Year: 2019

Nearing the examinations, every second needs to be effectively spent. However, with so many things you want to do but with so little time, compounded with intensifying stress, it becomes difficult to decide what to do.

Some might choose to practise more questions few days before the examinations. Though there are potential benefits to be reaped, I however feel that it is not the most effective way to utilize your time. The primary benefit of practice is to familiarize yourself with the question types and to train your speed. However, these benefits would only be significant if you have been practising frequently. Thus, spending the last few days cramming additional questions would not be of great help to you. Some might argue that solving challenging questions would be beneficial to them. However, I would argue that though one may feel a sense of satisfaction after solving such challenging questions, the likelihood of a similar question coming out is slim. hence, I feel that practising questions days before the examinations would not be helpful.

Instead of drilling on questions, I feel that flipping through you notes and tutorials would derive greater benefits. Flipping through your notes from H2 math tuition or from school would require less time to cover all the content. Moreover, you might also relearn things that you could have missed when you initially learnt the topic. Such missing content is important as they could reveal possible misconceptions that you have and could also be nitpicked by the setters. Additionally, you would also be able to revisit the definitions of certain terms and the understanding of certain concepts. With the 2019 H2 math Paper 2 focusing more on explanation and understanding, I have a strong premonition that future math exams would require us to explain more and hence revising the content would be crucial.

You might also consider flipping through your tutorials be it from school or from A Level math tuition. this would allow you to spot the mistakes that you frequently commit and make sure you do not make such mistakes again. Moreover, you should also take note of the various presentation that the markers are looking out for. For example, in graph sketching, the markers would be looking out for the shape of the graph, the various axial intercepts, the asymptotes, and the labels. The detailed requirements could be easily missed if they are not relooked at.

In addition to rereading of notes and tutorials, you might want to memorise certain formulas, which could not be easily derived on the spot and is not given in the MF26 formula sheet. For example, you may want to memorise the formula for the volume when a curve is rotated around the axes. Moreover, you could also focus on memorizing standard methods that you might easily forget. Methods such as those used to find the distance between planes, lines and dots, to find maxima and minima points etc.

When it’s hours before the exam, some might choose to rest with the rationale that they want a fresh head when they enter the exam hall. I, however, am an advocate of “warming the head up”. That is to avoid feeling lethargic and sluggish before the start of the exam, especially if the paper is in the morning. As a result, not every minute within the exam hall is spent at your optimal performance level. For warm ups, I propose doing a simple set of questions that are not too tough, this could come from your JC math tuition or from your school tutorials. This would activate your brain when you step into the examination hall, allowing you to quickly tackle those first few easy questions and buy more time for the tough ones later on.

Mathematics prior to junior college to most is likely to be a breeze. However, H2 mathematics would have a sudden spike in difficulty that might initially seem impossible to tackle. Most would actually underperform in the first common test, an experience that serves as a testament to how challenging H2 mathematics can be. But fret not, you are not alone and there are ways to tackle these challenges.

The first challenge is speed. It’s common to hear students complain about being unable to complete the questions within the given duration. Common problems include being stuck on a question for a long time and thus unable to complete the easier questions at the back. Often, these questions are the generally harder pure mathematics questions, and hence, many would miss out on the slightly easier statistics questions at the back when it comes to the paper 2.
To resolve time management issues, one should first learn how to “let go”. However tempting it may be to persevere till you find a solution, this is time consuming and you would incur the opportunity cost of marks that could have been possibly gained if you had tackled the easier questions at the back.

After going through many examinations and gathering my experience from A level Math tuition, my strategy when it comes to tough questions would be to move on if my first attempt at solving them is a failure. You could also set a time limit such that you have to move on if the time is up.

Practice makes perfect. You can get practice questions from the past prelim papers as well as from H2 math tuition. Practising allows you to familiarize yourself with the common question types, giving you a general sense of what the question wants and common methods to tackle it. This would reduce the amount of time that you spend thinking in the exam hall. After much practice, you would be trained to immediately think of the steps of arriving at the answer upon reading the question.

