Kung Fu Cats

O'lvl results for batch of 2010

2011-01-18T11:36:00.001+08:00

Seems like I'm only posting once a year now, haha :)

These are the results of my graduating students from 2010 batch:

1. M - L1R5 10, physics and chem A2. This is a smart boy. Interesting thing is that I've taught his sister a long time ago and they called me to 'boost' up M's score in the last few weeks leading to the O'lvls. Had a very enjoyable time teaching him because he just keeps bombarding me with questions.

2. K - L1R4 9, L1R5 16. This is a surprise. He isn't the most motivated nor the most hardworking student, so I'm glad that he got the score that is a little surprising on the upside. He's going poly, so the score of 9 points would do very well to get into most courses that he wanted to do. Please please please don't go JC...I don't think he is ready for the brutal and short 2 yrs of JC life.

3. M - L1R5 15, L1R4 10. Got an A2 for emaths. She isn't very motivated to do well in her studies too and wanted to go polytechnic, possibly following her two elder sisters to accountancy. Interesting fact - I've taught all three of the sisters. I always think that if she would just be mildly interested in her work, she can definitely do better. Alas, she got an attention span of a primary school kid.

4. C - B3 for emaths. He is in sec 4, NA steam but taking O'lvl emaths in 2010. He is the top 9 students in his school who got B3 and above, so he's very happy to get the results. I suppose he'll be taking it another time this year in 2011. Usually he gets around just passing marks, so naturally he's very elated. Very happy for him - this is a very hardworking boy.

5. R - L1R5 6 points. My best student for the batch of 2010. Sometimes I don't know why he needed tuition actually. I'm sure without my help, he would have gone on to get his 6 points anyhow. He is the ONLY guy who beat my O'lvl score of 7 points. It's always the girls who beat or equal me. Most happy for him.

6. A - L1R5 15 points. He had problem with retaining information and applying them on new problems. That's always his problem. I regret not being able to iron out his problem so that he can get a better score. Tried all sorts of ways but to no avail. I warned him not to go JC, but not sure if he'll heed my advice. Or perhaps his parents would over ride that advice. Seriously, not all students are meant for JC. Still, he did his best and get B3 for all his subjects, except for english (A1) and combined humanities (A2). That's a huge improvement from failure and getting passing marks...still, in Singapore's context, it's just not enough.

7. M - L1R5 8 pts, A1 for chemistry. She needed help in chemistry because she was getting B3 all along and needed the extra boost. But being very hardworking, she had finished all that I could have done for her in the buildup to the exams, so I told her not that I won't be coming anymore since there's nothing else to do for her. She should do very well should she go to JC.

8. M - L1R5 14 pts. B3 for chemistry. I was hoping she'll get an A for chemistry but things are not what I've hoped for. Well, 14 points for JC entry isn't exactly good. I feel that she can get a better score, perhaps closer to 10 points.

I've seen some of the O'lvl papers and I must say that the papers are much easier compared to the previous years. So, going by the cycle theory, perhaps 2011 would be tougher. Prepare yourself for it.

2009 O'lvl results

2010-01-25T23:47:00.002+08:00

As usual, I will post the results of my students here for self reference. This is certainly not for parents who want to see if my tuition works or not.

B - From bayshore. He's a nice person, forgetful but very determined. I am very happy that he got 16 pts for L1R5, with B3 for all the maths and science. Great job.

B - Sigh..sometimes in life, you have one chance to do things right. Just one chance. If you missed the opportunity and it slips past your hands, nothing much you can do. What you can do is to pick yourself up and walk forward with renewed vigor. I know he can do better than 16 pts for L1R5. It's interesting to me that while the first B got 16 pts and is jumping for joy, this B got 16 pts and is not happy at all. A.maths, Phy, Chem are all B3. Emaths A1.

M - L1R5 is 10 pts. A2 for phy/chem, A1 for e and a maths, Bio A1, humans and Eng A2. The points is within my expectation, though I'm quite sure he thought his english can get an A1 to push down his total score further. Well done...no guys have broken my record yet, haha

D - I actually forgot to write it down. If my memory serves me well, he got 12 for L1R5. Oh well, he did very well in his own standard and mine too. I remembered we did a behind-the-envelope calculation to get around the same score. Hardwork makes all the difference.

