How Keean Ranked 1st in 4U Maths with a 91% Result After Being Intimidated by the Workload
🎉 91% Final HSC Result for HSC Maths Extension 2
Keean improved his marks by 10% and broke the Band 6 wall for 4U Maths after a year of work with Art of Smart tutor Sara.
🥇 Ranked 1st at the End of Year 12
Even though Keean had never expected to take 4U Maths, he was able to top the course at the end of Year 12!
✅ Improved Problem Solving Skills
Keean practised with a methodical approach to more complex problems that helped him answer his exam questions under time pressure.
The Challenge
Keean had always been intimidated by the workload that came with 4U Maths, but if he wanted to drop Business Studies, it was his only option. In Year 11, Business Studies had been Keean’s worst subject because of how content-heavy it had been. He decided to study 4U Maths instead. However, Keean had heard from his friends that the homework for 4U Maths was time-consuming and often hard to wrap your head around. Keean reached out to Art of Smart to get set up with a tutor who could support him throughout the year.
I never imagined doing 4U Maths. I took Extension 1 Maths and thought that would be my limit.
Key Problems
🤹 Keean didn’t know how to handle his increased workload, especially because 4U Maths questions were going to be more complex
🤝 If Keean was going to do 4U Maths, he needed to set himself up with a support system of friends and tutoring help
🧭 Keean needed to improve his problem solving skills so that he could navigate through longer, more difficult questions
Our Approach
Keean’s first step was to organise a weekly study group with his friends at their local library. Although this helped him stay accountable, Keean decided that he needed more guidance and started meeting with Art of Smart tutor Sara once a week. Sara challenged him with the difficult questions he would face in exams and gave him prompts as he tried to solve them himself.
To deal with the heavy workload, Keean broke up exercises across a few days. Where 2U Maths emphasised getting through as many questions as possible, Keean slowed down his problem solving for 4U Maths to make sure he knew how to get the answers a second time. Keean dedicated 1 hour per day to 4U Maths alone. In the lead up to his exams, Keean started with general review and then targeted his weak areas. He created summary pages of formulas and did the tricky questions on practise papers so that he was prepared for every topic.
Focus
- Handling heavy workload
- Problem solving with complex questions
- Remembering formulas
- Exam preparation
Strategies
- Breaking down exercises
- Bouncing ideas off tutor in weekly sessions
- Summary notes
- Making practise harder with tricky questions
Breaking Down Homework Exercises
Bouncing Ideas off Tutor in Weekly Sessions
Summary Notes
Making Practise Harder with Tricky Questions
The Result
Although Keean was nervous to start 4U Maths, he ended up achieving an incredible HSC result of 91% and also ranked first in his course! By doing so well, he opened up his options for university and learned valuable problem solving skills to take with him in the future.
91%
HSC 4U Maths result
1st
Final Ranking for Year 12
98%
Of customers believe their tutor is well-prepared for sessions
9/10
Rating by customers on how likely they would be to recommend Art of Smart to a friend!
With Art of Smart, Keean saw a 10% improvement in HSC 4U Maths
Knowing the content and what I’d heard from people, I knew there’d be a lot of difficult questions so I wanted someone who could help navigate those difficult questions. Instead of spending 2 hours on one question being like, what I am I doing, with her help, it definitely reduced the time and we’d be able to get through more of those difficult questions and I’d be able to understand them better.
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