. If you enjoy humanities, looking at Legal Studies or Psychology if you’re interested in science. Don’t dismiss them too early as they could be hidden gems that you would have had no idea you enjoy and could be good at and so have a closer look into the subject outline as to what you would be learning or ask a teacher about it.

You could also consider extension subjects in areas that you are interested in such as English Extension or Music extension which count as an additional elective when you also pick standard English or Music.

Hopefully this guide was useful to you in picking your Year 11 and 12 subjects and made this seemingly daunting task a little bit easier. If you’re still unsure as to what to do, you can discuss it with your parents and teachers, and work through your options with your academic personal trainer in order to make the best decisions for you and have the most success possible in your final years at school.

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