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Changes in GCE ‘A’ level Education

Mr Khemistry

Changes in GCE ‘A’ level education

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/mid-year-exam-junior-college-jc-millennia-institute-ministry-education-3311161

Headlines:

    1. No more Mid-Year examinations
    2. General Paper made compulsory
    3. Project Work becomes a pass/fail subject
    4. University Admission Score will be rebased to 70 from 90

1)     Some thoughts regarding the scraping of mid-year exams – less administrative work to prepare for a major exam, more time to put back into lessons and learning. But, like what many others have already pointed out, without this major milestone check, students will be in for a rude shock when it comes to their End of Year Exams.

“The removal of mid-year examinations will not be replaced (emphasis mine) by more school-based assessments, and JCs and MI must not administer more than one weighted assessment per term, MOE said in a separate press release.”

If this is really the case, students will not have a timely feedback on their progress via exams conducted under time-constraint. There are two things that might happen, one is schools will give more assessments but will not call them ‘weighed assessments’, the second is that students and parents might turn to tuition centres to conduct the assessments instead.

The elephant in the room is still the way students are graded at the GCE ‘A’ level exams, as long as the format of the exam doesn’t change, the way the students/parents prepare for it wouldn’t change much.

2)    GP is taken by the vast majority of students anyway, only 100 students took KI as an alternative in 2022, so this change isn’t that significant.

3)    Making PW a pass/fail subject is a de-emphasis on the subject. The most likely effect this will have is that students will spend much lesser time and focus on their content subjects which contribute to University Admission Score. I personally feel that this is a good move as i see the J1 students spend a disproportionate amount of time researching and on meetings.

4)    The fourth content subject and MTL would only count towards the UAS if it scores better compared to GP. A likely outcome for students who are very poor in language will bank on the fourth content subject to replace GP in their UAS.

On the other hand, students who are strong in either GP or MTL might not need to put so much effort for their fourth content subject. Most arts stream student tend to struggle with the contrasting H1 science subject so it will be good for them to leave it out of their UAS. However, the best bet for science students struggling with contrasting H1 arts subject may simply be to focus on GP.

In any case, having two less subjects contributing to UAS is a good step towards relieving the workload for our ‘A’ level students.

What do you think? 🙂

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Transition Element (Common Last Topic)

Mr Khemistry

Annoucement

Minister Chan just announced on 27th July 2021 that the common last topic will be taken out of the A levels examinations this November.

For those of us who already did the topics, it seemed like time was wasted to teach this topic. But the good thing is students will have less to revise this year.

Rightfully so as the multiple disruptions due to tightening/loosening covid measures surely affected the students’ ability to focus.

With the time now freed up from revising transition elements, we can now focus on the topics that are left.

Focus on the Theme: Creative Writing for PSLE Excellence

For those of you who have not done up a revision schedule, now is the best time to plan it.

IMHO, A levels is not something you can decide to pia overnight and score a distinction for it. Far from it.

Unless you consistently revise and put in the effort to practise, it is almost guaranteed that you will not get a quality grade. (A or B)

Such is the rigour of this national examination.

 

If you need a crash course or intensive revision classes, feel free to drop me a whatsapp @ 83322534.

Will see what i can do to help! Gambatte!

 

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Tang Ping

Mr Khemistry

Tang Ping

Read an article about a trending movement from China/Hongkong called “Lying flat”.⁠ ⁠ Reading the articles makes me think, this is the other extreme of the FIRE 🔥 movement. But rather then working really hard and saving almost all of your take-home pay so that you can reach financial independence much earlier and retire early, Lying Flat movement simply adopts a monastic mindset.⁠ ⁠

Don’t get married 🤵🏻👰🏻, don’t have kids, don’t buy a car and don’t buy a flat. Just do the minimal work to get by. Some take it to extremes and don’t even socialize in order to save money.⁠ ⁠ The underlying (no pun intended) worldview is one of killing all desires so that you wouldn’t be used as a money-making pawn by the elites.⁠ ⁠ This mindset most likely is spawned by the country’s widening gap in income 💰 between the rich and poor. ⁠ ⁠

 

Hope SG will manage our equality gap so that our young will not get disenchanted and give up on life. 😔⁠ ⁠

Ref: ⁠ ⁠ https://radiichina.com/laying-flat-involution/⁠ ⁠

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/why-china-youth-lying-flat-093936762.html ⁠

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Transition Elements

Mr Khemistry

Transition Element

Last year due to Covid 19, we did not cover the common last topic, which was Transition Element.

