Exam Success

What Exam Success is

Exam Success is an Australian test preparation site for competitive entrance exams: selective school tests, scholarship exams, gifted and accelerated program entry, and a handful of career aptitude tests. Its main product is a self-paced online course with video lessons, practice drills, video explanations and a final mock test, and around that it sells test papers, ebooks, writing programs, a site membership, a writing club and one-on-one tutoring. The business is run by 12Descartes Pty Ltd, trading as Exam Success, according to the footer, which dates the site from 2011. The courses page states "9+ years of online tutoring experience" and "8,000+ students helped."

The courses are presented as developed by "an A+ Top 5% Exam Scorer." The page names the lead as "a former selective school student, University of Melbourne scholar" with an ATAR of 96.04 who studied logic and reasoning, and the home page describes the material as "Made in Australia from a worldwide community of experts who have done your exam before & aced it." Several parent reviews thank a tutor named Vi Nguyen by name.

Which exams it covers

The exam list is long and specific. It includes the NSW Selective Schools Test (HSPT), the Victorian Selective Schools Test, the Brisbane State High School Selective Test for students sitting in Grade 5 or Grade 6, QLD Academies SMT selective entry for Grade 7 and the Queensland Academies Grade 10 exam offered by Edutest, the GATE and ASET tests in WA, the IGNITE Program exam in South Australia, SEAL and SEALP exams from ACER and Edutest, ACER and Edutest Year 7 scholarship tests, and the Academic Assessment Services scholarship test. Subject courses cover abstract and non-verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, reading comprehension for Grades 5 to 7, narrative writing and persuasive or argumentative writing. Outside school entry, the site also prepares students for NAPLAN Grade 5, IELTS General Training Writing and the ADF Aptitude Test (the Defence Force YOU Session), and the abstract reasoning course lists the NSW Police Force Test and the Vic Police and PSO tests among the exams it suits.

How a course works

Every course is organized into 18 checkpoints. The courses page lays out the routine: learn concepts from expert-created video lessons, test understanding with practice drills (timed or untimed), check answers by watching an in-depth video explanation of each question, note what went wrong and repeat, then finish with a mock test. The FAQ gives the numbers: at least 10 questions in each of 17 checkpoints, so 170 questions or more, and a final Checkpoint 18 practice exam of roughly 30 to 45 questions for Year 7 exams and 50 to 65 for Year 9 exams. Elsewhere the page describes "200+ practice questions per course."

Students mark their own work. The FAQ explains that the courses are self-paced, so the student completes a worksheet and then watches the solution video, which shows both the correct answer and how to reach it. Exam Success argues this is deliberate: a tick or a cross gives a student only a number, while a worked explanation shows where the reasoning went wrong. It also argues against piling on practice papers, preferring fewer, better questions understood properly.

Courses run on a phone, tablet or computer, and students can move forward or back through the units at will; the FAQ calls it "like having the ultimate textbook in video format, and you can flip ahead or back whenever you need it." The videos cannot be downloaded, and everything is accessed on the site.

Writing feedback

Written expression is where the company adds human marking. Course packages include scoring, a revised essay and written feedback on a set number of a student's essays, with the quota given in each package description, and the page notes this bonus is valid for course packages of 4 or more courses only. Students request scoring from their dashboard, and essays are marked until the quota is used or the package expires. The separate writing club and writing programs extend this, and one parent credits the writing club with their son's school offers.

Prices and access

Prices are shown per course and include 10% GST, which is removed for buyers outside Australia. The abstract reasoning course, for example, is listed at $AU163.77. The FAQ says individual courses cost about $160 each, that buying all 7 separately comes to $1000+, and that the full package of 7 courses costs about $500, a saving of around $600. Access lasts 6 months from purchase. Extending access costs $20.90 a month for an individual course purchase and $42.90 a month for a package. For families short on time, Tutors+ Resources gives selected checkpoints for 31 days at a lower price, with unlimited writing prompts. A free preview checkpoint lets a student test-drive a course with no credit card, and payments go through what the site calls a PCI Level 1 payment processor.

On workload, the FAQ says some students take about 37 hours per course, or around 210 hours for all 7. With 6 months to go it suggests 3.5 hours a week; with 3 months, a checkpoint a day across the full package.

Free resources and tutoring

The resources menu offers a blog, free videos, writing prompts, sample essays and masterclass videos, and the home page invites students to ask exam questions in YouTube comments. For students who want a person, the tutoring menu lets families book a tutor.

What parents and students say

Vilas Bhoge, reviewing on Google, writes that the family's daughter cleared the Academic Entry Level Exam for Year 7, sitting in Year 5, for Brisbane State High School, and credits the sample essays and the essay submission in the full video package: her first essay "really got bottom assessment score from Exam Success" and "that was eye opener." Uma Guduru writes: "The writing club helped him a lot. He got into Brisbane State High and also into Queensland Academies." Lucia Fagundes thanks Vi Nguyen for "always responding his inquiries promptly." On the courses page, Emma T. writes that the ADF aptitude course "was a great help. I passed my YOU Session and got all my job preferences!!!"

Who it suits

Exam Success suits Australian families preparing a child for a selective school, scholarship or accelerated program test who want a structured, self-paced course rather than weekly tuition. The breadth of the exam list is its strength: a family in Queensland, Victoria, NSW, WA or South Australia will likely find its specific test named. The checkpoint structure and solution videos suit a student who can work independently and check their own answers honestly, and the essay scoring answers the hardest part to self-mark, provided the family buys a package of 4 or more courses. It also covers adults facing the ADF or police aptitude tests.

The caveats are practical. Self-marking needs discipline, and feedback on anything other than essays comes from the videos rather than a teacher unless a tutor is booked. Access ends after 6 months unless renewed, and the videos cannot be saved for offline use.