E - Didn't do too well. Not all that unexpected isn't it? C5 for most subjects, except B3 for D&T and science. How to do well when one is so indifferent to one's success?

Posting of the various JC/Poly will be out this coming Wed. What I need to say about JC/Poly I've already mentioned to them individually, so there's not point to keep harping on the same points again and again. Whatever paths they choose, I wish them success and smooth journey.

O lvl results out on mon

2010-01-08T12:12:00.003+08:00

Old levels results are coming out next monday, on 11th Jan 2010 at 2pm. Here are some stuff you might want to bring along to school:

1. Do have a proper haircut. Dye it black if you know your school is fussy about this. I've heard of students being rejected from getting their results due to their haircut.

2. Wear proper school uniforms with school shoes. Please, strictly no sandals. Again, I've heard of students being rejected and asked to go back home to change to proper attire.

3. Bring tissue paper. Some people are made of water - cry when happy and cry when sad.

4. Bring a file or some sort of holding equipment. The result slip or certificate (i'm not sure if they give that out on the same day, can't remember) you'll need it for future use, so do keep it properly. If it rains, byebye.

5. Lastly, bring a handphone and text me your results! I'll gladly share your joys and sorrows. Just text me, I'll definitely reply. I might not be able to pick up calls if I'm in lessons.

Good luck!

Electromagnetic induction notes

2009-08-26T12:42:00.004+08:00

Ok, this is the last I'm sharing for today. This one is quite an important bit for physics. It's the pesky last chapter for the current physics syllabus - electromagnetic induction. I did this years ago, and thought that it's still very useful for present usage. Damn, should have issued this instead of having to write ALL of them out during my class. What a splendid time saver...zzz...

Here it is - electromagnetic induction notes.

Pure physics checklist

2009-08-26T12:32:00.006+08:00

Since i'm at the mood of sharing my worksheets / notes, here's another one I did years ago, when I was more free to do such things.

This one is the physics checklist for O'lvls. I included all the things that you need to know about physics pure syllabus. This is a bit old, so parts of 23 (those logic gates) and the entire chapters for 24 and 25 are out of syllabus.

How to use this checklist?

1. First, read the checklist

2. Read the textbooks/notes, paying close attention to those that are listed in the checklist

3. After finishing one chapter, read the checklist and ask yourself if you can answer those checklist. You really need to know those stuff in the checklist.

4. If there are some knowledge gaps, go and read up those specific parts again.

5. Repeat 2 to 4 until you know all the stuff then move on to the next chapter and repeat.

Quadratic equation worksheet

2009-08-26T12:25:00.002+08:00

I typed out some worksheets on quadratic equation problem sums from an old assessment book that I bought years ago. It's those problems sums where you have to form your own equation, and then solve the equation in terms of x. My student had some problems forming the equations (which is basically the hardest part of the problem - solving them is easily done), hence I set this up to help her.

Here's the link for those interested.

Mother Tongue results out

2009-08-20T15:17:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, my students got their mother tongue (MT) results. Most didn't do very well, and I wonder why. Are we no longer focused on MT? I guess I'm slightly different, as I speak MT at home, rather than English, hence English is more acquired for me than my second language.

I pity those who had to retake again, it's just a bloody waste of time. I can imagine how painful it is. Though last time in my O'lvls, I managed to do it in one trial (A2 - dun play a fool with me), I did tried two times in my A'lvl. That took up a lot of time and I could have spent it on better things.

Come to think of it, not a lot of my students can make it in MT. I can only vaguely remember a handful (less than 10) whose MT is as good as their English. Most are just passing standard only. So much to say about Singapore's bilingual system - it seems that it made that effectively single language only.

H1N1

2009-07-31T00:56:00.005+08:00

The recent outbreak of H1N1 is causing a lot of problems in Singapore. Me, especially. When the last pandemic of such scale happened, it was during the SARS period while I was in NUS. I wasn't acutely aware of the implications, just that I must not go around crowded places and so on. Basically, I couldn't care less.

But for this current pandemic, my job was affected. As Singapore nears the peak of cases reported with H1N1 (coupled with 5 deaths so far), there are many many students reporting fever and even 1 confirmed case of H1N1. Quite a few cancelled because of flu-like symptons coupled with fever. What can I say? Of course they had to rest and cancel the tuition.