This year, i was waiting for some announcement from SEAB to see whether TE would be tested in A levels this Nov. Alas, the announcement never came.

In the absence of any official announcements, i guess we would have to cover this common last topic this year.

Hopefully, SEAB wouldn’t change its mind at the last minute and say it will not test TE.

Very likely this trend of Circuit breaker and calibrated re-opening will continue for a good 2-3 years. Will need to plan ahead so that disruptions are minimize as much as possible.

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Mr Khemistry will be moving progressively to online classes over the next few years.

Watch this space!

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Encouragement

Mr Khemistry

Encouragement

Recently had a parent WhatsApp a thank you message to me, it was an unexpected surprise for me as the student was usually very quiet in class.

Such a simple message but it had a profound impact on me.  In this period where everyone is feeling a little drained from working/studying from home, a positive message gives great encouragement. I hope everyone will try to spread a little positivity like the #Steadylah campaign by some celebrities. It really does spread cheer and lift up the spirits of a world crippled by Covid lockdowns.

If you would like to receive such messages, why not start to send a few of these out yourself? If you like to reap an apple, first you got to plant the apple seed! 🙂

Share with me how you spread joy to the people around  you! Tag me on Facebook or Instagram, i will ping you back!

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Reflection and awareness

Mr Khemistry

Reflection and awareness

In this fast paced society, it is imperative that we take time for reflection at the end of the day.

To be aware of what is happening around us and how we are living our lives.

I once heard from Bob Procter, ” If all the good of the universe is pour over us, it wouldn’t make the slightest different UNTIL, we become AWARE of it“. Think about it, until a child becomes aware what money is and what it can buy, they wouldn’t actually be happy even if you write them a cheque for a million dollars.

Our awareness, or consciousness, of opportunities around us…needs to be awaken. Through mentors who have done it before, through reading books, through reflections.

Thinking back when i was younger, reflection isn’t a part of my routines and i didn’t really grow in awareness.

Sometimes when i look at students, there are those who reflect upon what they’ve learnt and grew in knowledge. And then there are those who keep repeating the same mistakes no matter how many times they do the same kind of questions.

Parents are understandably worried when they do not see improvements after a few months of tuition, but we would need to see how the student revise their work and if they do any form of reflection.

Reflecting on what they have done and their thought process, then seeing the answers and the thought process required. How to bridge that gap? There’s a few ways students can bridge this gap.

  1. Hard core repetition. Keep on doing prelim and tys questions. Try to remember all the different types of questions and the answers. Rote learning.
  2. Doing a few questions, analyse and try a few more questions to see if you understand the concepts.

There are countless ways which cambridge can  phrase the questions, using the rote learning method might land you a decent grade but most likely not a distinction. There are around 25-30% of questions which are novel, which means you need to think on the spot. If you can’t think using the concepts that you’ve learnt, probably wouldn’t do exceptionally well for Advanced level exams.

To see how we train students in our weekly classes, drop us an message at mrkhemistry.com!

Look forward to hearing from you! 🙂

Déjà vu

Mr Khemistry

Déjà vu

We are transiting to Home-based Learning again. I told my wife that i have a feeling schools and tuition centres are going to be shut down…imminently.

As it turns out, i was right. The rise in unlinked community cases is ominous. This is a very good time to think about the trade-offs we have to take as a nation.

Some friends around me are very pissed that Government did not handle the situation well and imposing lock-down again because they made the mistake of not restricting foreigners from high risk countries (from South Asia).

Thinking a bit deeper, i find that Government is stuck in between a hard place and a rock.

Restricting workers from South Asia will lead to a crunch in the construction sector….which will impact existing work and work that has been delayed due to the previous lockdown. Read article here. It is not as simple as just continuing to work with the existing workers as some of them return home when their passes expires. Without new workers, construction activities will come to a halt and delays lead to job losses…which impacts locals holding related jobs too.

In any case, even if the government shuts down borders quickly and we managed to avoid the rise in community cases…we’d still have to eventually open up to the same countries as we need the workers. Locals are not likely to take up construction jobs overnight. The whole situation will only improve if global cases starts to drop, otherwise, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to isolate Singapore totally.

Covid has caused an uneven economic situation where certain industries are impacted much harder while some others do relatively well. This will most likely exacerbate the economic inequality and cause tensions within the society. Many people think that they are smarter and able to make better decisions than the government. In my humble opinion, not many truly appreciate the constrains we have. Trickle down effects of a hard closure of borders will only be felt after a few weeks.

I urge everyone to stand united and support each other through these trying times!

