Frequently asked questions

Yes — if you are joining mid-topic or miss a lesson, we will always catch you up through resources such as detailed lesson videos (available on Cognito Online, our learning platform) and tutorials bookable with your teacher.

We try to stay ahead of school, our standard stream is ~4 weeks ahead whereas our accelerated stream is 1 term ahead. We also have flexible breaks so students don't miss out on class when they have their exam blocks. As such, our terms do not align with school terms.

For all our school-specific classes, we follow each school's unique order of progression of topics to match school assessments. If new students are able to form a new school specific class with their friends, we can run the lessons at their order and pace.

If none of the schedules above suit you, please get in touch, and we’ll do our best to make it work.

Fixed breaks are scheduled breaks that cannot be changed. This is when all Cognito students and staff go on holiday.

Flexible breaks however can be taken at any point during the term, based on the students needs and preferences. For example, a class may choose to take a flexible break during exam week to focus on their schoolwork. Each Cognito term typically contains 1 flexible break.

Usually, no — our regular weekly classes for the term program take a break during school holidays. However, we often run separate holiday programs for students who want to continue studying.

📌 Year 12 students will continue classes during the final school holidays before graduation to help prepare for final assessments.

Cognito Tuition offers a 2-week, obligation-free trial. If you choose to continue, the trial lessons will be included in your invoice. If not, there's nothing to pay — no strings attached.

No — there’s no lock-in period. If you choose to drop a subject at school and need to discontinue the course at Cognito, your invoice will be adjusted on a pro rata basis.

No problem! If you know in advance, simply book a make-up lesson through Cognito Online. If you cannot attend a makeup lesson, we provide you the lesson booklet and all the digital resources you need to catch, including lesson videos, and topic revision videos. If you're unsure or need help, send @Elfie a message on Slack, and we'll help you reschedule.

Our HSC terms are 8 weeks long whereas our preliminary terms are 7 weeks long. Being in their final, crucial year of high school, students tend to utilise our additional services such as online tutorials and Slack Q&A to a much greater extent. We price our courses by approximating this utilisation rate, then averaging our expenses across the cohort. Due to the greater difficulty of the year 12 syllabus, we produce a significantly greater amount of homework questions, worksheets, webinars, videos and mock exams for our year 12 students.

Yes — you can create a new class with friends (subject to teacher availability). Each person will need to fill out the enrolment form and list the others in the “Names of desired classmates” field. You’ll need at least 4 students in total (including yourself) to form a new class.

Yes — Cognito offers accelerated classes for Year 11 & Year 12 HSC Chemistry, Physics and Maths (subject to availability). Our standard classes stay approximately 2–4 weeks ahead of school, but accelerated streams are 1 term. ‍All core content and lesson structure are identical.

No — we firmly believe students should carefully review their own work to understand the criteria and improve their work. We provide full marking criteria and exemplar responses to help students achieve this. When students get stuck on homework, or want feedback on their work, they can reach out via Slack or book a tutorial. Student's will receive professional marking by our highly qualified tutors for their end of module exams as well as our mock exams.

Yes — alongside your weekly classes, you can attend one 1-hour tutorial per week, bookable via Cognito Online. Use this time to: Review tricky topics, go through homework questions, and bring in schoolwork or assignments for your tutor to help with.

If you need extra support, you can ask questions anytime via Slack, book extra tutorials on Cognito Online, access revision videos, past papers, and extra worksheets to keep practising. We also run workshops and webinars which cover revision, study tips, university applications, scholarships and medicine interviews. Everything is included in our course fees, we do not charge extra for any of our additional services!

If you need support in person, see us at the front desk during office hours — or DM @Elfie on Slack — and our friendly admin team will help you.