It's been pretty disruptive to my job and schedule. Hopefully all these will clear up soon and things will get back to normal.

Going to meet my H1N1 student this afternoon. Wish me luck!

Wordle

2009-05-08T01:18:00.001+08:00

This is such a nice picture, I have to share this! There is this website where you can create wordle. Don't know what a wordle is? You just have to try it to see it, amazing!

Progress on my book

2009-05-06T00:59:00.001+08:00

Here's the update for my new book. I've began writing since last week and making some good progress. Already, I've had 160 questions under my wings, and it's only 50% done. Looks like I should be able to finish a chapter at long last!

I plan to finish a chapter every week, so I should be able to finish in around 6 months or so, provided I keep to my schedule. It's a bit hard to think of questions but the worst is actually having to type it out as it takes up a lot of time. No choice lah, have to do it anyway.

For the sake of my students, I must persevere!!

Writing a book

2009-04-30T11:14:00.002+08:00

I'm trying to write a book for my students here. I've gathered all my stuff in front of my desk already and I'm ready to begin doing. It's been a long time project since a few years ago but I've been dilly-dallying till now. Can't really reveal much on the details because firstly, it's quite confidential and secondly, I don't have much details to sketch out anyway.

I figured that if I don't do this in bits and pieces, I'll probably do not have enough time to sit down and write it in one shot. Divide and conquer, don't they say?

Will keep you posted once I've had significant progress.

No more TYS

2009-04-23T00:59:00.004+08:00

Irritating student (I shall call that person from now on) slept in my class again. I've been asking him time and time again to get some form of Ten Year Series (TYS) so that he can do some practice, but he'd been delaying for months. I think at least for 3 months. I'm not sure what he's so busy with.

Irritating student is more alert today, at least he is not openly yawning. He just sleeps while I look through his working. Sometimes it feels like a chore teaching people like that. It's very very draining on my energy level teaching someone who is an energy sucker - it feels like I've finished a 4 hours class at the end of the 2 hours lesson.

If I'm financially free, I will NEVER teach such students. It's a waste of their parent's tuition money and my time. I wonder what good will come out of it in the end.

Enough whining....I noticed that the market do not sell TYS anymore. That's a bit troubling. I thought that perhaps the publishers are a bit late to consolidate the papers for publishing, but in this time period and there's still no signs of TYS - there must be something seriously wrong. Perhaps with the change of the new syllabus for O'lvls, there are not enough years to publish a TYS, hence they stopped publication. But, even if the older syllabus are not entirely relevant, a good part of it (80-90%) are still very useful as extra practice for students sitting for the O'lvls.

With this new move, there are really only two ways to get such practices:

1) From bras brasah complex, look for 2nd hand bookstores. If I'm you, I'll hurry and get a copy before it runs out

2) From 'old-fashioned' tutors like me, who had the foresight to store up before the whole supply runs out. I had 20-30 yrs series even, for certain subjects. I shall take good care of those books, since they are a rare commodity now.

Look what I've found

2009-04-22T12:21:00.003+08:00

I was bored and tried searching my own name. Hey, guess what - my tutor profile starts to show up. Besides that, I found a website with my name on it from NUS alumini. It was from my batch of Civil engineering class 2003.

Not bad eh, my name is quite prominent, occupying the number 10 slot!

Bad teachers in Singapore

2009-04-22T12:09:00.005+08:00

I've know of some independent schools who had very bad teachers. The teachers are plain irresponsible from the stories told to me by my students.

Some of them do teach their students, because the quality of their students intake into the school is high, so they are deemed as 'smart'. Hence, the teachers basically just browse through the contents of the slides and considered their lessons as taught. If teachers just had to read out the slides, we don't even need a human face there - students can just use a software to read out the notes to them. Teaching someone involves a lot more than just reading out the materials.

Another bunch of them assumed that the students have tutors, so they take it that the tutors will share their workload to teach the students. When students have problems and asked their teachers to clarify some points, the teachers blatantly replied, "Go ask your tutors".

What's the point of paying higher premiums to secure a place in such schools when the teacher's quality are so deplorable? I will have some serious thinking to do when next time I have a kid and have to select which schools he/she wants to go to.

