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Clarity

Mr Khemistry

Clarity

You might have heard the advice, “Work harder, practise more, listen attentively to lecture….” What i’m going to share is mindblowing.

All those advice is good but diligence without clarity is nuts!

I’m going to give a sports analogy. Soccer – Most teams will have the manager or coach give them a strategy briefing on how to play the game against the opposing team before the actual match. Why? Isn’t more practise and training enough? Strikers know how to score, defenders know how to defend, midfielders know how to tackle and get possession. Goalkeeper just keep the ball out of the net.

Of course not, soccer is a team game. The players need to know the objective so that they know how they should play. For example, if the opposing team is playing on their home ground, they have the advantage. Also does the team just need a draw rather than a win? Knowing the objective informs the strategy on how to play the game.

For students studying for O or A level Chemistry, or any other subjects, there is a clear objective laid out before every topic. But it seems like no student ever reads those.

Without clarity on what they will be tested on, how will they know the strategy to employ?

Students like to complain that their notes is so thick, so much information that they don’t know what are the important parts. But they failed to recognise that schools MUST give the context for the concepts that they study, otherwise there’s no head no tail. In the same vein, teachers in school need to teach the whole lecture notes because they must give the context. This is good and necessary.

On the student’s part, they will need to filter out the important information that they need to memorise and structure their answers properly with keywords. Without reading through the learning objectives, most students are lost and overwhelmed by the flood of information.

Thus, tuition comes in. What we try to do is to zoom in on the most important and most tested concepts. Then repeatedly tell the students. Why repeatedly? Because i’ve tried telling them once or twice, even three times. They end up forgetting. Repeating the same concepts in different ways/methods helps students to remember.

This post is on clarity and that is what i hope to impart to my students, clarity on what is important and what is not. With clarity, they can then learn to organise the important knowledge, classify them and easily pull them out from their mental cabinets when required.

Are you clear? 🙂

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Sleep and memory retention

Mr Khemistry

Learning and memory retention

BENEFITS OF SLEEPING 8 HRS A DAY. A good sleep is very important for your… | by amberasad | Medium

During sleep, pathways form between nerve cells (neurons) in your brain that help you remember new information you’ve learned. Sleep deprivation leaves your brain exhausted, so it can‘t perform its duties as well. You may also find it more difficult to concentrate or learn new things.” – healthline.com

Guys who go to gym knows the importance of rest days, our physical body needs to rest in order to build up new muscles. If you keep gyming 7 days a week non-stop, pumping iron, without giving your body time to rest, it’s actually detrimental to your body.

In the same way, when you keep studying non-stop, deep into the night, getting less than 6 hours (JC students probably can’t get 9 hrs as recommended!) of sleep daily, this can have a negative effect on your learning and memory retention!

Always have a balance between learning, leisure and rest.

Check out our other blog posts for more tips!

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Organized Learning

Mr Khemistry

Recently i had a chat with one of my top students, she said something which surprised me.

Chemistry is really simple. Especially Organic. Just need to remember the reagents and conditions, or the standard long explanations.”

I was intrigued.

Every couple of years, i get one of these students who actually enjoys studying chemistry specifically.

Probing deeper, i asked, “Why Chemistry? How about Math? Or Bio?”

“Math is not as straightforward as before, Bio is a LOT of memory work. Chemistry is more straightforward, i enjoy doing organic chem questions”

“When did you start to like studying Chemistry?”

“I used to fail Chemistry, until i attended Jeremy’s tuition lessons. (Jeremy’s my partner for O level Chemistry) He taught me how to organize the concepts and since then, i never had problems once i know how to organise my knowledge.”

So desu ne.

This is one way to make it easier to retain information. And there’s a lot of information to remember at A levels.

But make no mistake, this is not a secret hack to do well for A levels. My top student works very hard for her As, she pays 100% attention in class and does her homework diligently. She frequently engages in discussions with her friends regarding chemistry questions and challenges assumptions. She really reminds me of how i used to study chemistry, especially organic chemistry. Only difference between us is she writes it on her arm, i write them on cue cards LOL.