Strategize to your strengths. You would rather spend the limited exam time on questions that you are likely to score compared to questions that stump you. To get the optimal result, you might also want to choose to attempt the topics that you are good at first and secure those marks and then move on to tackle the more unfamiliar topics. Some school tutors might advise their students to finish the statistics questions in Paper 2 first before attempting the pure mathematics ones as the statistics portion is usually easier. In New Dawn Learning Studio’s H2 mathematics tuition classes, students will be advised on exam planning too.

Another challenge would be troubleshooting. This occurs when you know that your answer is clearly wrong, but you have no clue as to where you have made the mistake. Troubleshooting is often time-consuming and more often than not, the error is a result of a small mistake such as a wrong sign or wrong number.

To troubleshoot more effectively, you can try reading through your answer once to find the mistake. if you could not find the mistake after meticulous scanning, you might want to attempt to redo the steps carefully, justifying each step you make with sound mathematical principals. This would allow you to restart afresh and avoid making that mistake again. You might also want to try other methods to solve the question. This is because the original method could have inherent flaws in it. It might not seem obvious to you, but you would not be able to reach the answer as a result. Careless mistakes are also commonly faced problems. As examinees go into a frenzy, they might accidentally skip some questions, miss some number and commit some errors. Moreover, you could misread your own writing and write other numbers or symbols in the preceding steps

Use the graphic calculator to your advantage. Though there is no algebraic manipulation software on it, you could substitute values into your answers to check. This would be useful for summation, integration techniques and differentiation type of questions where the functions could be found in “mode”. Moreover, to find the final answer, certain questions may allow you to use the GC to solve rather than having you manipulate the equation. Examples include simultaneous equations, solving for roots etc.

As the questions are often applied to real-life scenarios, ask yourself if the answers make sense and return to check your working if it does not. In statistics the data given might be obviously siding towards one of the hypotheses, then the p-value should confirm that hence a far deviating p-value should prompt you to check your answers. Moreover, practices from school and H2 math tuition should also give u a sense of what the answer range should be and you’ll make it a habit to check the answers that deviate.

Some may find memorising formulas a difficulty. Formulas like volume finding in integration technique, AP- GP formulas, integration technique formulas., etc, are easily forgettable. Coupled with stress in the exam hall, recalling these formulas is no easy task. Rather than memorising, try to understand the formulas fully such that even if you were to forget the formulas, you could derive them on the spot and not be stuck. Constant practice and getting the right guidance would make your encounters with these formulas more frequent such that recalling them becomes second nature to you.

It is May now. At this point in time, you should have completed all the content in junior college and have taken 2 more major examinations before the A Level exams. You might have also stepped down from your co-curricular activities and there is more time freed up for your studies, especially during the June holidays. With a paradigm shift in your timetable, it could start to get chaotic and pressure would slowly build up as you find yourself spending more time studying. In this article we give some tips on what you can do before you head for the A levels.

Firstly, come up with a timetable as to how you would spend our time. With a sudden change in your schedule where you are no longer committing your time to CCA and other activities, you’re more likely to procrastinate and waste your time. Moreover, you’re more likely to be able to allocate sufficient time to revise for each subject and spend more time on subjects that you are weak in. But remember to allocate time for rest and for family time to, as you would not want to burn out before the A Levels. Ultimately, life is not only about grades and hence you should not sacrifice family relationship and friendship for academics.

Secondly, you should start to consolidate your learning. Since you are likely to have completed or nearly completed the syllabus by this point, you would have a lot of content and notes, be it from school or from A Level Math tuition for example.

It would be difficult for you to remember so much information when it is all over the place. You might want to try drawing mind maps or summary sheets which compact all the information into a few sheets of paper, allowing you to easily refer to content when you need to. This is especially useful for revision before the exams and you can even have a quick read through just before you enter the exam hall.

Thirdly, you should start to practise questions, especially for math, physics, economics and general paper, I have found practising the questions extremely useful. This is because the A Levels test your application of the knowledge in these papers instead of the simple regurgitation of the knowledge. Your school would have given you some revision packages, and if you have signed up for A Level math/ A Level physics tuition classes, you would have also received sufficient questions for you to practice. You could start on those and start to familiarise yourself with the question types and hone the skill to apply your knowledge to different questions.