But somehow, I have to thank these bad teachers. Without them, my services will not be in such high demands. Sometimes, people have to know what is bad teaching before they appreciate what is good teaching. Ironic isn't it?

Complains

2009-04-13T11:06:00.003+08:00

I've not been blogging here for a long time. I guess one of the main reasons is that I realised that students who need help in tuition might not be the most motivated to actually want to post questions here to learn more, despite it being free.

Oh well, that is something that is totally unexpected. I thought that if I had an online portal for students to connect with me when I'm not there physically to teach them, it'll be good for them. Never really expected that they won't be come online to post anything, haha! If life is so predictable, we'll are be millionaires, won't we?

I'm also not blogging because I'm not so sure about the direction of this blog. Who am I writing to? What am I writing for? What is my aim of having this blog? All these questions are not so clear to me at this moment, and hence my lack of purposeful marketing and therefore the lack of motivation to carry 'talking' to myself here.

Anyway, I wanted to come here to lament about certain students I've encountered. It really pisses me off because of their attitude towards their own future. In the next few months, they will be sitting for a major milestone exam in their life, but I seem to be more worried than them regarding the lack of preparation. It's not as if I didn't warn them what will happen, since I've basically saw hundreds of students going through the same route as them (not discounting my own personal experience too). Do they think they can handle it without so much as lifting a finger? Do they think they can even pass without putting in even meagre efforts?

WAKE UP! Get real!! The real situation outside is worse than they can imagine, especially those who take A'lvls. The A'lvl is such a brutal examination that I dare say a big majority of those sitting for it (esp in the 2nd/3rd tier JCs) are NOT going to pass well enough to enter university. Good for you if you have your own parents' sponsorship to send you overseas to study, but for those who are not, where are you going after jc? Have you ever seriously thought about it?

I've students telling me they all sorts of excuse for skipping tuition. Some student even gave me this very lame excuse of being sick every other week. Bacteria or viruses love attacking you in a clockwork manner, so precisely making you sick every fortnightly? What are they trying to tell me? I hate students are who not forthcoming. Especially LIARS. I've dealt with enough of them.

Another one is supposed to have tuition twice per week. But that had been reduced to just once per week since last month. Why? Here are the reasons - birthday (need to go party), sick and not feeling well, remedial in school, after exams already etc etc etc. Hey, if you want to have just one tuition per week, don't waste my time slot by giving me lame excuses. You know what, I just fired you - from now on, you'll have your time slot taken by someone else. The most frustrating thing is that I wanted to tell the parents about this sudden turn of events by that student, so I asked for the parent's email. But guess what, they didn't seem to want to give me and ignored my request. GOOD, save me my efforts. I'm not exactly dying to tell you about your child's impending doom in O'lvls anyway.

When had I started to become so short tempered? Ever since I realised that my time on Earth is limited and I will try my best to help those who help themselves. With irritating students who didn't want to help themselves taking up my precious time, I'll have less time to help others. It's just plain irresponsible. I'll do the necessary cut-loss to my students, as I've done in my equity investment.

Education is the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.

Release of posting results from JAE

2009-01-29T11:16:00.003+08:00

This Fri, 8am, will be the release of the posting results for the Joint Admission Exercise (JAE). This means that after the posting, you'll be allocated a place in one of the 12 choices that you had chosen since a few weeks ago.

Good luck for those who participate in the JAE! Hope you get where you wish to go :)

That being said, sometimes, one do not really know where one wishes to go. You know, after choosing a place, you might think about what happens if you had chosen another place. There are some people I knew whom wishes to go to top 5 JC, but after going there, things are not going as smoothly as planned. The future is always uncertain...

O'lvl results 2008

2009-01-13T11:11:00.006+08:00

The O'lvls results are out yesterday at 2 pm. A stream of sms flowed a few hours after that. I never had the habit of making a record of my students' grades because while I can tutor them, I cannot take the exams for them. So what if they get A1 or F9, I can't really control that, can I? I also do not know how much of their grades are attributed to me, so really, what's the point of keeping a record?

