The Best BSSS English Tutors in Canberra: Learning Designed For You.
Find an expert BSSS English tutor in Canberra and near you! Boost your learning with online BSSS English tutoring designed for Year 11 and Year 12 students.
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We understand that students have different goals, learning styles, curriculums and schedules, which is why we carefully personalise each tutoring plan. Our BSSS English tutoring in Canberra combines our tutors’ own qualifications and excellent English scores with their subject experience to help you excel in the curriculum.
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Top 5% of Tutors in Canberra
Get ready to excel in English with our team of highly qualified and experienced BSSS English tutors. Our tutors are not only passionate about the subject but have achieved impressive results themselves, including 95+ ATARs and even 99.95 ATARs! With their expertise and guidance, you can be sure to improve your scores in Canberra’s English curriculum.
TOPIC NOTES, PRACTICE EXAMS, SUMMARY SHEETS & MORE!
Resources By 99.95 ATAR Scorers
With our comprehensive notes and exemplars, we hope to equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to excel in your BSSS English exams and assignments. Our top private BSSS English tutors in Canberra will also help review your assignments and thoroughly prep you for exams per Canberra’s syllabus.
Our Canberra Student Success Stories
“Lily ranked in the top 3 at her school and got into medicine… we can see how big of a difference Excel Academics made for her learning” – Year 12 Physics and Specialist Maths (VIC)
“Samu used to get C’s in English, but with Ishan’s help, he’s been getting A’s for the last two terms” – Year 8 English (QLD)
Find Expert BSSS English Tutors in Canberra & Near You
We select only the top 5% of BSSS English tutors from thousands of applications per year: as we want the best of the best for our students.
Maddison Klar
99.95 ATAR
- Double Degree in Law and Engineering at UNSW
- English Tutor
- Dux of Canberra Grammar School
Yessica Eom
99.25 ATAR
- Bachelor of Biomedical Science at UQ
- English Tutor
- 4+ years tutoring experience
Anushka Rao
98.55 ATAR
- The University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Arts
- English Tutor
- 2+ years tutoring experience
Chloe Yeung
English Expert
- Double Degree in Law and Commerce at UNSW
- English Tutor
- Experience with Narrabundah College Exams
Bronwyn Pierson
English Expert
Bachelor of Arts in English Literatures & Writing
English Literature and English Tutor
Hi, I’m Bronwyn, you’re welcome to call me Bron. I am super passionate about English and have plenty of tutoring experience. I like to build a collaborative learning environment based on mutual respect and have fun with the content at the same time! I don’t just help with English, but assist my students to better express themselves in all subjects and build confidence in their academic skills.
I am a highly collaborative tutor who likes to integrate students’ personal interests into their learning. I have extensive experience tutoring all states and levels. I will also be studying my Honours in Creative Writing in 2024!
Evelyn Doan
99.95 ATAR
Bachelor of Law & Engineering at UNSW
English Literature and English Tutor
Hi! My name is Evelyn Doan and I am an energetic, attentive and dedicated tutor who has a passion for guiding students to reach their maximum potential. As someone who believes each individual is unique with different learning styles and methods, I am flexible, adaptable and patient and actively change my tutoring style to suit the needs of my students. Not only do I offer my academic expertise, I believe in mentoring my students into good study habits, plans for the future and emphasise the importance of self care throughout the schooling journey. In my free time I love to cook and bake, go for swims and hikes. My biggest achievement would be my final IB mark of 45/45, as someone who did not necessarily win awards in high school and hence am a great believer that hard work and dedication can get you anywhere.
Our tutors are from all around Canberra and are all specialists in their respective curriculums. We have even taught students from Canberra’s top schools, such as Radford College, Brindabella Christian College, Lyneham High School, Telopea Park School, Canberra Grammar School, Narrabundah College, Canberra Girls Grammar School, Burgmann Anglican School, Marist College Canberra, Dickson College, Trinity Christian School, and Canberra College.
How I went from a 56 to a 98 in BSSS English...