Lastly, if you are weak in any subjects and think you need tuition, you should start to sign up immediately. Don’t see tuition classes as a silver bullet, as it requires time for the tutor to teach you and for you to learn. Going for tuition one month before the A Levels exams will arguably have small returns even though I am sure both the tutor and student try their best. Start to look for a good tuition class early so that you could start to build your content knowledge and skills as soon as possible, allowing you to more easily overcome the upcoming examinations and A Levels.

6 months might seem like a long time, but you would have to spend it wisely if not you would regret when you take the a levels. Start a timetable, consolidate your knowledge and start practicing questions. If you have to, sign up for jc math, physics or chem tuition and receive the aid you need before its too late.

As one ends his or her O level journey, one might wonder what the difference is between junior college mathematics and secondary school mathematics. I hope to shed light through this article about the differences between junior college and secondary school that might help you to make a better decision when choosing your subject combination after secondary school.

Junior college is very similar to university in a way that JC students are taught in lectures and tutorials rather than being limited to the usual classroom settings where a teacher is allocated to each class. Lectures would teach students the content and the tutorial would tackle questions that are assigned to the students.

1. Lectures

In a lecture, a single lecturer engages the entire class and teaches to many students at one go. Especially for popular subjects such as H2 mathematics or H2 chemistry, there would be many classes sitting in the lecture hall and the session would be less interactive. Knowledge would only be transferred in one direction—from the lecturer to the students. The less engaging the lecturer is, the more people would dose off. Moreover, once you miss an important part of the lecture, you would be easily lost and would become disengaged from that point. Though lectures are recorded, you might not want to re-watch the lecture given that time is really of the essence especially when the A levels are nearing.

My tips to surviving Math lectures:

1. Read up before the lecture and do the example questions for mathematics if possible. This would allow you to catch up with the lecturer and not feel lost when the lecture introduces new content. Moreover, you would know what to listen out for when the lecture is given so instead of being overwhelmed by the new content, you would be picking the information you need to fill your gaps in understanding.
2. Make notes by the side to keep your brain active. More often than not, just listening to the lecturer would not allow content to be effectively absorbed and registered in the brain. By taking notes, it would allow you to record your train of thoughts and important tips that the lecturer might give. In addition, it could stimulate your brain to think more deeply about the content, allowing a better understanding of the subject.
3. Attend A Level math tuition classes. Honestly, if you were unable to keep up with the content and are more used to the secondary school way of teaching, tuition classes could help you to better grasp the subject. This should be done as soon as you realise that you cannot keep up, so that you would not lag behind too far.

2. Time management

Previously in secondary school, you would be taking around 8-10 subjects, and you can constantly toggle between subjects when revising to ensure that some time is allocated to each subject. Now, the game changes on the junior college level where you are only required to take 5 core subjects, excluding Project work, but the caveat is that each question requires a significantly greater amount of time.  In secondary school, a math question can be completed within 5 minutes or so, however, in junior college it would require 15-20mins, especially during the initial stage when you still do not have a good grasp of the subject. Time becomes tight before major examinations, and thus you would really want to optimize your time and reap the most benefits from each hour of revision, with the opportunity cost being significantly high.

JC Math tuition classes could help you with this, where materials are carefully curated so that you do not have to spend time and effort on revision that reap little gains. Moreover, the summary sheets and notes that they could offer would help reduce the amount of time needed to revise the topics, buying up more time for practice questions.

3. Lecture Notes

Textbooks would be almost non-existent in junior college. Instead there will be lecture notes that the teachers created. As lecture notes are uniquely curated by each junior college, it is common that the lecture notes might be lacking something in one school, or simply contain too much information as compared to the other schools. Furthermore, the notes may sometimes be hard to digest, and you could spend hours wrecking your brains trying to comprehend them.