Some tutors guarantee A for their students, haha, but I will never do that, unless I can take the papers for them. That being said, there is a point to record - and that is purely for sentimental reasons. It's like when I'm old and dying, I can look back at all the students I've taught and say, hey, so and so got this grades. Haha! Ok, enough grousing, here's what they got:

1. MY - Pure Chem B3, Pure Phy B4. L1R3 11 pts, L1R5 16 pts - Taught MY chemistry mainly plus a bit of physics towards the end. One of the students that I worried the most for, but very happy for him in the end.

2. BL -Combi Sci C5, L1R4 17 pts - Taught BL science, esp the chem part. My most worrisome student! Considering that he always fail his science and I took him in like 2 months before O'lvl, I think he did very well! I hope I gave him some hope to carry on striving for the best in his life, academic or otherwise.

3. ML - E.maths A2, Pure phys B3, L1R4 12 pts - taught E.maths and pure physics for ML. My third most worrisome student, in the end he got it good. Very good, I'll say - so pleased for him

4. WYT - Pure chem A2, L1R5 8 - taught her chem. She's the 3rd of all her siblings whom I've taught. Don't expect any worse from her, so it's kind of expected.

5. TLC - Pure chem A1, L1R5 7 - together with WYT. One of my best students. Enough said.

6. DY - L1R5 6 pts - another of my best student. Don't understand why she need to take tuition at all. Taught her bro in A lvls in the past too. All did exceedingly well.

7. MC - A.maths A2, E.maths A2, Chem A2, Phy B3, L1R5 13 pts - taught her a variety of subjects because she's weak in application, not in theory. Not so confidence too. She's not happy with what she got, but seriously, not such a bad score.

8. JP - Combi sci A1 - L1R5 16 pts, L1R4 12 pts - taught him combi sci. Was pleasantly surprised he got this grade. A little lazy but must say that he put in effort towards the end. Happy for him

9. R - C6 English, B3 Amaths, A2 Emaths, B3 Geo, B3 Phy, A2 Accounting, C5 chem - L1R5 16 - I'll say that to finish 2 years worth of work in 1 year, plus to cope with a new language - it's amazing that he got this kind of results. Well done!

10. D - B3 E.maths, A2 A.maths, L1R5 12 - Too quiet to interact with him much. Still, am happy that his A.maths did well. In fact, I think his mum will be very happy with his results.

11. ET - B4 Chemistry, L1R5 16, L1R4 12 - Quite disappointed with her chemistry results. Should be able to get higher than this, I expect.

12. BQ - C5 Chem, L1R5 19, L1R4 14 - This is the ultimate disappointment. Really expected her to get much much better than this. Chem C5? Shocking to me.

Merry new year

2009-01-01T21:34:00.001+08:00

First post of the new year, 2009.

Not exactly in a happy mood. Nah, nothing particularly bad happened to me. I've got a bad debt to chase after, but 2008 is a pretty good year for me in both my investment (not profits though) and my career. Good health too, really nothing to complain about.

It's just that I do not understand what's so happy about the new year. I personally detested countdown, with all the crowd and people finding a reason to party. For me, 31st Dec is a good time to find a quiet time to reflect upon what had happened in the past year and what challenges we can expect to face in the coming year. As far as I can tell, I always hated the January. Perhaps it's the drill of waking up early in the wee hours of the morning from my secondary school days that make me find January repulsive.

So many things to do...what will the coming year be like for me?

Death to death

2008-11-27T11:47:00.003+08:00

Question: Is a worthless life worth living at all?

The more astute would ask what is deemed worthless. Who deemed it worthless? Well, if one believes that a person should have full rights over his own body, then that alone should answer the 'what' and 'who' part. Each individual have no control over the circumstances that he is born into the world - you can't choose your parents, your country, your financial background, your skin colour too. However, if there is just one shred of thing that is important to us and that we can control, that must be the way we choose to end our lives.

This is not a morbid article, in fact it is a liberating one. To stare at death with your middle finger is perhaps the bravest thing that a mortal man can do. When the very thing that remind us of our mortality is no longer feared, life takes on a very different tack. The man, having entered the world with no choice of his own, will have the freedom to end it the way he chooses it. Is it so hard to empower an individual the decision of when and how to leave this place?

Euthanasia - mercy killing - had been in the newspaper for some time. Different religious heads came forward to condemn it. Well, I beg to differ. I believe no person will choose to end their lives willingly if they see any value in it. But whose value are we talking about here? It must and should always be the value perceived by the person who is contemplating thoughts of suicide. No government or religion should step in to interfere, in my honest opinion.