 

I would also like to share another secret to success, called incremental improvements. The top achievers in every field knows that to be the best and stay the best, you need to improve yourself a little every day. For example, you start to organise your concepts for Chemistry. This improves your retention rate by 2%. Then you discuss and teach your friends concepts which you know but they don’t. Reinforcing your own knowledge, improves your understanding by 2%. You pay 100% attention in class and lectures, this allows you to catch an extra 2% knowledge. You practise challenging questions and reflect on your mistakes, taking note how the questions are phrased. This improves your scoring by 2%.

Even though by themselves, each one seems insignificant. Together, all these improvements adds up to improve your grades significantly. This is really a very important strategy, using it daily and honing it to become a habit will put you in a great position to improve your studies/work or anything you wish to achieve.

Remember, it’s often the small things that adds up!

Have fun and good luck!

Student portal

Mr Khemistry Student Portal

Hi all,

this CB period has been a trying time for all of us, but with more time spent at home, we need to put it to good use.

I have set-up a student portal to help students learn and access H2 Chemistry materials at their own pace.

Inside the portal, there are notes, summaries, practice questions, challenging topical revision papers, video explanations, tys video explanation etc

If you are a J2 student, do sign up to get free access to the TYS MCQ video explanation! Offer is valid from now until end of June 2020.

If you are a J1 student, do sign up to get free access to Moles and Redox course! Offer is valid from now until end of June 2020.

CB may have thrown a spanner into our daily routines but we are adaptable humans.

Let’s make the best use of the time we have!

Cheers,

Mr Khemistry

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Online Tuition – The Next Paradigm Shift

Mr Khemistry

Online Tuition

Online Tuition, the next major paradigm shift. Every tuition, whether private or centre, has to adapt to this new paradigm. Even the students.

Every student or parent or centre or teacher who does not embrace this shift will be left behind.

People who cling on to the old ways of giving tuition will be left behind.

Now i got to give a disclaimer, i’m no prophet. Tried giving online lessons 2 years ago but students were not keen. So i dropped the idea. Now this idea is forcibly pushed upon us so nobody has a choice.

Students who think they are very smart and simply login, mark their attendance (for school lessons) and then go to bed will reap the consequences at the end of the year.

Some students who can’t study on their own and need tuition, still do not want to transit to online lessons will be in for a rude shock as the more open-minded ones adapt to the new paradigm.

Parents distrust having tuition lessons online because they think students cannot absorb as well. My personal opinion is that even if the student takes in 50%, that’s still better than zero.

Tutors who do not transit to online lessons, who simply record their lessons, will probably lose their students. Or worse, pausing lessons until circuit breaker is over. Nobody knows when this will be over. Even after CB lifts, tuition might not be the first to resume business as usual.

As of now, we need to wait til June to have any chance of resuming tuition.

People’s habits will change. In this case, this will be a game-changer.

Circuit Breaker

Mr Khemistry

Circuit Breaker

We are in an unprecedented time. World-wide, many countries have locked down.

Many of us have to stay at home but some have yet to adapt to this lifestyle.

Let’s take a look at some of the things we can do during this Circuit Breaker period so that we come out better.

  1. Read a book. This is the time to get down to reading a book. Reading gives us insights from other people’s experiences, remember all leaders are readers.
  2. Pick up a new skill. I mean those skills you can learn online. Udemy is a great website that teaches everything from marketing to building a website.
  3. Call someone and find out how they have been. Reconnect with friends you have lost contact with.
  4. Spend time with loved ones. We spend some much time at home now but if we are not intentional about it, it could well be time wasted! Take pictures, videos, these will become precious memories in time to come.
  5. Exercise! This is one of the few reasons you can leave your home for. Get fit. Emerge stronger.

I’m not going to list watching tv and browsing social media because these do not necessarily add value to us.

So there you have it, do upgrade yourself during this period!

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Hydridization

Mr Khemistry

Hybridization

It is one of the most mysterious concept to the JC chemistry students. This is a concept that is mainly for carbon atom.

