Year 4 student Harry practised mental addition and subtraction, including using a number line and jump counting to make calculations faster.

In Year 8, Sam worked on applying index laws for multiplication and division as well as expressing numbers in scientific notation.

Meanwhile, Year 10 student Lily focused on graphing parabolas by hand and with Desmos, along with extracting features of quadratic equations such as turning points and axis of symmetry.

A Year 10 student often relied on guessing rather than structured working when tackling algebraic problems—"sometimes just tried to solve questions through guessing"—which led to confusion with positive and negative numbers.

In a Year 8 session, homework was frequently incorrect but improved dramatically when completed alongside the tutor, highlighting a lack of independent checking at home.

For one Year 3 learner, distraction and off-topic conversations regularly interrupted progress during basic addition tasks.

Meanwhile, a senior student tackling trigonometry tended to apply unrelated formulas instead of recalling general principles, slowing their ability to adapt in unfamiliar question types.

One O'Malley tutor noticed a Year 10 student who had previously struggled with translating graphs now recognising and applying the correct transformation steps independently after just one clear explanation.

Another high schooler made visible progress in quadratics—after weeks of difficulty, she could finally factorise monic equations without prompts and even found the axis of symmetry herself during practice.

In a recent session with a younger student, the tutor observed him completing all his addition problems quickly and for the first time didn't need to use his fingers for counting, instead recalling strategies from previous lessons.