Project Academy - Chatswood Campus - Chatswood, New South Wales

RandomStuff12345

I just wanted to say that Alex Loustau is an absolute G. Give him a raise because he seriously is one of the best people you have and he is ACTIVE and RESPONSIVE, unlike another tutor I have

he is the LITERALLY THE BEST in the centre, and all other people: crew expendable - Alien, 1979.

Ruo Su

Student of 2023 here. The teachers here really knows their material and provides 24/7 assistance to students who need help, and as someone who has a shaky foundation in maths, I was able to get incredible improvement over a short span of time.
The attention which the staff gives to each individual student’s academic progress, their mental health, and to providing a supportive learning environment, was truly impressive to experience. I’ve been to several tutoring places before Project, but the teachers at Project are the only ones I’ve met that really tries to become friend with their students, and my learning experience & progress definitely benefited from that.

C W

I'd rate this more 2.5 stars, but google doesn't let me
Two other people wrote great reviews but I thought I'd contribute my two cents specifically to Y12 English Adv (not the LEAP program which I didn't do). I'm just going to be brutally honest because I don't see a point sugarcoating any of this

TL;DR: If you are struggling or if your current school and teacher are not much help, then project can be a good substitute. If you are looking for an edge or to really get high marks, maybe look elsewhere. I reckon doing a trial can't hurt since you can just leave if you don't want to stay, but also trust your gut if you don't end up liking it and find somewhere else!

English: Not worth the price
- The unlimited marking is a nice service but some of the people who mark your work will be terrible, barely give detail and not give critical feedback. I was lucky to have a good tutor and I just requested them to mark it which fixed this, but if you don't have a good tutor, there is no guarantee. Keep in mind you don't have tutorials for english as it is replaced with unlimited marking
- The tutors are extremely hit or miss. They hire people straight out of high school, which wouldn't be a problem if they had a more rigorous screening program. Tutors don't care, can't teach well or get so distracted that they feel more like an irresponsible 18 year old than a teacher. Ofc this isn't all tutors, but because you can't really pick and choose, you could be stuck with a bad teacher. Also, it is perfectly understandable that they wouldn't be perfect since they don't teach for a living, but their general quality seems to cross a subterranean bar. Don't get fooled by their tutor lists, since the top few tutors they advertise with 99.95s/state ranks won't likely be your teacher (not impossible, but from what I've seen, quite unlikely). I reckon it is worth it to do a trial and just dip if you find this to be a problem.
- Lessons: Mostly rote learning so didn't feel useful. Some people in my class had teachers at school who were absent from class or just terrible at their jobs so they did find them helpful which is completely fair. But after the first few lessons, the themes/analysis they do for texts (not poems since you'll do a new one every other week anyway) gets irrelevant. They put too much time into minor themes/issues and not enough time into the major ideas you'll likely write about in your essay. On top of that, project is not flexible about their lesson plan. My tutor wanted to shuffle a lesson around as people had assessments coming up, but project made them do the lesson anyway which was frustrating. I understand wanting to keep a structure, but surely if a class unanimously wants to cover something, they can adapt.
- iPad: It wasn't incredibly useful but it did give me a few nuggets of gold. They have some good readings for some texts, and the context summaries/quote banks/brief analysis are a good overview, albeit it simple. But when you take into account how much you are paying, it is such a waste. Most of these resources can be found online for free and are often higher or equal in quality, like from litcharts or something similar. The iPad also gives you access to past papers from other schools/companies across the years across a whole bunch of subjects, including those project doesn't teach. However, nothing that can't really be found online for free already so not the most useful.
- Homework: Genuinely terrible. The questions they ask would be better catered to primary school kids, and while they might be good casual questions to ask yourself to ponder your text, they don't help improve your analysis/the skills you would need to make NESA happy. The reading tasks were ok, but not the highest level
- Final term exam: This was alright and was reasonably good. What is annoying is most of the time you are already done with assessments so you can't get a review of your work under exam conditions, but this does make some sense for year 12 where you need to do this again for trials/the HSC anyway so no real complaints here

