NSW syllabus
Computing Technology, Software Engineering, Enterprise Computing and VET IDT, tutored by someone who does this work for a living rather than someone who read the textbook last week.
Why it helps
NSW rewrote its computing syllabuses recently, and the new versions are noticeably more practical than what came before. Secure software architecture, cybersecurity principles, data visualisation, mechatronics and networking are all in there now.
That is a good change for students, and a hard one for revision. Questions increasingly ask you to reason about how a real system behaves rather than recite a definition. If you have never seen a network actually fail, or watched what a badly secured application does under pressure, those questions are difficult to answer convincingly.
That is the gap I fill. I work with this technology daily, so we can stop and look at the real version of whatever the syllabus is describing. The concept tends to stick immediately once you have seen it working, or seen it break.
Years 7 to 10
The current syllabus, taught in NSW schools from 2024. It replaced the 2003 Information and Software Technology course and covers substantially more ground.
Year 9 and 10 is also the point where a student decides whether they like this subject. Getting them over an early hump is often the difference between continuing to the HSC courses and quietly dropping it.
Focus areas we cover
Years 11 and 12
Both were completely rewritten for the 2022 syllabuses and are examined on a computer, worth 80 marks.
HSC
The programming-heavy course. Suits students who want to build software, and it is the better preparation for a computer science degree.
Year 11
Year 12
HSC
The systems and business course. Suits students interested in how technology is used by organisations, and in data, security and networks rather than pure programming.
Year 11
Year 12
Not sure which one to pick? Ring me before you choose. It is a twenty-minute conversation that can save a very frustrating year.
The vocational path
The most underrated option on the list, particularly for a student who wants to be working in IT rather than studying it for another four years.
The 240-hour course leads to a Certificate III in Information Technology, includes a minimum of 70 hours of work placement, and can contribute to an ATAR if the student sits the optional HSC examination. That combination is unusual: a nationally recognised qualification, real workplace hours, and a university pathway kept open at the same time.
I help with the coursework, with getting genuine value out of the work placement rather than treating it as a fortnight of watching someone else, and with the exam if the student chooses to sit it.
It also pairs beautifully with a home lab. A student who completes IDT and can talk about infrastructure they built themselves is a genuinely strong candidate for a first help desk role, straight out of school.
On major projects
Both HSC courses end with a substantial project, and it is where marks are most often lost. Rarely because the student cannot do the work, and usually because the scope was too ambitious, the planning was thin, or the documentation was written in a panic during the last fortnight.
So the help I give is deliberately bounded. I will:
I will not write your project, or any part of it that is marked.
That is not me being difficult. Submitting work that is not yours breaches NESA rules and risks your HSC, and it also removes the entire point of the exercise. The project is where you find out whether you can do this. Getting somebody else to do it just delays that discovery until it costs more.
Straight answers
Computing Technology 7-10, HSC Software Engineering, HSC Enterprise Computing, and VET Information and Digital Technology. I also help with the Digital Technologies strand of Technology Mandatory in Years 7 and 8.
Information and Software Technology (2003) has been replaced by Computing Technology 7-10, which schools began teaching from 2024. Students who started IST in 2023 were able to continue with it. Either way I can help, but it is worth checking which syllabus your child is actually sitting.
Yes, and this is where most students need the most help. Both HSC courses finish with a substantial project. I help with scoping it realistically, planning the work, and documenting it properly. I do not build it for you, because that defeats the purpose and breaches the rules.
Yes. Both Software Engineering and Enterprise Computing are examined on a computer, worth 80 marks, split between objective-response items and short-answer questions. Practising under those conditions matters, because the format catches people out.
For a lot of students, yes. It runs 240 indicative hours, includes at least 70 hours of work placement, leads to a Certificate III in Information Technology, and can count towards an ATAR if you sit the optional HSC exam. It is genuinely useful if the plan is to work in IT rather than go to university.
No, and I would not claim to be. I am a working IT professional, so I bring the industry side: what the concepts actually look like in a real system. For syllabus specifics and marking criteria, your teacher is the authority and I work alongside what they set.
