Merry Christmas from Tutor Tales

Hey guys,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2010!

Congratulations to everyone on their HSC marks and ATAR – I trust that you all did well.

I wish you all the best for the UAC offers and whatever you go on to from here.

TT

Text Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

So I just finished reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald!

It’s the text under Advanced English Module A – Elective 2: Texts in Time and used in comparison with Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnets.

The book is quite an easy read – only 134 pages in my edition split into 9 chapters.

However, I can’t see many students actually enjoying reading this book and its story (please correct me if I’m wrong about this). Firstly, the story is too short for you to develop any real connection to any of the characters, not even the narrator Nick Carraway. All the events that happen seem rather poetic (read: random) and somewhat contrived to make social critique. As I result, I read this with a kind of strong disdain for all the characters. I felt no sympathy or anger or anything – my reactions were more like “Huh.” and then I read on. There is really nothing admirable about any of the characters!

I do admit, however, that Fitzgerald’s writing style is lovely. The descriptions and what he evokes from an atmosphere is definitely “poetic” as all critics seem to say. Some of it is really quite beautiful and as an Arts in Communications: Writing and Cultural Studies student, I have to admit…I’m jealous.

But that in itself does not carry the story forward.

Perhaps what is also frustrating is that the narrator Nick Carraway is so much of a narrator, an observer, in this story that he rarely takes action. He does not “drive” the story in a sense. As such, you feel like he is rather meandering around what is happening. And you never feel invested in anything that he does and feels (e.g. his relationship with Jordan). And since the entire story is narrated by him, you cannot help but feel detached from everything that happens.

Nonetheless, it’s a short and easy book to read.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this text?

November Update

So I’ve left my job at the law firm. Don’t know what I’m going to do. Got 3-4 months until next semester.

In the meantime, I’ve got a few new students for the 2010 HSC:

• English Standard
• English Advanced
• English Extension 1: Genre – Crime Writing
• English Extension 2
• Biology

So I’ll be tutoring these texts:

• Peter Skrzynecki – tutored in 2009
• Richard III and Looking for Richard – new!
• The Great Gatsby and Browning Poems – new!
• Hamlet – tutored in 2009
• Cloudstreet – new!
• Fiftieth Gate – kind of tutored in 2009.
• The Justice Game – tutored in 2008 and 2009.
• The Rear Window – new!
• The Real Inspector Hound – new!
• Anil’s Ghost – new!

So yes, expect some posts coming up on the above texts as we go through them.

September Update

Sorry for not updating in a while, but I haven’t really come across anything that inspired an update.

Nevertheless, things have been happening!

Trials happened and most students should have received their results by now. How did we all go? My students had varying success, from one obtaining the top rank in her school and another failing by just a few marks.

There’s still over a month until the HSC, so don’t despair!

And in the interim, here are some things for you to do:

1. Do past HSC papers.
2. Practice your Belonging essay on these questions: Practice Questions for Area of Study: Belonging.
3. Ask your teacher to review your essays again.
4. Got to your school formal.
5. Form “study” groups for the purpose of just hanging out.
6. Organise schoolies and overseas holidays (you’ll finish in mid October, so it’s going to be a looong summer).
7. Figure out what you want to do after high school – otherwise, you might end up doing whatever your parents suggest. That’s how I ended up in Law.

I have also added more practice questions for Belonging and the Advanced Paper 2 Modules – from my students’ trial papers.

What’s coming up?

1. Review of the UTS Law Subject: Resolving Disputes
2. Past HSC and Practice Questions for Conflicting Perspectives
3. Preliminary Biology: First Hand Investigations – Part 2

The Problem with how Maths is taught in Australia

The Problem

I’ve privately tutored 3 students before in Mathematics. In all 3, I discovered the same, fundamental problem in how they have been taught algebra by the NSW education system.

Solve for x:

2x = 1

They have been taught to think: “What number times 2 will equal 1?”. This is what I consider a “guess and check” methodology. This is fine if they’re quick thinkers, but even then – what about more complicated questions?

This is the problem with the way algebra has been taught by schools in NSW.