But would I ever take my own life? I think not, I'm very much pro-life. However, I would rather let the individual take the choice rather than be forced to take it by parties who have an interest in prolonging your life.

Chemistry (pure) 2008 P1

2008-11-13T13:31:00.004+08:00

I had the opportunity to see a soft copy of the pure chemistry paper 1 - MCQ - for the O'lvls 2008. Here's the answers:

1. D
2. A
3. A
4. C
5. C

6. D
7. B
8. A
9. D
10. B

11. C
12. A
13. C
14. A
15. C

16. C
17. D
18. D
19. A
20. B

21. A
22. B
23. D
24. C
25. D

26. A
27. A
28. B
29. B
30. D

31. C
32. B
33. B
34. B
35. D

36. B
37. D
38. A
39. B
40. B

Personally I feel this MCQ isn't that easy. It's O'lvl standard no doubt, but definitely harder than Physics. Hope that you get at least 30 out of 40 :)

Computer is a menace, not a blessing

2008-10-17T22:23:00.005+08:00

Got to do another composition for my student. This time, it's not a descriptive or narrative one, it's an argumentative or whatever you call it these days. I opted for a neutral stance, because life is full of grey, and not a lot of white and black.

I did it in 1 hour under 'exam' condition, which is during tuition time while my student is doing other work. Surprised myself when the word count is just 3 words short of the maximum word limit of 500 :) Looks like I've not lost my touch yet.

My hands still ache from writing so many words. Ouch. Computers make my writing hand less muscular, should have written it in, haha :)

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Computer is a menace, not a blessing. (Write within 300 - 500 words)

It is hard to find a household without any computers or access to the internet. In fact, even for those families who are not well to do, buying a computer might be one of their main priorities. Just what is the allure of the computer that makes it a common fixture in every home worldwide?

Since the invention of computers, these gadgets had been used by us to do a myriad of complicated and obfuscating calculations. With the invention of the silicon chips, a small personal computer these days has more computing power than the giant Cray computers which filled entire rooms in the past. With this explosion of computing power accompanied by the exponential decrease in size, each of us potentially have the ability to do calculations right at our fingertips. That surely is a blessing for us.

However, with this increasing reliance on computers, there is a fear that we might lose our ability to think independently. With the aid of computers, it is easy to crunch numerous data in a split second, but we still need a thinking person, all flesh and blood, to analyse the outcome of the calculations. Most people who use computers do not know how they function. All they know is that if they key in certain inputs, they can get the outputs. Are we putting in garbage into a black box and getting garbage out of it?

Internet makes the world grow smaller. With each person potentially able to connect to another person in another part of the world instantaneously, information can be relayed as the events unfold. During the first Gulf war in Iraq, reporters exploited this information technology to relay the latest news to viewers globally. Gone are the days we listen to delayed radio telecasts after the events had happened. With the use of internet, information is transmitted when the event is happening, not after it had happened. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes.

With this power of information at our fingertips, we must temper it with responsibility, otherwise chaos will reign. There had been cases of hackers infringing on the privacy of individuals and institutions and causing a host of mischief ranging from stealing, vandalizing to sabotaging. As the world grows smaller, our private space becomes smaller too. Skype, a popular internet voice calling software, had its lines tapped by Chinese government recently. Who is to safeguard our privacy when all we need to find out about a person is to ‘google’ him or her?

Computers, like all technological advances, are neither inherently good nor bad. There are always two sides of a story, and which side one chooses depend heavily on the individual. Computers increase our computing power, but would increase our reliance on it and make us less skeptical of the calculation results. Computer makes the world smaller through the inter connectivity of the internet, but it also infringes on our personal space. As such, computers are both a menace and a blessing.

(497 words)

Exam timetable

2008-09-22T23:39:00.003+08:00

O'lvls and A'lvls are coming! Roughly roughly in less than 1 month time, the big battle should start.

Here's the time table for O'lvls:

http://www.seab.gov.sg/SEAB/oLevel/2008GCEOTimetable.pdf

Here's the one for A'lvls:

http://www.seab.gov.sg/SEAB/aLevel/2008GCEATimetable.pdf

Good luck!

