Thank you Josh.
His tutor Kieran had told him which themes were overdue to come up based on the past paper patterns. Two of them appeared more or less exactly as described. He rang me after saying it felt like he had been given a preview. That is what good exam preparation looks like. A year of solid sessions and it paid off exactly when it mattered.
My daughter sat her GCSE maths paper earlier this week and came out saying she thought it went well. I genuinely did not know how to react because that has never happened before. Her Daresne tutor spent the last two months doing nothing but timed past papers under exam conditions. She said the timing felt fine and she knew where to pick up marks. Whatever that process did for her confidence it worked. Eight sessions a month all year.
Sessions have been good and my daughter is doing better in Junior Cert geography. The only thing is sometimes the session runs slightly over which we have another commitment straight after. Small thing and I have mentioned it - just worth flagging. Otherwise no complaints at all.
My son used to leave questions blank in physics when he got stuck. His Daresne tutor taught him to write something for every question even if uncertain, to show working and get method marks, and to come back to blanks at the end. He said he answered every question in the exam. He has never done that before. Even if the answers are not all right, that alone will improve his grade significantly.
She came out of the English lit A level exam and said it was the best paper she had ever done. Her tutor had worked on one specific habit - spend five minutes planning before writing anything. She has never done that in an exam before. She said her essays were focused in a way they usually are not. About eighteen months with Daresne and this felt like everything clicking at once.
My son is enjoying the lessons with Jessica so far. Early days but really positive start.
My son finished his Junior Cert on Friday. A year ago he was one of the least confident students in his year. We started with the free trial and he got on well with his maths tutor which surprised me because he had not been keen on the idea of tutoring at all. His Daresne tutors for maths and science spent a lot of time early on just getting him to believe he could do it. He said he felt calm going into every exam. I have never heard that from him.
