How Keean Improved his Marks for His Least Favourite Subject by 17%

📈 Mark improvement of 17% in HSC English

Keean learned what a good essay looks like and how to implement effective paragraph structures in his writing

💪 Increased Motivation for English

Keean’s motivation for English improved by talking to his tutors as they could bounce ideas off each other about theses and points

📝 Stronger understanding of English texts

Keean learned how to think about his English texts and develop strong textual analysis which helped improve his marks significantly

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Yellow curve

The Challenge

Keean couldn’t wrap his head around English — he would read his texts but couldn’t draw out key ideas and would write essays but have no clear idea of what to argue or how to include textual analysis. This would result in disappointing marks for Keean and make him dread Year 12 English. As a compulsory subject, Keean decided to start tutoring with Art of Smart to improve his marks and make English a bit more enjoyable!

English was definitely my least favourite subject. I was never good at analysing or understanding the hidden meanings or layers of a text. It was really hard to write essays on that because in my mind, there was no content.

Key Problems

📚 Keean read his texts yet felt like he had no ideas to discuss in his essays

📉 Keean tried really hard in English but continued to receive disappointing marks and didn’t understand why

📑 Keean knew a general essay structure however didn’t know the actual features of a good paragraph

Our Approach

Keean received both one on one tutoring with his tutor, Patrick, and attended English classes on campus, both of which started to change his mindset about English. Instead of assuming his work would be bad and giving up, he saw each attempt as a chance to improve. Keean’s tutor helped him understand English texts and develop ideas for his essays which he struggled with the most.

By having someone to discuss his textual analysis and ideas with, Keean felt more inspired and confident with his writing. His tutors and teachers would provide detailed and personalised feedback on his paragraphs and essays that Keean would then use to redraft and rewrite.

Focus

  • Structuring essays
  • Understanding English content
  • Developing ideas for essays
  • Preparing for exams
  • Improving writing skills

Strategies

  • Reviewing exemplar essays
  • Reading texts early
  • Discussing texts and themes together
  • Developing TEE tables
  • Feedback loop with tutors

Reviewing Exemplar Essays

Discussion of Text and Themes

TEE Tables

Feedback Loop

The Result

Keean ended up improving his marks by 17% in HSC English! He achieved this by utilising paragraph structures he had learned in class, discussing key themes and ideas with his tutor and of course, practising his writing.

Keean was incredibly proud of his results and how far he had come with a subject he had only recently despised.

17%

Increase in HSC English results

9.1/10

Average improvement in understanding and skills

99%

Of customers agree our tutors are well prepared

94%

Of customers increased their confidence

Case Study Graphics Keean

With Art of Smart, Keean saw a 17% improvement in HSC English

I ended up getting a 79 at the end of the HSC and for me, that was quite an improvement, so I was very happy to have that! I’m very proud of what I did and what I was able to accomplish!

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