FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
There is no right answer to this question. It ultimately comes down to you and how important it is to you that your child gets in to a selective school. We have some students that start preparing in 3rd grade and others that come 3 months before the exam. If it is important to you or your child, then we suggest you get started as early as possible.
Yes. It is very rare to see a student get in to a selective school on natural ability or with only help from parents. It is a fiercely competitive exam and if your child is not working with a tutor they will be disadvantaged against other students that do.
No – there are no contracts and we are entirely pay as you go. We use an automated payment system that simply charges your debit or credit card 24 hours after each lesson occurs.
Yes – your tutor will have full access to our resource centre which contains dozen of our own selective school papers. These have been designed over more than a decade of experience and adhere to the latest changes in test requirements.
Yes. In the first lesson your tutor will deliver an assessment on your child, seeing where their strengths and weaknesses lie. In many cases this will be a student’s first introduction to the selective school exam, so also serves as a good benchmark to work from.
The classroom environment will not be able to cater to your child’s unique needs. Each student is just expected to follow the content from top to bottom, regardless of where they are currently placed. With Alchemy, every lesson is built around your child. Your tutor will be able to spend more time on the areas they need and less on those they don’t. We also offer far more flexibility, freedom and visibility.
We test students regularly to monitor improvements. The frequency of this will be up to your tutor, and you are welcome to discuss this with them in the first session to work out a testing cycle that is ideal for your child.
No – but it is covered by our first session 100% happiness guarantee. This means that if you are not 100% convinced the tutor we have lined up for you is the right tutor for your child, the session is on us and we can organise someone else that better suits your needs. If however you are happy to continue (and we are confident that you will be!) then we charge you for the first session when you submit payment details.