Written by:
What you will cover in school / tutoring:
- Communication of Meaning
- Representations Through Texts
- Comparative Texts
- Perspectives
- Written essays (ICE, CR and assignments)
- Oral tasks and presentations
- Reading comprehension and analysis
For Year 11 and 12 students in Canberra, BSSS English can be a daunting subject and may count towards your ATAR score if you do well in it; although, unlike everywhere else in Australia, it is not compulsory to count English towards your ATAR in Canberra.
If English isn’t your strong suit; yes, you can rejoice.
But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put effort into it! In fact, this was my story…
My Story:
I scored a 56 (almost a D) in English for Term 1 of Year 11, thinking I didn’t have to try for the subject. After all, I wasn’t ‘naturally talented’ in English, so there’s no point… right?
But after my Term 2 teacher developed my interest in the subject (thank you, Miss J!), I wanted to try my best… and so I did!
Ultimately, my English course score was almost as good as my Double Specialist Maths course score of 213 (for reference, I consistently scored between 85 – 98 out of 100 after the first session to attain this).
So, English definitely scales well if you put in the effort. More importantly however, when you enter the real world, you might kick yourself for not taking this opportunity to develop your writing and presenting skills.
Now, my little pep talk aside, let’s get into strategies for acing BSSS English.
What to do during class time:
As each school in Canberra will cover different texts and undergo different assessments, it is very important to pay attention during your English classes – after all, your teachers will be the one making and marking your exams!
In fact, a lot of teachers slip in hints of what will appear on your exam; and if you pay attention properly, you will never face a situation where you have no idea how to answer your essay question.
Your teachers will even help your class brainstorm ideas for essay questions through socratic discussions, where you will analyse themes relevant to your assessments.
To ensure I had all prerequisite knowledge, I would always complete all the work they set with (slightly extreme) detail as the exams will draw from content taught in class. Sometimes, you can even use part of your response to a class homework question in your actual exam!
Assignment Strategies for Creative Responses, Essays, and Orals:
For assignments, your teacher will allow you to submit one draft for review, and they will provide feedback… yes, this is as if they were literally marking your assignment, which is very generous of them.
This is a golden opportunity to gauge an understanding of how well your assignment response matches the marking criteria. Please, please make sure you use this opportunity well and hand in a finalised version of your draft, such that your teacher can provide feedback on all components of your assignment.
Exam Strategies for In-Class Essays:
For exams, I recommend reading widely on the themes covered in class, including analysing academic papers on the texts your exam will assess. In my case, I searched up “{Text} {Theme} Analysis Essay” and filtered to only read PDFs, and was able to find excellent papers by doing this.
I essentially used these papers as A-grade exemplars.
This will not only provide you with more ideas to use in your essay, but develop your vocabulary – as several of these academic papers use A+ grade language!
Aside from this, you are allowed to take a quote sheet into the exam. In this sheet, I recommend categorising your quotes according to the paragraph ideas they correspond to, which will help with memorisation.
My holy grail was to formulate essay questions similar to examples covered in class and write several, detailed practice essays on Google docs. I would also try to fully memorise my best body paragraphs. This method will increase efficiency during your exams (where you are only provided with approximately 80 minutes to write a 1000 words max. essay), providing you with more time to come up with nuanced arguments and review your essay.
These approaches should, of course, be adapted to your preferred learning style; however, from experience tutoring previous students, these strategies have worked incredibly well for any students in Canberra completing BSSS English.
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Online BSSS English tutoring in Canberra FAQ
Does English scale well as an ATAR subject?
Yes! Although English assessments are marked quite harshly, it is more than possible to score well and achieve a high course score - which in turn will contribute to a high ATAR. Although it may not scale as well as Specialist Maths in Canberra (due to discrepancies in perceived difficulty), you may end up getting the same course score as you would doing Specialist maths if you scored exceptionally well in your English assessments. If you would like further insight on how to achieve a high ATAR, our detailed guide here may help! The scaling of English and English Literature will also vary school to school due to each college having different AST results. If you would like to learn more about this, read our AST guide here.
How does our online English tutoring work for students in Canberra?