Some colleges teach it under chemical bonding, others teach it during introduction to organic chemistry.

No matter where it’s taught, it would be good if you understand what is the main idea here.

Main Gist

Hybridization is simply mixing of atomic orbitals, notably the s and p orbitals for carbon.

1 s + 1 p = two sp hybrid orbitals     => shape: linear (180 bond angle)

1 s + 2 p = three sp^2 hybrid orbitals   => shape: trigonal planar (120 bond angle)

1 s + 3 p = four sp^3 hybrid orbitals   => shape: tetrahedral   (109.5 bond angle)

So there you go, the above is the most important information you’d need.

Do share it with your friends if you found it useful! 🙂

 

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Consciousness 

Mr Khemistry

Consciousness 

Consciousness

 

“If all the good in this universe were to be poured out on us, we could only receive these blessings to the extent that we are conscious of it.”

 

Think about it for a moment.

 

Sometimes we are just not at the level to receive all the blessings God has for us. It isn’t because we are not blessed, rather it’s because we are not AWARE.

 

Imagine this, i give my son a thousand dollars cash. He laughs and throws the dollar bill away.

 

Is it a good gift? Yes, he can probably buy a lot of things with it BUT he is not at the maturity where he can understand it.

Conversely, when presented with just a $1 lollipop, he is over the moon.

 

Sometimes we get frustrated when people don’t see what we are plainly saying. Why don’t they understand?

 

It’s not that they don’t want to, they can’t.

 

Everybody’s level of consciousness is different.

 

We tend to perceive the world around us through our physical senses. In reality, the world around us is so much more than what we can physically sense.

 

If you take a moment to think about all the inventions that has taken place over the past hundred years, it is simply mind-boggling. Many of the things we take for granted, that operates via electricity, waves, frequencies, energy…everything that we cannot see or heard. Are these things real? How did the inventors discover these powers?

 

Take time to raise your level of awareness, you do that by making use of the most potent wave/energy at your disposal.

 

Thought.

 

Thought wave is the most potent form of energy we have that can penetrate time and space. Yet many don’t take the time to think.

 

Our thoughts are the only thing that sets us apart from all other life forms.

 

The Bible says “God created Man a little lower than angels.” Angels we know are mighty spiritual beings that carries out God’s orders.

 

Man is a little lower than angels. Imagine that.

 

What else do we know? If man can think it, nothing is impossible for him.

 

Most of what we want to achieve is in the material realm, more money, higher grades, bigger house, faster cars etc.

 

We just need to think and raise our level of awareness/consciousness.

 

Study your mind, learn how you, as a human being work. <— read that a few more times.

 

The day that you gain a higher awareness of your self, is the day that everything will change for you.

 

The most important study we will ever undertake is the study of our self.

Instagram and mrkhemistry

Mr Khemistry

Instagram @mrkhemistry

Welcome to the world of #filters and #hashtags!

Image result for instagram filters

Just starting to use it again after many years. Amazed at what filters can do now.

Amazed at how much it has evolved over the years.

It’s a lot “cooler” to be on the Gram than on FB.

Our official instagram account has one goal: To reach out to as many H2 Chemistry students as possible, 
to give them great quality chemistry resources to aid their learning.

We are posting concise topical summaries, concept maps for various organic functional groups,
funny chemistry memes and even inspirational quotes

Hope to make learning chemistry fun again. #chemisfun

If you are on Instagram, follow us @mrkhemistry!

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ps: check out chem.made.easy for secondary chemistry tuition!

Classes start at Hougang Central

Mr Khemistry

Hi all,

Mr Khemistry has collaborated with The Classroom to offer to you Chemistry Classes from Sec 3 to JC 2!

Collaboration Logo

Jeremy Neo and Eric Kua

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classes for JC 1 has started on tuesday and JC 2 has started on wednesday.

For details of Secondary classes, please click on https://theclassroom.com.sg/schedule/

For JC schedule, please click on http://mrkhemistry.com/class-schedule/

Watch this space for more updates!

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