Writing out your own summary would help condense the information from the lengthy notes so you’ll be able to revise more efficiently nearing the A level examinations. In addition, you should clarify any doubts that you have with your tutors when you have problems understanding the notes. You could also try to attend JC math, chemistry or physics tuition classes, which would also provide notes that could possibly be more comprehensive and are easier to understand. Moreover, if you are afraid to ask your tutors in school, tutors at JC tuition centers like New Dawn Learning Studio are very friendly and approachable should you want to clarify your doubts with them.

Taking the junior college route would be a very fast paced 2 years of your life. Though it could be challenging at times, there are always ways to tackle obstacles along the way. While JC tuition classes may help you tackle this insurmountable challenge, it would too require your own effort to survive junior college.

After taking further mathematics for 2 years and looking back, I don’t regret my seemingly rash decision during matriculation when I chose to take up the subject. Hence through this article, I hope to shed some light on further mathematics as a subject and give some advice to JC students who plan to take it.

1. Content

There are a few further mathematics topics that build on the H2 math topics that would teach us more depth into those topics. For example, JC students who take H2 math would only learn integration application limited to the scope of area and finding volume using disc method. However, in further mathematics, you would be taught how to find the volume using shell method, and how to find length of arc and surface area of a rotated curve. Moreover, the integration would not be limited to cartesian and parametric forms but would include polar forms as well.

In addition to building onto topics, there are also additional topics within further mathematics, such as linear algebra which initially teaches the use of matrices and then moves on to linear spaces followed by eigenvalues and eigenvectors, which is taught in 1^st year university math courses. However, some of these new topics like linear algebra could be very abstract and maybe difficult to grasp initially which might cause some to struggle.

2. Teaching style

JC students who take up further mathematics are spared from the large lectures that students who take H2 Mathematics have to attend. Instead the lecture group is usually the class itself, which also means that there are more interactions with the lecturers. Its more akin to a math lesson in secondary school where question could be asked during the lecture as oppose to one sided teaching whereby the students merely engage passively in class. 

3. Teaching pace

As further mathematics is built on H2 mathematics, you could expect to complete the H2 syllabus before your peers that opted for H2 mathematics (I completed mine at the start of J2). In a week, there would be 2 topics that are taught at the same time, usually taught in an alternating fashion. This applies to tutorials as well.

You would be required to complete tutorials and assignments as quickly as possible and try to keep to the deadlines as it would be difficult to catch up if you lag behind. You are also expected to read up and try the example questions within the lecture notes so that you won’t be lost during lectures.

My suggestion would be study during the holidays. Other than the March, June and September holidays that are used to revise for the examinations that come after them, the December holidays should be used to study as well. Either revise on the topics that you are weak at or start reading up on the next few topics so that when school reopens, it would be easier to catch up.

It is common knowledge that the pace that mathematics is taught is very fast and you need to be adept enough to switch between different topics as different topics are taught together. If you find your H2 math being weak, you should immediately seek help as soon as possible. This is where H2 Mathematics tuition could help you to strengthen your foundation and the weekly practices at New Dawn Learning Studio ensure that you never lose touch of H2 mathematics techniques.

4. Learning style

Other than different lecture styles, the way JC math is being taught differs vastly between junior colleges in Singapore. Instead of making it an individual effort where it is only you against the questions, my junior college encourages discussions. It is no longer only about getting the answer, but also whether there is a more elegant and succinct solution, whether there are cases that one would fail to think about and whether the presentation is clear. All these require your peers’ eyes and thoughts as well, and you too will learn from them and improve yourself.

Generally, JC math teachers and tutors are very passionate about the subject. You could expect to pick up additional information that are not within the syllabus that the teachers feel could be useful in tackling questions in A Levels as well.

For example, I was taught the De Morgan’s law, which is extremely useful in tackling probability questions in H2 math as well. Your peers too will be very passionate and you could pick up some additional information from them. The level of passion for elegant and beautiful math is what differentiates a H2 mathematics class from other mathematic subjects across all levels. So if you love math as much as I do, then New Dawn Learning Studio provides the perfect learning environment for you.

I am sure that anyone that loves math would enjoy such an environment.