As each class (even at the same college) covers different texts and studies under a different theme each term, our online BSSS English tutoring in Canberra uses your unit outline to personalise your lessons to cover the specific text you are studying in class. Our BSSS English tutors in Canberra and near you also have extensive experience in a range of texts, but are more than happy to study in-depth any new or unfamiliar texts to ensure you get the best marks possible on your exam. You can learn more about our general process of tutoring on our How Private Tutoring Works page.
Why study BSSS English in Canberra?
Besides achieving a C in BSSS English being the minimum requirement for entrance into several degrees, studying English as a Canberra student has many more benefits if you look past just meeting university prerequisites. You will find as you enter university, you will have to write several essays (even if you are a STEM student!) as research and analysis are core aspects of any degree. If you are studying Law, comprehending and reading through long texts will also be another part of your degree - and mastering English at a Year 12 level first will make your life much easier as well as maximise your university scores. Apart from university, building good communication and written skills through the BSSS English course in Canberra will help you thrive in your workplace in the future and build your confidence when interacting with others and expressing yourself.
Why find online private English tutoring in Canberra?
For many students, especially those who are great at STEM, English is not their favourite subject… and even if it is, many find it difficult to perform well given the long texts you have to read and subsequently articulate your ideas from. If you find it difficult to analyse your texts and write A-grade essays/narratives - or even if you are already performing well but want to take your grades to the next level - a good BSSS English tutor in Canberra can make a world of a difference. They can help you extract and analyse ideas from your text and with one-to-one attention, clear your doubts in how to write essays as well as provide detailed feedback on your assignments. For many, writing is perhaps the most daunting part of English, and online private English tutoring in Canberra can help guide your ideas, tone, vocabulary, literary analysis, and use of evidence to hone your own personal style of writing - after all, that is one the ultimate goals of studying English in the first place!
What is covered in Canberra’s BSSS English curriculum?
The BSSS English curriculum in Canberra is composed of three different types of assessments: Oral Presentations, In-class Essays, and Assignments.
Each term you will focus on a specific piece of literature i.e. a book, movie, or set of poems depending on the theme for the class you take. Typically in the first term of Year 11 in Canberra, all students cover the same theme; for example, at Narrabundah College, the theme is typically “Coming of Age”, where each class studies a separate text surrounding this concept. However, from the next term onwards, students can choose the theme they would like to study by selecting classes that are focusing on it (although it is not always guaranteed you will get a spot in this class due to capacity). You will be required to complete one of the three assessments previously outlined each term focusing on the text being studied and with each assessment being scored out of 100.
Let’s take a look at each type of assessment. Oral Presentations are typically 5-10 minutes long and require you to provide insight either by analysis or comparison of your assigned text. With the introduction of ChatGPT, almost all assignments for English are completed in class for Canberra students, being either in the form of an Analysis or Creative Response surrounding the text being studied by the class. Now for the most daunting assessment… In-class essays! You will get 85 minutes to respond to a prompt relevant to your text, with your English essay providing ideally nuanced insights on your perspectives combined with evidence from the text. A quote sheet is also permitted during the exam, which you should carefully prepare beforehand as it can help immensely in coming up with ideas!
You can find the full syllabus here.
What is the difference between English and English Literature in the BSSS?
There isn’t a huge difference between English and English Literature, but it is known that the latter scales better partly due to its increased difficulty. This may include studying more intricate literature pieces and diving deeper into its themes; however, the assessments stay the same.
How do you find a good BSSS English tutor?
Given the fluctuation in inter school curriculums in Canberra, a good BSSS English tutor should be adaptable and already have (or be working actively on developing) an in-depth knowledge of your text or any piece of literature your class has been assigned. This will allow both yourself and the tutor to break down complex themes and come up with nuanced, creative ideas. They should also be patient and encourage independent work - an English tutor is not there to write your essays or give you all the answers. Rather, they are there to progressively improve your expression of ideas and build your confidence in your own work. BSSS English tutoring should also focus on addressing the marking scheme for each assessment, which especially in Canberra, varies significantly between tasks! After all, a proficient writer should be able adapt to different requirements, and your English tutor should be your guide to understanding how you can meet such requirements while also retaining your own creativity in your writing. If you want to find excellent English tutors, check out Excel Academics BSSS English tutors in Canberra and near you on the Our Team page.
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