One standard. Written down.
The method, the systems, the charter and the admissions standard, on one page a parent can send to a spouse.
Six steps, every session, every subject.
Every MA99 session runs the same six steps, in this order, so quality never depends on who is in the room. Tap a step to see it in practice.
Connect and Retrieve
A short, focused recall of prior material before anything new is touched: no notes, no prompts, the student producing last week from memory.
Retrieval is where durable learning is built. Familiarity is not knowledge, and the only way to know what has been kept is to ask for it back.
Chemistry, Year 12: before the word equilibrium is spoken, the student writes out last session's three equilibrium expressions from memory, then marks them against the log. Two of three hold; the third is the first thing taught.
Frame and Diagnose
The session goal is set against the Term Plan and the exact misunderstanding surfaced, usually with one question the student cannot yet answer.
Teaching a whole topic wastes the session. Teaching the precise gap moves the mark.
English Advanced: the student is asked to state the thesis of last week's essay in one sentence. The sentence has two ideas in it. That is the session: one thesis, one argument, held for five paragraphs.
Teach
New material introduced with clarity, in the language of the marking criteria, with the connection to what the student already knows made explicit.
Concepts land when they attach to something secure. Criteria language means the student learns to write what the marker is paid to find.
Mathematics Extension 1: the coach teaches the integration technique once, cleanly, then shows the two ways it is disguised in HSC questions and the phrase in the marking guidelines that signals it.
Guided Practice
Worked examples completed together, the student thinking aloud, the coach correcting the reasoning before the answer.
Confidence is built before independence is asked for, and the coach hears the error at the moment it forms rather than reading it afterwards.
Physics: the student talks through a projectile question while the coach says nothing until the sign of a velocity is wrong; the correction is one word, and the next question is done without it.
Independent Practice
The student works to the standard without support, under time where the Term Plan says time is the gap, and marks their own work against the criteria first.
Genuine mastery is tested and proven, not assumed. Self-marking teaches the student to see their work as the marker sees it.
Economics: twelve minutes, one extended response on monetary policy, no notes. The student marks it with the rubric before the coach does; the two marks are compared and the difference explained.
Review and Plan
The session's takeaway consolidated in one line, the next step logged against the Term Plan, and the between-session work set precisely.
Every session ends with a written trace, so the Term Academic Plan, the written report and the next session all begin from the same page.
Any subject: the student writes the one thing that changed today in the session log. The coach sets the revision set and the practice block, with the date they will be checked.
Where the marks are modelled before they are earned.
Every family sees the marks. Families in the full year campaigns see the model behind them.
A projection that updates with every result
Every timed result the student produces is scaled on the published UAC data for that course and fed into a per subject forecast and an ATAR projection, revised as the evidence changes rather than once a term.
Projected ATAR, revised as results come in
The shaded band is the range the model still allows. It narrows as real timed evidence replaces assumption.
Where the marks are actually lost
Every lost mark is classified by type, not by topic: misread stems, algebra slips, thin evidence, timing. The Lab shows which two or three patterns cost the most, so effort goes where points are.
Share of marks lost, by error type
Classified by type rather than by topic. Two patterns account for 56 per cent of every mark lost this term.
What to fix first, in order
The model ranks the changes by projected gain. The Subject Head Coach works the top of the list; the family sees the list on the termly parent strategy call.
Projected ATAR gain, ranked
The Subject Head Coach works the top of the list. The family sees the same list, in the same order.
The school's calendar, weighted
Each assessment's weighting and criteria are mapped into the model so preparation intensity follows the marks that matter, not a generic schedule.
One term, weighted by what the marks are worth
Each task's weighting and criteria are mapped in, so intensity follows the marks rather than the calendar.
Where your child sits, and why
After each assessment the Lab reads the ranking against the cohort and the projection, and the Director takes the family through it on a results debrief.
Position in the cohort, not just the mark
A cohort of 92. The same mark means something different in a strong cohort, and the model reads the difference.
Not a guess dressed up
The model runs on the published UAC scaling tables, MA99's own cohort history and every mark your child produces. It is a scoring model, built and read by people, and it is shown to you rather than hidden behind a number.
Published UAC scaling, course by course
Scaled marks out of 50 per unit, from the published UAC tables. Every mark your child produces is read through this, not through a rule of thumb.
The final fortnight, planned to the day
In the last two weeks before an examination the Lab sets the order of past papers and the topics to leave alone, based on the projected gain from each block of study time.
The final fortnight, allocated by projected gain
Past papers are ordered by the gain the model expects from the time spent. Two days are deliberately left alone, and that is a decision, not a gap.
Included, not sold separately
Every family in The 99+ Campaign and The Global Admissions Track sees the model updated through the term and discussed on the termly strategy call. It is not part of the single subject or fixed term programmes; it is one of the things the campaign fee protects.
What each programme sees of the same model
The model runs either way. What the campaign fee buys is the whole of it, updated through the term and read to you.
AI is a useful tool. The first attempt is still theirs.
Most students now use AI for schoolwork, and used well it helps. From the Class of 2027, more than nine tenths of an HSC mark is earned under supervision, without AI, so this is how we fit the two together.
The first attempt, unaided
Homework is attempted by hand, against the clock, before any AI is opened. It is the version of the work that looks most like the examination room.
Checking, not doing
After an attempt, AI can mark, hint or explain a mistake. We show each student how to set it up to ask questions rather than give answers, including NSWEduChat where their school provides it.
Homework and timed work, side by side
The Family Portal shows marked homework next to timed results. When the two are close, homework is a fair guide to the exam. When they drift apart, it tells us what to change next.
The research behind this, in plain language: Does my child still need a tutor now that AI can explain everything?
We choose our students as carefully as families choose us.
Every family completes the diagnostic before enrolment is discussed, and not every family is offered a place.
Ambitious, coachable, willing
A goal they can name, the work done between sessions, and honesty about what is not understood. Academic level is not a criterion.
Marks without change
Students who want the result without changing a habit, and families who want a tutor rather than a system. We say so at the diagnostic and point to a better fit.
What others will not
When your child does not need us. When a subject choice is a mistake. When the target is unrealistic this year, and what is realistic instead.
Diagnostics are open now
Every family starts with the $80 diagnostic: about 20 minutes online, plus emailing us your child’s key documents. The written Diagnostic Report follows within 48 hours, and a place is offered in writing only when a programme fits.
Places in The Band 6 Campaign are uncapped. The 99+ Campaign is limited to 8 families per term across Sydney, by invitation.
If we are not the right fit, the family hears it at the diagnostic, in writing, with a pointer to where the fit is better. We would rather lose an enrolment than take one we cannot serve to the standard.
Subject Selection Guide.
Strategy over sentiment. Choose your child’s interest and current strength to see the combinations that play to them, why each works, who it suits, and what to watch for. The same conversation opens every MA99 engagement.
Primary interest
Current strength
A starting framework, not advice. Subject selection deserves a proper conversation about the individual student, on the evidence of their own work.
Where do the marks actually come from?
Every course in the UAC scaling tables, scaled on the published data. Pick your subjects from the categories, slide the marks, and watch which subject moves the estimate most. That insight is the beginning of strategy.
UAC counts your best 2 units of English plus your best 8 other units. Extension courses are 1 unit; Mathematics Extension 1 counts as 2 units when taken with Extension 2. ATAR equiv. is the ATAR your child would receive if every one of their ten units scaled the way that subject does at that mark: the quickest way to see which subjects are carrying the estimate and which are holding it back.
Estimated ATAR
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Discuss the numbers with usScaled on the UAC Preliminary Report on the Scaling of the 2025 NSW HSC ( Tables A3 and A9 ), interpolated between published percentiles. Scaling is recalculated every year and a single HSC mark can map to a range of scaled marks, so treat this as a guide, not a prediction.
