How Koushik Got into UNSW by Building Comprehension and Scoring 93% in HSC English
🏆 Band 6 Result in HSC English Advanced
Koushik achieved a 10% improvement in English Advanced and broke through the Band 6 wall to get a 93% result!
⚒️ Built Up Comprehension Skills for Complex Texts
Koushik learned how to unpack the deeper meanings behind his texts by collecting his notes into key ideas, characters, and quotes.
🎓 Entry into Computer and Biomedical Engineering at UNSW
Koushik’s HSC English result contributed towards an outstanding ATAR of 99.30 which landed him an offer to his dream course at university!
The Challenge
For Koushik, English came last on the list when it came to his study priorities. At the beginning of Year 12, he was prioritising his STEM subjects and wasn’t taking notes or annotating his texts. Koushik struggled to write under exam conditions because he didn’t know how to use structure to prepare for unseen questions. Koushik realised that his marks had to improve for him to get into his preferred course at university. He reached out to Art of Smart so that he could get set up with a tutor!
English wasn’t something I loved or hated. It was somewhere in between.
Key Problems
🔍 Koushik struggled to grasp the deeper meanings of his texts and didn’t know how to take useful notes.
📄 Koushik didn’t know how to develop a sophisticated thesis statement
😣 Koushik wasn’t doing writing practise under exam conditions and often felt unprepared to write on the spot
Our Approach
Koushik was paired up with Art of Smart tutor Katherine for weekly sessions where they started by improving his comprehension skills. The first step was to read and reread his set texts and then introduce new ways of understanding meaning. By collecting key quotes, characters, and motivations in organised notes, Koushik could better engage with essay questions.
The second step was to craft sophisticated arguments for his responses. By drafting thesis statements, using academic articles, and using feedback from his school teacher and Katherine, Koushik actively redid his submitted work until he got it right. To improve under exam conditions, he practised writing paragraphs one at a time in short bursts before the full essay. To prepare for unseen texts, he also read extensively and made sure he knew how to analyse each type.
Focus
- Improving essay quality with sophisticated arguments
- Lifting motivation
- Exam preparation
- Levelling up comprehension skills
Strategies
- Developing thesis statements with feedback loop
- Weekly session with tutor
- Writing in short bursts
- Organised bank of notes for analysis
Developing Thesis Statements with Feedback Loop
Weekly Session with Tutor
Writing in Short Bursts
Organised Bank of Notes for Analysis
The Result
Koushik’s work with Katherine helped him walk into his HSC English exams with confidence. He was able to break the Band 6 wall and achieve an amazing result of 93%! His improvement in English contributed to his outstanding ATAR of 99.30 which allowed him to get an offer into his dream course in Computer and Biomedical Engineering at UNSW.
93%
Final HSC English result
99.30
ATAR
98%
Of customers agree their tutor is well prepared for tutoring sessions
9/10
Student rating of teachers’ ability to clearly explain concepts
With Art of Smart, Koushik saw a 10% improvement in HSC English Advanced
She was an excellent tutor. Every week I would come in and we would talk about what I was doing in school and then she’d give me a couple of pointers on the text we were reading and she’d also give me a couple of questions to try out. She’d also be really helpful by marking the essays I’d do in class to provide some extra feedback that built on the feedback my teacher would give me so I’d have a better understanding of what to do correctly.
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