Student Testimonials

"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 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

"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

"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

"I did OK in my exams. I only got one of the three science papers, but I did do better than I expected and I've passed with 106 credits and I'm very proud of myself. Thanks for all your help. Without it I wouldn't have achieved as much as I did."

Lexie McKellar, 2007
Year 11, Level 1 Mathematics and Science

"Everything that Mel went over with me is so much clearer now. She went into detail to help me grasp the concepts I was struggling with. I felt a lot more confident going into my exams as a result of Mel's help. I am also fairly confident that my NCEA marks will have improved from my mock exams when I hadn't had any tuition from Mel."

Alice Christensen, December 2008
Year 12, Level 2 Chemistry, Mathematics & Physics

"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

"The feedback which I have received from my student has been extremely positive. He had Jason as a Maths Teacher, and I know that the one on one tution made all the difference to the confidence of my student. I would definitely recommend the agency they are easy to contact and very helpful. He will be using the services of your agency again in 2010. I am the guardian of this young man, and I know that from his comments he is extremely satisfied."

Paht’s guardian Margaret, December 2009
Year 12 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

“For both Level 1 and Level 2 I received for English in both years Merit Endorsements which I am thrilled about and it is all thanks to AHeadStart and their amazing tutoring service as I know there is no way I could of achieved what I wanted to achieve without their help, encouragement and skills to learn what was expected of me. I would highly recommend them to anyone who is in need of tutoring, they truly help you succeed in the topics you need help with.”

Mikayla, January 2016
Year 12, English & Mathematics

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

Neil Viegas, December 2009
Year 11, Level 2 Mathematics

"Daniel was great yesterday, I really enjoyed it and learnt a lot. He went out of his way to make sure I understood things and I thought his style of tutoring was really suited to me and my learning style. Thank you for all your help."

Kitty, March 2012
Year 13, Chemistry & Physics

"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 would really like to thank AHeadStart tutoring as i had been to other tuition over other years and had felt that it didn't feel I had gained anything from this but form the tutoring and help you gave to me I felt I had grasped the subject better and it gave me more confidence in my ability which prepared me better for my exams."

Emily, December 2009
Year 13, Level 3 Physics

“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

"[I enjoyed] how Mel went into a lot of detail and didn't give up until I was very comfortable with the subject. Also how Mel is more fun than teachers at school which makes the lessons more enjoyable."

Alice, December 2008
Year 12, Level 2 Chemistry, Mathematics & Physics

“I used to go to NumberWorks, I found that they weren't age appropriate- so many games, and the tutors didn't always know the answer or explain well. AHeadStart is much better; is age appropriate, and Anna could always explain the answer. Also I liked how AHeadStart came to my house because other people like at number works are loud and distracting.”

Emma, January 2016
Year 13, Physics

"Briar was totally chuffed at her results and deservedly so. But the key for me was that it confirmed for her that she was quite capable of working through and understanding her maths, even though she had convinced herself that this was not possible. It seems to be a real issue for maths that so many students think that they are totally unable to comprehend the principles - you either like maths or you hate it and there seems to be no grey area in-between. So the credit really goes to you Melanie for getting Briar over that "useless at maths" label and giving her the chance to succeed - and she did so well! You have a great intuition for understanding how best to explain the subject."

Briar’s mother Cathie, January 2009
Year 12, Level 2 Mathematics

"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

"There are many things I understand better due to tuition. Firstly and most importantly, I found the most improvement in my electronics and magnetism test compared to the section of electronics and magnetism in the end of year exam (I got full marks in that section compared to the 65% I got in the unit test). I believe I struggled with it when I did the unit test but I found it far easier in the exam due to the tuition lessons I had been taking. Secondly I remember the huge improvement in geology. Geology was probably one of my weakest science subjects but due to tuition I actually started to enjoy it. I think that is because I actually didn't understand it properly before I started tuition. I learnt that you can really dislike a subject because you simply don't understand it but on the contrary, once you understand the principles, it could be very enjoyable. I also got good marks for that in the end of year exam."

Shalini, December 2008
Year 10, 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
 

“Hi Melanie, tutorials have been going really well this term! I’ve found tutoring has been helping lots and Robert definitely knows what he’s talking about and can answer every question I have for him.”

Ruby, July 2014
Year 12, Biology & Mathematics

“I gained a lot of knowledge about chemistry, my grades were achieved at the start of the year and i ended up receiving excellence in all my internals. If it wasn't for AHeadStart I most likely would have barely passed level 2 chemistry.”

Matthew, January 2016
Year 12, Chemistry