For our latest timetable, click here => 
All Posts
Do NOT practise Math the day before ……..
If there is one really important advice I would like to give to students currently doing the ‘A’ and ‘O’ level exams, it is that you MUST NOT do math problems the day before and the few hours before math exams. If you do, chances are high that you will get a “mental blockage” during the exam, e.g, confusing between differentiation and integration.
My own personal experience supports this advice. Throughout my years in RI, the highest marks for a math exam that I obtained was for the one that I completely did not do any kind of studying the night before; I topped that exam, even outperforming all the gifted students (I was not in the gifted stream). Similarly for my PSLE exam.
About three years ago, one of my A. Math students did not heed my advice. She called me immediately after the first paper, crying and telling me she lost 20 marks, because she left those questions unanswered at all. When I asked why, she said she couldn’t think at all during parts of the exam and she admitted she did problem-solving in the morning before the exam. After heeding my advice for the second paper a few days later, she called back to say it was very easy. Her overall result: A2.
No athlete or sportsperson exercises or practises the day before a competition; the body needs a total rest. Similarly our minds also need to rest as exams are nothing more than a mental exercise and a mental competition.
Post-Sec 2 students should opt to do A. Math and Pure Chemistry ….
This is the period when Sec 2 students choose their subject combinations which can ultimately affect their future career. For the widest opportunities at higher levels, students should opt to do Additional Math and Pure Chemistry, if they qualify.
=======================================================
For our latest timetable, click here =>
A. Math is also important for business courses ….
Just finished teaching applied math to a diploma in busines student. Conclusion: Additional Math is impt for business courses, not just for science courses. Youngsters and parents might want to take note.
For our latest timetable, click here =>
Quote – on Success and Dreams …..
“Success belongs to those who take action on what they believe in. Don’t just dream about doing something. Do something about that dream.” – Ilyasa (2012)
Quote – on opportunity, hope and belief ….
“Given a proper environment with tender, loving care and a good dose of discipline, a single seed can blossom into beautiful roses. All children can be educated if given a chance and the belief.” (Frances Ess, a teacher, in TODAY, 1 Sep 2011, p. 22)
Quote – On Success and Responsibility ….
“You’ll always rise in life to the level of responsibility that you’re willing to accept.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and philosopher.
Quotes – On the relationship between money and intelligence……
“You don’t have to be rich to be clever.” – Ikea.
“You don’t have to be clever to be rich.” – Kishore (my student, 2011)
Quote – On the importance of Asking Questions ….
“The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advances …..” – Albert Einstein.
Quote – On the need to remove labelling …
“..persons marked as unworthy are unlikely to feel good enough to pose the questions in which learning begins, unlikely to experience whatever curriculum is presented as relevant to their being in the world.” (p. 212)
Greene, M. (1993). Diversity and inclusion: toward a curriculum for human beings. Teachers College Record, 95(2), 211-221.