Student Testimonials

"[My son] found going over the specific areas that he didn't understand [helpful]...again the ability to personalise teaching to his specific learning needs."

Mother of student December 2009
Year 12, Level 2 Chemistry

"I passed all my maths and science papers with achieveds and merits."

Kieran, January 2009
Year 11, Level 1 Mathematics & Science

“Hi Mel I just got my result for the Homeostasis internal and I got Excellence! Thank you for all the help, hope you have great holidays!
Izzy.”

Isabel, April 2016
Year 13, Biology
 

"Mel is a very knowledgeable tutor and has a gentle approach to passing this knowledge on to the student. A lot of thought goes into the lesson plans taking into account the students individual ways of learning. I have always verbalised what I would like to see achieved and feel able to discuss Callum's needs as far as I see. Mel is always happy to tweak her lessons plans and try new ways to help achieve results. The tutoring has been very worthwhile."

Callum’s parents Sandra & Ian Young, December 2008
Year 11, Level 1 Science

"Scott seems quite happy with the exams so far. I am very appreciative of the skills and abilities of the tutors as Scott has certainly become more confident in the knowledge that he does know things. Both Helena and Kirsten have helped greatly in developing his skills and techniques in both subjects.

I don’t know how children get on who don’t get tutoring, especially when the lack of knowledge comes down to the teacher that the student currently has. I firmly believe that Scott would probably have struggled to get an achieved in both subjects if we hadn’t approached you.

Please pass on our thanks and best wishes to Helena and Kirsten."

Scott’s parents Susan & Bruce, November 2014
Year 11, English & Mathematics

“Through tuition, I learned study techniques that worked for me. Before tuition, I was struggling with my studies (maths in particular) but after I started receiving tuition, merit and excellence grades became regular occurrences!”

Ellen, January 2014
Year 13, Level 3 Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics

“I don't know HOW but I got Excellence on my bio internal. They haven't officially given us the results back yet but they put the mark up on moodle (school website) and I just saw it. I don't know how that happened but thank you so much for the help!”

Izzy, July 2015
Year 12, Level 2 Biology

"The tutors are doing a great job with helping students to learn new study techniques."

Neil Viegas, December 2009
Year 11, Level 2 Mathematics

“To our favourite person…
We’ve really appreciated the last few years, couldn’t have done it without you! Tutorials were always a laugh and we’re going to miss you heaps! Whenever we come back to Chch we hope to see you in that little car zooming around. Love from Ashleigh and Cassie”

Ashleigh & Cassie, November 2014
Year 13, Chemistry

"Hey Melanie I got excellence in level three with 63 e credits. Thanks for everything. Stats was really good with all e’s apart from confidence intervals but I am stoked. For everything else I got endorsed with merit. Overall it’s excellence though. Yay :)"

Shalini, January 2012
Year 13, Biology, Chemistry, Physics & Statistics

"No doubt Saphron's ability to comprehend and understand Maths has led to a huge improvement in her School work. She has worked hard in class and both her confidence and understanding have now seen her work improve from a slightly below level student to her now becoming in the top 3% in her class, with a recommendation from her Teacher that she be moved forward going into next year. Maths Speed tests were also a mind block, but these are now completed quickly and accurately. Saphron's report is not due until next week but indications are that Teachers have been very impressed with her progression. We owe a lot of Saphron's improvements to Melanie with her programme certainly having a very positive effect on our child's learning."

Saphron’s father Mark, December 2008
Year 7, Mathematics

"[Tuition] gave me a better understanding of things. John made everything clear unlike my teacher. He continuously went over the questions I found hard so that he knew i could do them well and always explained the process really simply....thank you so much for all your help, John really helped me to understand everything it was such a big help and really made me feel great when I got back tests that I actually passed."

Kate, December 2009
Year 12, Level 2 Maths & Physics

“Hi Chloe, it’s Olivia just wanted to let you know that I passed both of my externals for chemistry that we worked on :) and passed NCEA and got my UE :)”

Olivia, January 2013
Year 12, Chemistry

"I understand Algebra better after having Melanie as a tutor because she explained everything I needed to know in simple steps before continuing onto more complicated and merit excellence questions. I felt that after having tuition my marks were much better and I felt more confident in what I was doing."

Lucie, December 2008
Year 10, Mathematics

“I learnt techniques on how to approach complex calculus questions, exam tips but mostly I learnt the methods required for answering questions. Calculus went from being the subject I struggled the most in compared to others and only getting achieved in the internal to me receiving the award for the top Calculus student in my class, getting all prelim exams at merit and passing all of my external papers.”

Alex, January 2016
Year 13, Calculus

"I have seen my results online and all I can tell you is that Chemistry and Calculus were the best results I had of all!! And that was my mum and dad said too..."

Donia Hend, January 2009
Year 13, Level 2 Chemistry & Calculus

"Overview an excellent relaxed approach which should boost any student's learning. Thankyou for coming to our house and discussing this material with her ... see you next year. "

Amuri’s mother Jenny, December 2009
Year 12, Level 2 Physics

"[My daughter] was advised not to attempt Chem or Stats as her level 2 results were not good enough. She passed all of her internals with some merit passes. She has worked very hard with the tuition showing her how to maximise her efforts."

Mother of student December 2009
Year 13, Level 3 Chemistry & Statistics

“All great feedback!! It was very helpful, he helped me to understand a concept that has been almost completely out of reach for about 2 and a half years. Will definitely be helpful, Many thanks.”

Alice, May 2014
Year 13, IB Physics

“AHeadStart has been incredibly helpful and I definitely would have struggled in exams without the tuitions. AHeadStart overall is better that any of the other tutors I have attended in terms of learning and memorising, approach, time and location. I would recommend AHeadStart to my friends.”

Richard, January 2014
Year 12, Level 2 Biology, Chemistry & Physics

“[Tuition] allowed me to learn the different external topics again in my own pace and go through and focus on the concepts that needed more work which could not have be done in a classroom environment.
Melanie was able to clearly explain chemistry concepts so that it was easy to understand which meant that I was able to apply the newly learnt knowledge and concepts in the external.”

Amanda, January 2016
Year 13, Chemistry

"Hey Mel, just thought I’d tell you I ended up getting a merit in human evolution and achieved in gene expression and patterns of evolution :) thank you so much for all last year’s help. Hope you have a great year!"

Sarah, January 2012
Year 13, Biology

"Hey Melanie thanks for a great year I passed with merit overall! And I got two merits and one achieved in bio. Thanks heaps!"

Matt, January 2012
Year 12, Biology

“I think that without the tuition I received, I wouldn't have been able to get the grades that I did. For example, through tuition, I learned how to write NCEA answers in a concise way. This helped me to save time on the exam and gave me extra time at the end to re-check all of my answers.”

Ellen, January 2014
Year 13, Level 3 Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics