7 Questions You Must Ask Before Buying ANY Maths Program It angers us when we hear from parents telling us they’ve been sold an expensive maths program that they're not happy with and can’t get their money back – in some instances thousands of their hard-earned dollars. Unfortunately it’s becoming more and more frequent. Don’t buy ANYTHING until you first know the answers to these questions. Only then will you be able to make the right decision – a decision that will affect your child’s future. 1. Is this program Australian made and who made it? Extremely important. Some of the most heavily advertised programs are actually based on an overseas syllabus (South African, UK, etc) and leave your child very short on what’s required for Australian kids. Mathematics.com.au is Australian made and owned. Created and produced by top Australian teachers with vast experience inside the classroom across all levels – government schools, private schools, Catholic schools and even home-schooling. 2. What’s the cost? If you can’t get a straight forward answer to this question then you can be sure that they will try to sell you a program for $4500+. Companies that use this approach will want to do a sales presentation in your home which is heavy on emotional hard-sell and has little to do with providing what’s best for your child. You want a program that’s high quality and affordable. All of our prices are clearly displayed throughout our website – no need for smoke-and-mirrors here! 3. How much of the syllabus does the program cover? There are a number of companies that claim that they’re based on the Australian maths syllabus. This is an UNBELIEVABLE claim for one simple reason – an Australian maths syllabus simply does NOT exist, there is no such thing. So beware of such claims. To ensure that the program will cover material required by all states and territories, ask to see a detailed topic and lesson list. Reasonable programs should have a minimum of 100 lessons per school year. Our programs have more than 120 lessons per school year and detailed lesson lists are available on our site. 4. What qualifications and experience do the teachers have? A great question to ask – ask for the teachers name, how many years of experience they have in schools, and what schools they were at. Some companies on their website will claim that all their programs are put together by experienced and qualified teachers. You need to find out how experienced these teachers are and if there are mainly university students offering phone support. These university students may in time become great teachers, but it’s probably best for them not to practice on your child first. 5. Can we trial the program first with no financial risk? When considering any major purchase you have every right to be given a fair trial of it with no strings attached. Many companies say that they can’t offer you a trial of their program other than what they show you during their presentation, where the sales consultant is driving the software. Don’t allow that to happen – insist that you be able to trial the program for a month and if you're not happy with it (for any reason) be able to get all your money back. Beware of companies that say you can trial their program for only a nominal cost of postage and handling PLUS your extra costs for return postage – you will still be out of pocket by more than $50 for this supposed free trial. 6. What’s the track record of the program? This is one question that can be tough to get a truthful answer on. Can you believe a claim that “there are 50,000 students using this program” yet there is no proof? Or that there are “100s of schools using the program” yet not one school can be listed. Or even websites that show TV stories that are years old – the story can be about a program that the company no longer has the rights to even sell. So the safest thing is to forget any company claims about themselves. Look for testimonials from REAL people, with REAL results. Look at feedback given by the kids using the program – you can’t get more honest than that. But above all, the most reliable recommendations will come from highly respected outside sources, such as Government Education Departments or large Corporations. We are very proud to be able to say that McDonalds Corporation Australia has exclusively chosen the Mathematics.com.au programs to provide their 48,000 high school employees with expert online maths tuition. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY 7. Will my child have the flexibility to get help on their current school work as well as help with earlier problem areas? Many parents have contacted us wanting to know the answer to this very important question. Avoid any programs that will lock your child into a set program and don’t allow them the freedom to work on what they NEED to. We ’ll give you an example. Say you have a son in Year 9 who is struggling a bit. Now most probably he’ll need some immediate help with his current class-work AND will also need to do some remedial work with SOME earlier topics from Year 7 and 8. What you don’t want is for your son to be locked into having to go through the WHOLE Year 7 and 8 courses (wasting plenty of time on some of the most basic stuff) BEFORE being allowed to progress to work he needs help with NOW. Students who get locked into set programs soon get discouraged and resentful that they’ve got to waste their time “doing all this easy stuff” while they fall further and further behind on their current class-work. It’s much more effective getting immediate help, and when time permits, fixing up select problem areas from previous years. DON’T BELIEVE claims that you need to buy a full course for ANY earlier year than what your child is currently in – they just want to sell you more, they know your child doesn’t need all of it. |