Selective Entry & Scholarship Tutoring in Deer Park

Deer Park families ask us the same two questions about Selective Entry & Scholarship: is my child actually behind, and what will you do about it? The first is answered by our free Skills Check, the second by this page. We are a local centre at 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029, rated 5.0 on Google, tutoring Years 5 to 8 in person and online.

Selective Entry & Scholarship tutoring for Deer Park families

Deer Park is an older suburb in Brimbank that is renewing quickly as younger families move in. It is a fifteen-minute drive to Truganina, and Deer Park students are fairly evenly split between coming to the centre and learning online. We see a lot of Year 7 and 8 students from Deer Park whose primary maths foundations were never quite locked in.

The drive from Deer Park (3023) to our centre at 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029 takes about 15 minutes, via Robinsons Road or the Western Ring Road. If getting to Truganina is awkward on a given day, the same session can run online with the same tutor.

Schools our Deer Park students come from

Students from Deer Park North Primary School, Deer Park West Primary School, Victoria University Secondary College, Derrimut Primary School and Sunshine College come to us for Selective Entry & Scholarship, which means the tutor usually recognises the school's sequence and the way it tests.

• Deer Park North Primary School
• Deer Park West Primary School
• Victoria University Secondary College
• Derrimut Primary School
• Sunshine College

We also see Selective Entry & Scholarship students from neighbouring Derrimut, Caroline Springs, Sunshine and Cairnlea.

How we tutor Selective Entry & Scholarship (Years 5–8)

Two different exams bring families to us for this tutoring. The Victorian selective-entry high school exam is sat in Year 8 for entry to Year 9 at Melbourne High, Mac.Robertson Girls', Nossal and Suzanne Cory, the last of which is in Werribee and draws heavily from Melbourne's west. Scholarship tests for independent and Catholic schools are usually sat in Year 6 for Year 7 entry, and sometimes in Year 8 or 10, and are run by testing agencies rather than the schools themselves.

Both kinds of exam test more than the school curriculum. They include reading comprehension, mathematics, verbal and numerical reasoning, and one or two writing tasks, all under tight time limits and pitched above the student's current year level. A capable student who has only ever done classwork will find the reasoning sections unfamiliar and the timing brutal. That is the gap our preparation closes.

We start with a free Skills Check at the top of the student's year level, then a diagnostic on reasoning-style questions, so we know whether the work needed is knowledge (maths topics the student has not yet met), technique (how to attack a verbal reasoning set) or speed. The program is then built around those needs: typically weekly sessions across two or three terms, with a mix of explicit teaching, timed practice sets and feedback on writing.

Writing is where preparation makes the biggest difference. Selective and scholarship writing tasks are short, timed, and marked for ideas, structure, vocabulary and control of language. We teach students a plan they can execute in the time available for both persuasive and creative prompts, and we mark every piece so the student learns to edit as they write. Maths preparation covers the curriculum above the student's year level, plus the problem-solving strategies (working backwards, drawing a diagram, looking for patterns) that reasoning sections reward.

We are honest with families about the odds. These exams are competitive and preparation improves a student's chances but does not guarantee a place. What it does guarantee is a student who is a year ahead in maths and English and who can write well under pressure, which pays off in Years 7 to 10 regardless of the result. Preparation is available one-to-one and in small groups, at the Truganina centre and online.

Start the free Skills Check →   Book a free consultation   Call 03 9509 3293

Curriculum topics we cover in Selective Entry & Scholarship

The list below is what the free Skills Check assesses for Selective Entry & Scholarship, by year level, and therefore what a Deer Park student's sessions are planned from. A tutor will always step back a year when a foundation topic is missing.

What the exams test

• Reading comprehension (literary and informational passages, inference, vocabulary)
• Mathematics (Year 8 and above for selective entry; Year 6 and above for Year 7 scholarships)
• Verbal reasoning (word relationships, analogies, logic)
• Numerical reasoning (number patterns, puzzles, applied problem solving)
• Writing (persuasive and creative tasks under strict time limits)

How it works

Pricing

One-to-one tutoring is $35–$45 an hour depending on the year level; small groups of up to five are from $25 an hour. Plans are monthly, you choose how many sessions a week, and you can cancel any time. The Skills Check and the consultation are free. Online and in-person sessions cost the same.

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Frequently asked questions

Start the free Selective Entry & Scholarship Skills Check →   Book a free consultation   Call 03 9509 3293

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