Tuesday 31 March 2015

Success Stories: Past students (2)

 “Success unshared is failure!!
As always thank you so much for your help and guidance throughout my A-Level studies. I literally couldn't have got an "A" without you. However, you were more than just a teacher to me. You saw things in me that I had yet to even discover for myself. I left college not only with a top grade and a passion for social justice, but also with a burgeoning confidence in my own abilities together with an unequivocal belief in making a difference to the lives of others. You made me believe that "success unshared is failure!" And I still remember rather vividly the interesting conversations that we used to have about me sharing my (limited) knowledge with the rest of the class. You really believed in me and this belief not only transformed my life, but is now helping to transform the lives of many others as I have now turned my talents to teaching! Who would have thought? lol
Thank you (for everything!) and God Bless!
Best wishes,
Mr Obi Obanye Head of Economics Highbury Grove School
~Jeremiah 29:11

Parent testimonial

Dear Michele,

I would most highly recommend your services to any patent wanting to raise their child's grades. 
Not only do you raise their grades but you teach them a very good ethos on how to study and this is a skill they can apply to all their other subjects too. 
My daughter thinks yr lessons were productive, and that the exam technique really helped her more than what the college taught her. In fact, she obtained higher grades from the subjects you tutored than from her own teachers with no tutoring help. 

I don't live close to you but it was worth every long drive!

And also, just one online session with my younger daughter got her in the topband immediately. 

Kind regards, 

Christel

Sunday 29 March 2015

The mumpreneur project: Success Stories Student’s past (1)

The mumpreneur project: Success Stories Student’s past (1): Uzoma had achieved a low grade of a D in Physics AS, so Uzoma a Science A level student decided that she wanted to complete Sociology A...

Success Stories Student’s past (1)



Uzoma had achieved a low grade of a D in Physics AS, so Uzoma a Science A level student decided that she wanted to complete Sociology A-level in a year which meant the AS in January and the A2 in June with the hope of achieving at least a B. After initially following the B Success package.   I felt Uzoma had the ability to achieve much higher than her original aims. She changed to the A Success package and her testimonial below, confirmed my expectations.



“I recommend Michelle unreservedly as a tutor. She is dedicated, thorough and encouraging as a tutor. Her subject knowledge is excellent and her teaching style the right balance of independent learning and teacher input.

Having Michelle enabled me to study Sociology A level in one year and achieve an A grade...


I'm now a third year MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering student at Nottingham University and am on track to achieving at least a 2:1. “


12 Coursework Tips Personal Investigation

1.    Plan your coursework before you begin writing.
2.     Review previous student’s coursework and use their structure as a template to inform your writing.
3.     Review the guidelines on the exam website for your coursework and familiarize yourself with the criteria your teacher’s will be using to mark your personal investigation.
4.     Remember you should be the expert in your field of study, so constantly review your argument.

5.   Embed your discussion and argument with the language of source analysis (effectively, correctly and appropriately) so use expression you may have been encouraged to use by your teacher such as validly asserts, credibly, reliability, compelling, justifiably etc..


6.     Don’t just agree with the question, but produce a balanced argument, using a range of sources and historians for both sides.

7.  Whether you decide to support the question or disagree with the question or offer a synthesis approach as provided by Kershaw, ensure you sustain your focus, support with historical evidence, historians analysis and assess and examine the reliability and credibility of your argument.

8. You cannot say something is credibly and then deny its credibility in the next sentence.

9. You must build up a sustained argument to support or refute the historian’s credibility throughout.

10. Support every point with as many historians as you can.

11. Link each paragraph back to the question.

12. Come to a conclusion which answers the question definitely.

2 Revision Tips 1 For Summer Exams



1.       Change up the nature of your essay plans so that you have experience of writing and planning as many different types of essays as possible.  Also use the mark scheme to plan, write and assess your revision and essay skills.
a.        Write normal essay plans

b.       Additionally you might find it useful to use Essay jigsawing ©  - Practice writing essay plans with introductions and conclusions only and bullet pointed middle paragraphs with 1 or 2 paragraphs evaluated

c.        If you are revising in a group you could write an Essay puzzle © where you write an introduction, different people write each of the main paragraphs and a different person writes the conclusion. 

d.       Then evaluate each person’s section, improve, photocopy and distribute it out to each person to use for revision.



2.         Again if revising in pairs or groups, then you might find it useful to come to a joint revision session together and peer assess each other’s work using the mark schemes.

a.        In pairs you might also find it useful to do half an essay each and come together and finish each other’s essays.

b.       If a friend has written a good essay, then you can use it as a revision tool to create an essay plan and they could do the same with yours.

c.        If it is a different topic you could even use it as a template.

If you written an essay and didn’t get the mark you wanted, again in pairs you could assess each essay focusing on what you can use from the mark scheme to improve your essay


Achieving your dreams and success

Dr Traci Lyn has shared the following.  In order to get what you never had you have to be willing to do what you have never done.  Firstly you need to be willing to set goals.  If you really want success in your life, whether that be A grades in your exams, a first-class degree.  Running your own business or the career of your choice, you need to step out and be different, to the crowd.  

A Harvard goal setting study conducted in 1979, revealed that of only 3% of a Harvard graduating MBA class set goals.  In 1989, the interviewers again interviewed the graduates of that class.  The 13% of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.  Even more staggering – the three percent who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97% (Mark McCormack)
So I want you to be proactive this year and set goals that you want to achieve.  You must set your goals as your goals will serve as a road map to activate your dreams.
Dr Jack Canfield has suggested that you should set your goals in the form of a vision board of the things that you want to achieve. (See below) a visual representation of what you want to achieve and review it weekly.  
2. When you set goals for yourself, you give yourself a vision, a vision of yourself doing something you want to achieve.

 3. Also, each day I want you to make positive powerful affirmations regarding what you want to achieve (see powerful affirmations for exam students and successful people).  

4. Barker (2014) revealed that Pffeffer’s Harvard University on research success and power and in particular analysis of the lives of former President Lyndon B. Johnson and Moses Robert Moses suggested that these men had 6 key traits which distinguished them for others.  

However I will only examine a few here and you can go this article here http://time.com/99707/keys-to-success-6-traits-the-most-successful-people-have-in-common/ to see the rest.  They are focused, because they have vision and focus of where they want to be; they are thinking way head and further down the line of where they seem themselves in the future.  Keep your focus, don’t be distracted by what others say, but maintain your focus, keep it in view and work towards it.