Archives for 2007

You can't memorize Maths!

Yes, it's the truth!

You can't memorize Maths! Rote learning has been deemed as "study dead books" in chinese : du si shu. Yes you can have really good memory but knowledge learnt by pure memorization doesn't get retain long enough and most importantly, it is simply a waste of time and resources since you can't really apply what you have memorized to questions unless you have completely understand the fundamentals and the linkage.

The reason for me posting this up is that I was shocked to find one math tutor with this approach

E-Math Note : Congruency Triangle Tests

I was rather unwilling to talk about this topic previously as I remembered I didn't quite like triangles LOL ( Lame excuse!). Well, things usually turned out the more challenging something is, the more when one avoids, the worse thing get. In Singlish, we called it "Jia Lat" aka 1 Difficult, troublesome. 2 Severe, to a great extent; transf. very bad, terrible." Adopted from singlishdictionary.com

I finally took the "courage" to face this demon & guessed what! I conquered it within 30 minutes using sheer eye power! Read on for a 3 minutes summary on this topic [Read more...] about E-Math Note : Congruency Triangle Tests

Differences between tuition & coaching

Many a times, I tell people that I am a Maths Coach. They will like huh? Maths Coach? You mean tutor?

I am more than a tutor. Though coach is often used in Sports context, I still use it for my designation due to what I provide students.

I not only impart the technical know-hows through real life examples, I also get my dearest students to associate the life skills behind what they are learning. This has proven to be more meaningful for them and this is one of the reasons for students to have breakthroughs in their results.

E-Maths Note: Quadratic Equations & Graphs Series

For those in Sec 3s, you will be learning more about Quadratic Graphs. Not so much of the drawing like in Sec 2s, but more of indepth understanding.

A quadratic graph typically is either a smiley face :) or a sad face :( some prefer to call them U or n shape.

Q1: Do you know how to tell the "mood" of the quadratic graph given its equation? Be very speific to ensure crystal clear understanding.

Eg :) or :(

Malaysia Maths System

From email by a student

I find it most alarming that Malaysian schools teach their children the
> wrong things. I mean: can the children really apply what they are taught
> in school later in life? For example, can you imagine a mathematics
> question in a recent examination as follows?
>
> "If an egg costs fifty Sen, and if you buy one-eighth of the egg, how
> much would you have to pay?" Who in heaven's name will want to buy
> one-eighth of an egg? The shopkeeper will probably think you are crazy
> and he will be equally stupid to break the egg and measure one-eighth
> for you. Yet, this is how they structure the questions in Malaysian
> schools. Why not pose questions that would be more useful later in life
> when you go out into the world to earn your living?
>
> To help Malaysia 's Ministry of Education bet to face the realities of
> life, we are suggesting some questions they could use in our classrooms