Why Tutoring Isn't Always the Right Solution
There’s a pattern that thousands of families go through every year:
A student is getting average marks, so parents hire a tutor.
The tutor helps with one subject - maybe it's Math or English.
The student (hopefully) improves in that subject.
But, their overall results and ranking stay roughly the same. And somehow, they're still unmotivated, disorganised, and leaving study to the last minute.
Six months later, they're still paying for tutoring, and not a whole lot is different.
The problem here isn't the tutor. The problem is that tutoring often solves the wrong problem.
When tutoring makes sense - and when it doesn't
Tutoring helps a student understand content in one subject. A Math tutor explains integration. An English tutor explains how to analyse techniques. That can be really valuable, if content knowledge is what's missing.
But, for most students I work with, content isn't the real issue. The real issue is everything else.
The figuring out:
What am I actually meant to be doing when I sit down to "study"?
How should I plan my week with three assessments, sport, and a job?
How am I meant to make notes - and how do I use them?
Where am I meant to keep track of all my assessment dates? And what about my major work?
These are the questions that keep students stuck. And tutoring just doesn't answer them.
These skills aren't taught explicitly. Most students are expected to figure them out on their own. Some do. Many don't - and the ones who don't end up may end up studying just as hard but without the results to match.
More tutoring, even a tutor for every subject, doesn't take a holistic approach and rebuild the system.
What lacking a study system looks like in practice:
A student sits down to study Math.
They know they're meant to “study” so they open their laptop.
Then it's - do I do a past paper? Which one?
Wait, where's my Math book?
They spend ten minutes looking for their notes.
They find a past paper but it covers a topic from three weeks ago and they can't remember half of it.
They get frustrated, check their phone, and twenty minutes later they've barely started.
Eventually they run out of time and move on feeling like they studied, when really they just sat at a desk.
That's not a content problem. A Math tutor can't really fix that. That's a student who doesn't have a system for knowing what to study, when to study it, and how to execute.
Now multiply that across six subjects, five days a week, for an entire year. That's how capable students end up with average marks.
Why DesignTo99 Exists
When I was going through Year 11 and 12, this was all a bit of a guessing game.
I figured out a system that worked - but it took me a long time, and I made plenty of mistakes along the way. That study system is what helped me achieve a 99.55 ATAR, College Dux, and a State Ranking.
I created DesignTo99 because no student should have to waste time figuring this out alone. The right approach exists — and it’s available right now.
The DesignTo99 program provides students with one-on-one coaching over five weeks to install a complete study system across every subject.
It's not tutoring. There's no subject re-teaching. It's the operating system that makes everything else work better.
Top marks aren't luck and they're not just talent.
Top marks come from a study system Designed for success.
Written by Jessica Crawley — 99.55 ATAR, College Dux, State Ranker, and founder of DesignTo99. I coach NSW Year 10–12 students to build study systems that work.