sharklover47

i saw another person post a full detailed review, and i think that is a really good idea, both for people considering projects, and for the owners who i believe care enough to make necessary changes.
pros:
- campus setup. whilst the actual campus does not look exactly like the photos, it is still really amazing for any tutoring center, and the spaces like grasslands are genuinely so good and aesthetically lovely
- LEAPS. so, so good, cannot recommend enough. i chose to sign up for extra subjects for LEAPs which I believe is a really good idea if you have a strong grasp of the subject and just need practice. on a side note, the LEAP marking is so hit or miss, some weeks I was getting 90%, then the next I was barely scraping a 60%, which did knock confidence a lot, but the feedback is always good so to me this was still a very positive experience. also in my opinion economics and math adv LEAPS are harder than the HSC, while the others are equal or easier
- atmosphere. studying around people is always good, though its pretty annoying when the same couple of kids are always hanging around being annoying. mostly atmosphere is very good though.
neutral:
ipad. coming into proj. i expected the ipad to be super useful, but honestly all the resources on the ipad are very fundamental, most of the learning is done in class. this is not a bad thing, i was just suprised by this.
tutorials. hit or miss, a few times i've been stuck with tutors who just talked to other students about completely unrelated stuff, which was so annoying. honestly, just try book tutorials where youre the only student and youre fine. i did not get much out of tutes, but i think you definitely can if you use them right.
negatives
the tutors. this was honestly the biggest issue, and i really think the owners need to look at this issue and do something drastic. i understand it looks super good on the website to hire students with a 99+ atar, but id have far rather been taught by a tutor who only got a 95 (which is obviously still very good) who actually cares and has interest in what they teach. one of my tutors had an atar of about 99.7, but droned on about the subject like it was a chore, and struggled to contain our small class. obviously a lot of the tutors are great, but i really wish tutors were selected based on how well they can teach rather than atar. having tutors like Freya was so great, as she had a genuine interest in the subject. i really hope you can listen to past students and make some change to the tutors teaching your classes, because project's model of high performing deep learning is really undermined when you employ tutors based solely on atar who are unable to connect or communicate effectively, let alone have any real care for the subject. i know this was a bit of a ramble i just hope that this change gets made.
anyway, after attending project this year i do really recommend it, but i do think you need a lot of your own drive to suceed, especially as not many tutors have genuine interest in the students or teaching properly and effectively, but i hope project management is able to realise how big of an issue this is. project academies tutors, ironically, truly demonstrated how poor of a measure an ATAR is of real interest and comprehensive learning, as well as being an incredibly poor predictor of any real success.
but if you are willing to put in a lot of work, project works very well as an extra way to learn, or practice especially through LEAPS.
regards, a 23' student.

hitchcocku

Before you dismiss my review because of the overwhelming amount of 5 star reviews, please do not trust all the ones you see. A lot of them are old and now outdated. I attended this place from early 2022 to late 2023 for my HSC, and here are my thoughts.
Pros
- iPad and the apps on there are very well made and useful
- The people are generally very nice and welcoming
- *SOME* tutors are very knowledgable
- Unlimited tutorials feature is quite useful, provided you can stay on focus in the sessions. Some students and tutors clearly had no intention of actually studying and were just loudly talking the entire time, disturbing others
- Grasslands is a nice and convenient place be productive
Cons
- Some subjects are very clearly neglected by staff members (lack of thinktanks throughout the year, lazy and late marking, rudimentary homework questions, etc)
- Some tutors have average knowledge at best. Obviously can't expect them to solve every question, but still they are very hit or miss
- Copying notes on workbook method of learning seems very rudimentary, especially considering the high price
- As aforementioned tutors are very hit or miss
- Many tutors are lazy with marking. I understand they are busy but often times they are not marked in time for my LEAP review
- LEAP is often a lot easier than HSC level.

Overall: Project Academy can be a good tutoring place if you get lucky but considering the price, it's really not worth taking the risk of getting a "bad" tutor. Depending on the subject you're interested in, I would recommend another place for almost any subject.

Extra notes: Place looks nothing like what is advertised in the photos and on their youtube. Again, the reviews and photos you see online are outdated. I have not been to the new Hornsby campus though.

Edit: I think if you are a struggling/average student this place will be good for you, even if you don't get the best tutor. But if you are an above average student looking to get REALLY good at a subject, i would consider someplace else.

Eliza Lee

An amazing team of tutors who really push students to work at their personal best whilst encouraging them to enjoy their learning. The classes are engaging and the tutors are warm, friendly and always happy to help- would highly recommend Project!! The facilities are amazing too and there are excellent rooms that are frequently open for personal study.

Aditi Dalal

This place is more than just your average tutoring centre- its a tight knit family of dedicated staff and tutors who make each and every student feel like they are a part of something special. Project has fantastic resources that are available to students pretty much 24/7, and it goes above and beyond to make sure every student is getting the help they need. Best choice I've made by far- not only has it helped me improve my marks, it has helped me rediscover my passion for learning.

Rishabh Jain

Amazing tuition centre that cares very deeply for it's students. Project Academy works very hard to ensure students understand concepts well rather than memorise them, and have an excellent team of tutors creating fantastic resources. The tutors are not hesitant to stay back after classes to assist students individually with any problems.