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Photography

Mr Khemistry

Photography

Recently, had a friend do a corporate photoshoot for me. Wasn’t expecting too much as the previous photoshoots sessions i had were un-inspiring.

But i was pleasantly surprised. He brought along the lighting gear and the prime lenses…also had an assistant to help with the set-up.

Very different from the photoshoots i had previously. Not that the previous photographers wasn’t professional, it was just a spirit of excellence that Ken (my photographer friend) put into the shoot.

He captured the class in session without disrupting the lesson, knew exactly which is the better side to take my profile picture, generally gives people the feeling of a true professional. Now i know why he’s so sought after. Below are some of the pictures he took for me that day.

I guess in life, you kind of have to go through those who are amateurs, those who just do the bare minimum, the professional and then you have the ones at the top of their game. Ken belongs to the last group, his passion for photography is matched only by his expertise in utilizing those high tech gears and lenses. The end result is an art form which elevates the mundane to the extraordinary. Thank you bro, for your outstanding service!

Here at Mr Khemistry, we aim to provide the best tuition service for JC H2 Chemistry, coupled with a passion to help students achieve their fullest potential. Our tools are pen and paper, but our real weapon is Teaching with Heart. Come join us if you still struggle with Chemistry concepts, we will show you how easy it is to learn Chemistry! 🙂

By the way, for those who are interested in engaging Ken’s service, please google “Blackbox Photography” or Ken Photography.

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Your Frame of Mind

Mr Khemistry

Your Frame of Mind

Was just re-watching a Youtube video by Simon Sinek regarding frame of mind, you may listen to it here:

In the video, Simon talks about how elite athletes interpret their body signals due to the adrenaline. For the same symptoms, they’ve learnt to see that as excitement, which makes them look FORWARD to the competition, rather than nervousness, which makes them shrink back from the challenge.

In the same way, much of life’s events in and of themselves does not have any negative connotations, rather, it’s our thinking that makes it so.

When we have tests and exams, how do we look at it? Most students think of it as a drag, they hate getting back their tests and seeing a bad grade. They dread mugging and studying intensively.

I remember that was a time i look forward to taking Math exams and tests because it’s so simple (i was in primary 3) and i’d always score full marks. I remember the anticipation and watching for my math teacher to come up the stairs towards my classroom to return our scripts. I realised it’s because i’ve framed the event in my mind as proud moments where i stand head and shoulders above all the other students.

After that, i wasn’t always so outstanding, scoring close to full marks and the feeling of anticipation and excitement died off.

What if we could frame our interpretation of tests and exams as something that we excelled in? Imagining that we are so good at the subject that we score full marks, always looking forward to the release of our results. This feelings will cause us to enjoy studying a lot more and understand concepts better, scoring better grades and it becomes a virtuous cycle.

Be careful that you don’t just imagine yourself doing exceptionally well and do nothing about it. That is called wishful thinking.

Do you want to do better for JC H2 Chemistry? Come join us at our weekly lesson and experience first hand how to Frame your Mind!

Cheers!

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Procrastination

Mr Khemistry

Procrastination.

It’s the one silent killer that kills all our best intentions. Why do we always wait until it’s too late? Prevention is better than Cure, but nobody believes it. It’s the same with health, studies, career, relationships, income/sex inequalities, even global warming.

We wait until the symptoms can no longer be ignored. A stroke, heart attack, diabetes, high cholesterol. Failing grades, retrenchment, divorce, societal unrest/revolt, rising sea levels, crazy weather storms.

What do all these things have in common?

Their decline is unnoticeable, minute. A slow boiling of the frog. And our adaptability works against us here.

Mel Ribbons gives a great interview here with Tom Bilyeu about how we can stop procrastination.

One of the best habits i have which helps me mightily in the fight against procrastination is a daily to-do list.

Obeying and checking off the to-do list gives me a sense of progress, which is sooooooo important to get us moving off our butts. I know that when i fail to come up with a to-do list by Sunday night, most of the time, i’m going to be lounging around the house getting nothing much done for the whole week. But when i have a list, it reminds me, no it whips me mentally to look at it and get off my butt.

Although a to-do list is a good idea, do make sure that the things that you list helps your progress towards one of your long term goals that you care deeply about. How to know what goals you care deeply about? That’s a post for another day 🙂

So what is your weapon against procrastination? Do you even know what are the areas in your life you need to stop procrastinating?

Take action today, now! Like Mel says, use the 5 seconds rule to just do it, don’t let your brain have the time to talk you out of it.

All the best! 🙂

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