Student Testimonials

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

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

"My tutor was very helpful and went the extra mile by giving [me] lots of exam papers. I passed all my unit standards and internals - the ones I failed before I started tutoring. It was nice how everything was taught step by step. I had more understanding and wasn't rushed. Thanks."

Nastassja Schoeman, December 2008

Year 13, Level 3 Calculus

“I just want to personally say thank you for everything. I have now finished school and heading to my three year course this February. Not only did AHeadStart help me achieve in the subjects I was struggling in it helped me achieve great results in Level 1 and Level 2. I will never forget your service or what your tutors did for me and if I ever hear of anyone looking for a tutor I will highly recommend your service as I believe it is the best service ever!! Thank you!”

Mikayla, January 2016
Year 12, English & Mathematics

“AHeadStart is a fantastic tutoring company! With tutors who help each individual students and cater to their specific needs, and with the flexibility of being able to come to your own home. AHeadStart is definitely a tutoring company I would recommend.”

Matthew, January 2016
Year 12, Chemistry

"I am from St Andrew's College and have received tutoring from Melanie for the past two years, in Chemistry, Physics, [Mathematics] and Calculus in NCEA levels 2 & 3. I have found it very helpful to revise work that I was unsure of and for practical problem solving. I Found Melanie easy to relate to, and she had a wide knowledge of all the above subjects."

Tom Whitehead, December 2007
Year 13, Level 3 Calculus, Chemistry & Physics

“I contacted AHeadStart to get some extra support for my son about a month prior to NCEA exams. He is a capable student but finds some aspects of English difficult. In 4 or 5 sessions he worked alongside Paula and gained valuable knowledge about completing English exam papers. He was very pleased to get English endorsed with excellence and so were his parents!!.”

Isaac’s mother Jenny, January 2014
Year 11, English

"Thanks and thank you, you really helped me!"

Ngaio, January 2009
Year 13, Level 3 Biology

“Hello. Just an update on my external results. I’ve passed both the algebra and graphs test!!!!! Super happy and can’t thank you enough for helping me. Wishing you all the best, regards Priya :)”

Priya, January 2016
Year 11, Mathematics

“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

“AHeadStart tuition is beneficial to both the student and the parents. Regular focused tuition throughout the year enabled my dyslexic son to approach is NCEA level 3 exams in a calm, confident and organised manner. The one on one verbal tuition suits my son far better than revising by reading. I felt comfortable that George was receiving the best learning support we could provide him with. With the help of AHeadStart tutor, Jackson, our son has passed NCEA level 3 with Excellence. Thanks!”

George’s mother Judith, January 2016
Year 13, Biology & Chemistry

"[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

"Anyway, thanks again. And to Hannah and John, they really were excellent tutors for Monica. Perfect match in both cases. Both very fine young people.

I think one of the advantages I hadn't considered when thinking about whether to go with more traditional 'crusty old schoolteacher' tutors or young uni students was the role model aspect. and I think it’s great for Monny to see young people, only a couple of years older than she is who are doing really well at uni, studying hard, but still very cool.

Needless to say, we are very big fans of yours now and recommend you to everyone. We have our fingers crossed for NCEA, but know that without John and Hannah she was really facing a huge challenge to get through maths and chemistry."

Monica’s mother Karen, December 2012
Year 12, Level 2 Chemistry & Mathematics

 “I would highly recommend AHeadStart for students undertaking NCEA. It has been especially helpful for helping our children to understand how NCEA works and to manage and prepare for the external exams."

Holly’s & Bernadette's mother Mary, January 2014
Year 11 & Year 12, Chemistry, Mathematics & Science

"As a result of having tutoring I feel I understand every topic a lot better. Before I started tutoring I thought I understood the topic but test results said a different story. After having tuition I found I had a better understanding of the topics in general and most of the time I understood what the question was asking.

I thought that Melanie was very helpful in explaining easy ways to understand what the question meant. In Solving Probability problems during the year my report was not achieving at the end of the year it changed to Achieving well my results changed from a not achieved to a merit. Understanding the language they used in Probability was my biggest problem I feel tutoring really helped this subject improve as I grasped what they were really trying to ask.

In the subject Applying Probability Distributions my results changed from not achieving to a merit. This is because I learnt when to apply binomial or Poisson or normal distributions. I learned the difference between these three distributions and it helped improve my test results.

In the topic Using Confidence intervals my results changed from not achieved to an achieved but I feel that the practice and revision I did between the last school results and the final NCEA exam that hopefully my results are higher than that. I feel more confident with this topic now.

Finally with the topic solving equation I could only ever do the simultaneous equations and not the graph part. I use to avoid this paper and did not do it in the school practice exam. So I do not have any results to show how I have improved but I feel with the lessons I have received that I can now answer all questions in this topic and I find it the most enjoyable and the easiest topic to do out of all of them."

Kate McDonald, December 2008
Year 13, Level 3 Statistics

"The tutors were fantastic and I am very happy with the quality of teaching they all provide. Thank you."

Year 13 Student, December 2009
Level 3 Physics & Statistics

“I wanted to ensure that I would pass the MCAT with at least a Merit, and I passed with excellence! Max explained things better than my teacher at school- in a different way, which helped me, and having 1-1 help was great for me.

Without the tutoring from Max, I don't think I would have achieved as well as I did.”

Lauren, January 2014
Year 11, Level 1 Mathematics

“Great tutoring service! Very easy to organise lessons with your tutor! I couldn't recommend more!
Thanks for all your help this year Anna!”

Ellie, January 2016
Year 12, Chemistry, Mathematics & Physics

"Having the tuition mainly in physics allowed me to gain a much deeper and clearer understanding of the subject. Having Mel helping me through papers and questions enabled me to gain more confidence and feel prepared going into the exam."

Emily Farquhar, December 2009
Year 13, Level 3 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

"I just want to say thank you so much for your help throughout the year. I passed the [medical imaging] course. Also, I received a phone call yesterday from a lady from CPIT she phoned me to say that I have won a maths award, I can't believe it! I get it next week and I won $250 with the certificate. I won it because they picked students who came in knowing nothing about maths then coming out with top marks, my final maths exam score was 80% which I was so happy with. And my statistic and math methods was at 80% as well, I honestly thought I was going to fail!"

Lea, December 2015
Pre-Health, Mathematics & Biology

"We have nothing but the highest praise for Hannah. She is an excellent teacher and Monny really likes her very much.

I have to say, I was a bit nervous signing up to have students for tutors. I just wasn't sure they would have the skills/ maturity to manage someone not much younger than them and our previous experience with tutors has been with ex-teachers. I couldn't have been more wrong!!!. We are delighted with both Hannah and John. Monny really likes the fact that they are close to her own age as she feels she can relate to them."

Monica’s mother Karen, October 2012
Year 12, Level 2 Chemistry & Mathematics

"Thank you for teaching me this year. I have become much more confident in Maths and have even begun to enjoy it!"

Ellen, November 2010
Year 10, Mathematics

“I couldn't speak more highly of AHeadStart and my tutors, they were so friendly, so helpful and they both truly wanted me to succeed in English and Mathematics by continually giving me every opportunity to improve and prepare. Even in English when I first started tutoring in Level 1 - I went from getting 'achieved' in internals to suddenly getting 'Excellences' for the rest of the year and for Level 2 I received all Excellences for all of my internals and passed all of my exams.”

Mikayla, January 2016
Year 12, English & Mathematics

"[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