Maths Make Me Mad!!!

Hi Parents. Other than Chinese, Maths has always been a killer for students. According to some of my former students, it is not uncommon for a whole class to fail a Maths exam. But it is not supposed to be a subject that students should fail because A1 is a very realistic target. More importantly, it is a subject that students can’t afford to fail because it is a compulsory subject when calculating L1R4 and L1R5.

In school exams, A1 is 75/100 but do you know that in O level exam, A1 is, on the average, actually 90/100? Well, at least that is the figure I heard from rumours. Seeing how easy this year’s O level Maths is, I believe A1 may jolly well be 100/100. If Maths is such a difficult subject, how on earth is it possible for the A1 cutoff points to be so high?

Well, unlike PSLE Maths, where Section C can be very hard, secondary school Maths is very systematic in the sense that if you know the steps and procedure to solving the question, you get the marks. If you don’t, you lose the marks. You don’t really have to squeeze a lot of brain juice because it s either you know or you don’t, unlike PSLE Problem Sums. I believe that the top students are so well drilled and so well versed in the methodology of solving questions that they can easily get full marks and hence, the high cutoff points for A1.

As a tutor, my target for students is always A1 even if they have been F9 students. I will teach my students the concepts that they need to know to deal with questions set from a topic. For example, when learning Trigonometry(I), the student will learn when to use toa, when to use cah and when to use soh. My students will also be well aware that when learning Trigonometry(II), it will be another set of formulae. I have a set of comprehensive notes which after going through, my students should realize that Maths is not that difficult. I will have a lot of questions for them to practice and after a while, they should be able to solve questions on auto gear.

If your child is in Lower Sec and not doing well in Maths, I will help him/her to overcome the fear for Maths so that he/she can do well enough to take A Maths in Upper Sec. And if your child can take A Maths in Upper Sec, it means that he/she will stand a very high chance of getting 2 As for the 2 Maths subjects.

If your child is in Upper Sec, it is still not too late. It will only be too late when it is 3 months before O level exams. To be honest, I have problem saving a student who call me this August and I don’t wish to have a repeat of that. 
 If you or your child is on the verge of despair, but would still want to make one final effort to overcome Maths, please give me a call at 8177 0278.

Message to Parents

Dear Parents

Below are 2 questins from this year 2011 PSLE.

"A school was holding an event and tickets were sold to the teachers and pupils. Each teacher had to pay $20 each and each student had to pay $8 each. The teachers bought 1/4 of the tickets and the rest were bought by the students. The total cost of the tickets bought by the students was $416 more than the total cost bought by the teachers. What was the toatl cost of all the tickets? "

"Mr Lee had 185 more chicken pies than tuna pies. After he sold 3/5 of the chicken pies and 1/2 of the tuna pies, there were 146 pies left. How many pies were sold?"

How long does your child take to solve them or can your child solve them at all? This year, some students had found them easy and some found them difficult. In my opinion, these 2 questions will be easy if you know how to systematically draw the models and IDENTIFY THE TECHNIQUE NEEDED. On the other hand, if you don't know the techniques or worse still, don't even know how to draw models, solving problem sums will almost be impossible.

As a tutor, I have many years of experience and understood very well what difficulties students are facing. Often, what they learnt in schools are inadequate to help them tackle these problem sums effectively. Basee on what they learn in school, they can score well in Paper 1 (MCQ and short structure), but what about Paper 2 (Problem Sums)? That is where I come in, to help the students master the TECHNIQUES to effectively answer P2 Problem sums. For my students, scoring 80s and 90s should be the norm.

For the past few years, I am proud to say that I have helped many students score As and A-stars. Of course, there had been students whom I can't help and in these cases, I will be honest and upfront about it, so that the student's time and the parents' money won't be wasted.

PSLE Maths

20% of Peter's money is $40 more than 30% of John's money. John then gives Peter 2/3 of his money. Peter now has $310 more than John. How much money did Peter have at first?

Dear Parents,
                     With less than 5 months to go before PSLE, how is your child coping with those Section C Problem Sums, questions such as the one above?

                     To do well in PSLE Maths, Problem Sums is a problem students have to overcome. In order to overcome this problem, students must know the correct techniques to draw models. Models that are drawn correctly will enable students to get the correct answers. Mdels that are ddrawn wrongly will only lead to the wrong answers. By the way, no method marks will be awarded for wrongly drawn models.

                     At my tuition center, I will drill into my students the Chin's Method of Model Drawing. I will drill into my students key concepts such as Constant Total, Constant Difference, Constant Identity etc. I will drill my students with tons of practice. Equipped with knowledge of key concepts and Chin's Method of Model Drawing, my students will be able to tackle Problem Sums confidently. With tons of practice, students will then be able to solve Problems Sums within time limit.

                     Interested Parents may give me a call at 9340 2895.