Start Your Preparation Early!

Written on December 29, 2010 by Ai Ling in Tuition | Coaching Matters
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Recently, Sean – the colleague at SimpleChemConcepts.com showed me an interesting email his student sent him.

Out of the many updates this student shared was to ‘Start Preparation Early!’ He just completed his GCE ‘O’ Level examinations last month. He wrote to Sean to share his suggestion with all our students. From his experience, he felt that his Sec 4 passed too fast, with time spent on CCAs (he was a student leader) and completion of syllabus. By then, it was just 3 months left to ‘O’ Levels.

As I always talk to students and parents, ‘O’ Levels consist of the examination of the entire Sec 1 to Sec 4 (or 5) work. This is especially true for Elementary Mathematics. For Additional Mathematics, students are required to be good with 2 years of knowledge.

To Sec 4 2011 A-Maths students: please learn your Differentiation & Integration well!  These are the highlights for you.

If you are willing to take this student advice seriously of ‘Start Preparation Early!’, I would like to invite you to join me starting in mid-Jan 2011 in my Ultimate Leap Programme – Weekly Coaching Classes. Click here to read more.

Here are the topics discussed for Sec 3 and Sec 4(or 5) and do note that the sequence is subjected to changes.

I look forward in meeting some of you and Happy 2011! Oh, did I mention that I’ve something for all of you next year. *wink wink* Subscribe to the blog to be updated later in January!

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E-Maths Trigonometry Workshop Post Mortem

Written on December 10, 2010 by Ai Ling in E-Maths, Video Learning
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I completed my E-Maths Trigonometry workshop with a group of sportsmen and sportswomen. We do running, archery, basketball, badminton, bowling…

It was exciting and nervous to meet new faces… They hear my stories, I hear theirs.

For the workshop, I would like to discuss about bearings and the usage of sin formula through this question. Do you have any difficulties in E-Maths Trigonometry? I would love to hear from you! Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Trigonometry E-Maths Question

For bearings, pay attention to these 3 points:

  • 3 figures
  • Reference point
  • Measured from North in a clockwise direction

For sin formula, you must know how to identify an angle and its corresponding length which are opposite each other.

View the video via this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhH1zqwn9uM

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25% of 2010 ‘O’ Level E-Maths Paper 2 is on Trigonometry

Written on November 24, 2010 by Ai Ling in E-Maths, Exam Matters
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I was looking at this year ‘O’ Level E-Maths Papers.  They were overall ‘friendly’ with hardly any surprise. I shall not term the papers as easy or hard.

I was paying attention to the concepts on Trigonometry and it’s interesting to note that the typical short question didn’t appear in Paper 1 instead there were 2.5 questions linked very closely to Trigonometry.

Why Trigonometry you might ask?

Well, many students might not be aware Trigonometry is a fundamental set of formulas and concepts which are closely linked to arc lengths, area of sector, mensuration and any questions involving angles in triangle, area of triangles…

I can’t show you the questions due to copyright but you can get a copy of Ten Years Series book (released in January 2011).

Questions on Trigonometry in 2010 ‘O’ Level E-Maths Paper 2

Question 1 (10 marks) tests candidates on

  • TOA CAH SOH (extensively since the diagram consists of 3 right angle triangles). I suspect some might use SIN rule (nothing wrong but more manipulations) instead of TOA CAH SOH to answer the questions
  • Understanding of bearings

Question 7 (11 marks) tests candidates on

  • Usage of COS rule to find angle
  • Ability to ‘see’ and find angle of depression from paper
  • Manipulation of area of triangle using formula with ‘sin’

Question 8bii (4 marks) tests candidates on

  • Ability to find the height of a triangular surface using TOA CAH SOH

The challenges many students face include:

  • Knowing all the formulas but not being able to select the correct approach fast and accurate enough in test and exams.
  • Not being able to ‘see’ 3D from paper.
  • Lacking the flexibility to manipulate formulas (due to poor Algebraic foundation in Secondary 1 and 2)
  • Not learning from repeated mistakes
  • Unaware of the misconceptions
  • Assumption that you know the important usage of every formula but in fact you don’t

If your child is not scoring ‘A’ for E-Maths, he must know the reason and be prepared to do something about it. In ‘O’ Levels, A1 is unlikely to be 75% and above. It is determined by the bell curve of the entire cohort.

Trigonometry is a very important section in E-Maths and A-Maths. I would like to share with your child the strategies proven to have helped my students to achieve better results in their exams.

Join me in the Dec Trigonometry Workshop today! Click  here to read more.

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Hello, Hanoi – Vietnam

Written on November 21, 2010 by Ai Ling in Cool stuff
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Together with Sean Chua of SimpleChemConcepts.com we took a 9 days educational trip to Northern Vietnam, Hanoi.

It was an eye opener for us to be in the countryside, seeing terrace cultivation, outlines of mountains and mountains, experiencing the beauty of UNESCO world heritage site – Ha Long Bay. I did a video as well.

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS5dL9j2iJo

It’s a drastic change compared to city life. People’s lifestyle in the Sapa villages are less developed, slower. Children there are seen to be playing with traditional games like marbles. They were left to play on their own by the streams, on the soil.

Landscape in Sapa Village

Landscape in Sapa Village

Village children enjoying themselves

Village children enjoying themselves

However, the first thing I was overwhelmed is the traffic in Hanoi city: endless honking of the motorcycles. We hardly use traffic lights to cross the busy roads, we simply walk across quickly. It’s amazing how the locals travel around the busy roads. Traffic is a big part of our experience in Hanoi!

Imagine having to cross this road!

Imagine having to cross this road without traffic lights!

A common sight in Hanoi is that you will find locals, young and old sitting by the road side for a cup of tea, eating a bowl of noddles (known as ‘Pho’) or just catching up with one another. We have a few experiences too. You got to be willing to exchange air con with road side air and don’t expect cleanliness that of Singapore!

Me at streetside, waiting for my corn and sweet potato

Me at street side, waiting for my corn and sweet potato

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