IB TUTORS

[mmmt2012]

Does anybody know any good Economics, English, Chemistry and Biology tutors in Melbourne, Australia?

[Tony Stark]

November 2014 and you're looking for tutors already? Somebody's dedicated.

Unfortunately, I can't think of any IB-qualified tutors for those subjects; the problem is that in Aus only very few schools offer IB and those that do generally pay well enough for their teachers not to extensively tutor. I do know of a Chemistry teacher who's currently tutoring while on long service leave, but she's returning to school shortly and therefore unlikely to take on new students.

I would suggest that if you're a November 2014 candidate, you shouldn't really need tutoring (at least, yet); rather you should start reading around for yourself to get ahead.You're here, which is a start: read around to learn more about your subjects, download the syllabus guides to know exactly what you're being assessed on, and look for good textbooks to self-study from (Economics for the IB Diploma by Cambridge [Tragakes] and Pearson Baccalaureate's Chemistry for the IB Diploma [brown & Ford] are good). All the subjects you've mentioned above lend themselves extremely well to focused and mature self-study, particularly Economics which is quite straightforward in the IBDP.

I realise I've completely failed to answer your original question, but there's not really much of an answer. You can always go to general subject tutors who have some experience with tutoring past IB students, but in my experience that can often be confusing as you'll get taught stuff extraneous or incongruous to the IB course. In any case, Melbourne's one of the best IB cities in the world, with the exception of a rare few schools, the standard of IB teaching here is exemplary and you should therefore be well-prepared simply by listening to your teachers, putting in the work, and making use of the extensive resource base and support network for IB students throughout the globe (such as this very website).

As a bit of shameless self-promotion, if in five months from now you still believe you're in need of tutoring and can't find satisfactory ones, PM me. After I finish my diploma, if I've scored well enough to meet my standards and received an Oxford or LSE offer (big ifs), I'm considering tutoring in the interim before the UK university year starts. Furthermore, ask around at your school - you may have ex-students doing the same as I'm considering.

[angela p.]

The easiest thing you could do is ask your teacher if you could stay after school for an hour with them every week (one day a week or a couple of days a week) to help you study or for tutoring. If the teacher isn't busy, they will usually allow it. Maybe if you're lucky, you don't have to pay. One time I got my biology teacher to let me sit in one of her classes and study and she would come over to me when she gave the students a task to do during the class. That is an option, of course, but not the only one. Like Tony Stark said, you could ask your school if they have alumni who are willing to tutor.

Do you know anyone in the upper grades? If you do, you could do what my friend is doing and meet up with the person during the weekend to study. His "tutor" is one grade older than us and takes both physics HL and math HL, so he's a real help. While he's doing his homework during the weekend, my friend comes to his house and the "tutor" just teaches him math and physics while he's doing his homework. When he's done, he'll tutor my friend. Again, this is an upperclassman and a friend, so the tutoring is free. (The tutor has very good grades in all his subjects, so make sure if you want to do this to check if your student teacher currently has good grades at least in the subject they're tutoring you in.)

[mmmt2012]

Thank you for all your help! Ahaha, yes definitely very dedicated. I'm hoping to get into medicine either in Monash or Melbourne, or even possibly overseas in Cambridge or Oxford. I've been searching around and i found OSC IB revision courses who have a program sometime near June or July in Melbourne to help tutor? it sounds extremely helpful, however quite expensive also. Has anyone tried it out yet?

[Guest Maitri Fischer]

Hi There,

What kind of help are you looking for exactly? Is it in preparation for exams or for daily homework and assignments?

There are several tutoring agencies you can sign up with online, or you can hire a private tutor to help you online.

Good Luck

Edited August 14, 2013 by Sandwich

[Blackcurrant]

It does seem a little early, but then "the early bird gets the worm" so to speak.

Online tutoring varies a lot in terms of quality. Don't go for the big, general firms that are out to make a large profit, more than anything else, and take no interest in you. Go for a tutor or tutoring business that is small and has tutors with teaching qualifications and experience of IB (esp. for new curriculum). Believe me, my family went through many before finding the right sort.

For English Language A, my guess is that your best bet is with. www.IBcando.com. ... They specialize in IB English and helped my cousin excel in English Lit., in his first year (he hates English but was forced to take it). They gave excellent guidance and worked through major assignments with him. And they weren't expensive for what they offered.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Blackcurrant