Psychology tutors on Learnmate work with ACT college students on the A and T course, where there is no external exam and every mark is set at the college.
The ACT sets no external Psychology exam, so every mark comes from college assessment.
Four units cover self and identity, cognition and emotions, normality and abnormality, groups and society.
A T course counts toward an ATAR; an A course counts toward the Certificate.
Every Year 12 student seeking an ATAR sits the AST, which scales college scores.
Lessons run online or in person across Canberra, and Psychology averages $55/hr.
The ACT runs senior secondary differently from every other state, and it changes what tutoring is for. There is no external Psychology examination. Assessment is continuous and school based, which means the grade a student leaves with was built from tasks set and marked at their own college across four semesters. Nothing is held back for a final paper that can rescue a weak year.
That makes timing the whole game. In a state with a final exam, a student who drifts through first semester can still recover in October. In the ACT, a poor unit score in Year 11 is already banked. A standard 1.0 unit carries between three and five assessment tasks and no single task may be worth more than forty five per cent, so no one piece of work decides a unit, but equally no one piece of work can undo the rest. Tutoring that starts when a task is handed out is worth several times more than tutoring that starts when a result comes back.
The course itself is four standard units, each around fifty five hours and taught over a semester: Self and Identity, Cognition and Emotions, Normality and Abnormality, and Groups and Society. Colleges may split any of them into two half units. Year 12 students who have completed at least three standard units can add an Independent Study unit, and only one of those is permitted per course. A major is three and a half units, which is the pattern most Psychology students follow.
The AST sits alongside all of this and is widely misunderstood. It is a general reasoning test written by ACER, sat in week six of term three, and every Year 12 student who wants an ATAR must complete all three papers. It contributes nothing to a Psychology grade. Its job is to let scores from different colleges be compared, so a course score from one college means the same as a course score from another. A tutor can prepare a student for it, but that preparation is a separate task from Psychology and should be treated as one.
With no external paper, a weak unit score is banked the moment the semester closes. Tutors on Learnmate work on tasks while they can still be changed, which is a different job from exam revision and needs to start earlier.
It decides how a college's scores are scaled, and it tests general reasoning rather than Psychology. Treating it as a Psychology task wastes both. Profiles say which tutors prepare students for it, so a student can book the right help for each.
Years 11 and 12 run at separate campuses, colleges write much of their own assessment, and moderation days decide how it all compares. A tutor who knows this asks different questions about a task than one who assumes a state syllabus.
Psychology tutors on Learnmate include registered teachers with more than two decades in classrooms and a psychology degree behind them, qualified teachers holding tertiary qualifications from ANU and the University of Canberra, and recent graduates who completed the BSSS certificate themselves and scored well in Psychology.
Only some teach the BSSS course specifically, and profiles state which. Because the psychological content is largely shared between states, ACT students working online can draw on the wider group, provided the tutor understands that the ACT assesses entirely at the college and sets no external paper. The Psychology Tutors and BSSS Tutors pages show the full range.
Dear Olivia, thank you for your hard work in supporting my son to improve and develop his research and writing skills. Your expertise in teaching and research has put our minds at ease. We are so grateful to have you as our son’s teacher. I do highly recommend you for all students.
Kashish is a excellent tutor, as he explains every thing he teaches so you can easily understand it. He also is great at giving out homework for the child to work on throughout the week until their next session. Kashish is also very friendly so my child really enjoys the lessons.
Casey has been fantastic. She is very approachable, relates well to my daughter, explains things well and my daughter has learned a lot already. She is flexible and understanding when we have had to change appointment times. I would definitely recommend Casey!
I was struggling in chemistry for so long until I found Surbhi! She explains things in great depth a detail, making it really easy to understand. She even realises what details I might be missing and helps me to understand understand the basics so that I can understand the harder stuff. Only wish I had found her sooner!
Tahlia was an amazing tutor, who was super helpful and had excellent knowledge of the SACE curriculum. I thoroughly enjoyed my weekly sessions and appreciated her positive and encouraging attitude. I highly recommend Tahlia, if you want studying in year 12 to be a fun and beneficial experience.
Sam’s tutoring and helpful guidance has made a huge difference towards my sons learning. He was able to relate very well and made the sessions fun and interesting. We have gone from failing year 11 to achieving high marks in year 12. I could not recommend a better tutor.
Units, the A and T distinction, the AST and how ACT scores are scaled
Self and Identity looks at how a sense of self forms and changes. Cognition and Emotions covers memory, thinking and emotional processing. Normality and Abnormality deals with how psychology defines and treats disorder. Groups and Society examines behaviour in social settings. Each is a standard unit of roughly fifty five hours, and colleges may deliver any of them as two half units.
A T course is accredited as preparation for higher education and counts toward an ATAR. An A course is accredited as educationally sound for Years 11 and 12 and counts toward the ACT Senior Secondary Certificate but not the ATAR aggregate. Psychology is offered as both. The choice is about destination rather than difficulty, and it is worth settling early because it shapes the rest of a student's package.
Each T unit produces a unit score. A student's best eighty per cent of unit scores are combined into a course score, which shows how they rank within that course at their college. Course scores typically fall between thirty and one hundred and five. The AST then allows those scores to be compared between colleges. The ATAR aggregate takes the best three scaled majors plus six tenths of the next best course.
Canberra is compact, so in person lessons are practical across most of the ACT, and online lessons remove the constraint entirely. That matters for a subject taught across nine public colleges plus the independent sector, where the number of senior Psychology teachers is small. Students in Queanbeyan and the surrounding New South Wales towns who attend ACT colleges can use the same tutors.
Browse Psychology tutors who work with ACT colleges, or post a job and let them find you.
Preparing for VCE exams can be overwhelming, especially when you're juggling multiple subjects. Past exam papers are one of the...
READ MORE
Embarking on your journey through the IB Psychology curriculum involves mastering various assessment components, none more critical than the Short...
READ MORE
Let’s be honest – some VCE Psychology topics feel like they were designed specifically to fry your brain during study...
READ MORE