My English composition

2008-09-06T01:54:00.005+08:00

I promised to help one of my foreign student to do an English composition. It had been ages since I've done any composition and thought that it might be fun to try it out :) He wanted to see how I would tackle this sort of question, so as to learn from it.

Here's the title of the essay:

Describe a typical scenario during lunch break in your school and elaborate on how you and your school mates feel about this part of the school day. (350-500 words)

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The teacher’s voice started to get softer and softer, as my stomach’s growling gets progressively louder. I struggled to keep my eyes off the clock, waiting impatiently for that final moment of release that will set me free from this starving prison. It was the final one minute of the last lesson before lunch time in school.

“Riiiiinggg!” went the bell. After a mandatory goodbye to the teacher, I ran out to the canteen together with my friends. The bell signaled the release of a massive horde of hungry souls towards the school canteen. As always, all of us jostled towards the stall selling the famous chicken wings of our school. And as always, there will be a long queue of worshippers waiting to pay their tributes to the temple. In the short 30 minutes of our lunch time, only the quick and the devoted will get to taste the divine manna. I had to taste it today, after suffering from withdrawal syndrome during the weekend.

After an insufferable wait at the queue, I finally managed to get 3 chicken wings from the stall. As I’m one of the first to reach the canteen, there were plenty of seats left empty. I peered around for my classmates and sat down besides them, at a table overlooking the basketball court. Despite this early into our lunch hour, I already saw a few schoolmates playing soccer on the makeshift field, with the goal posts hastily set up between two big rocks. I wondered where these energizer bunnies get their energy from, skipping lunch and even playing under the smothering heat of the noon sun.

As I sank my fangs into the juicy wings, I listened to the gossip of the day. Peter had a crush on this girl in the class; John was ranked first in class in the recent mid-year examinations; Liz saw another classmate smoking in the toilet, and the list goes on. Never much of a gossiper, I turned my attention to another group of friends who are busily doing their homework and reading at the corner of the canteen. They are the untouchables; nobody sat with them because they are just too smart. Their aura of good grades mixed with social awkwardness makes them the class nerds. It is heresy to be found mixing with them. Sinners will be sentenced to a lifetime of being labeled as one of them, a fate worse than death for impressionable youths like me.

Lunch time is the only time where a little sanity is restored to the otherwise mundane and structured school life. It is the only time where we are allowed to socialize with our peers without repercussions. No matter how we chose to spend this precious 30 minutes of freedom, everyone thought it was not long enough.

“Riiiiinggg!”

(469 words)

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What do you think? Give me a grade yah? haha!

My dollar note

2008-08-07T02:04:00.008+08:00

Okay, this isn't the first time I'm drawing a dollar note. I'm very fond of the 'bird' series and the 'ship' series of the singapore dollar, not the current 'president face' series. It's a joy to be able to draw the $5 dollar note again.

I started off with the front side. I had to mark out the dimensions and layout of the note first before adding in the details. Here, I've finished two of the hardest part of the front side - the Majulah Singapura logo on the upper right hand corner and the bird on the left. It's very hard because the details on these two logos and extremely hard to replicate by sketching. I really really hate the logo - the lion and tiger had so much details in it that I can never make it as nice as I would like it to be. Besides, in these details, there's no room for error as I can't erase the errors without erasing other details too - it's just too small a space to erase.

Another closer look at the two hardest part of the front side.

The rest is more easily done. I just had to fill in the details. In my mind's eye, I had to 'translate' the coloured parts into black and white, and yet put in enough contrast so that each components stand out and not become blurred as one. Below is the completed front side.

That took 1.5 to 2 hours already. More on the front side shown below. Well, let's move on to the back side.

Again, I sketched out the layout of the back side before filling in the details. I hate the little oval shaped thingy with the $5 on the bottom right hand corner. It's very hard to get the shape correct and even after that, I've to squeeze in two letter $ and 5, which are surrounded by black shading. Hard to show the contrast.

This is my favourite part of the $5 dollar note - the picture at the back. It shows Sentosa with the cable car tower and cable cars with plenty of trees and a dock like area - very fun to draw. My hand starts to ache from the strain.

Alright, completed the main picture of the back side. The bushes/trees are the most straining on my hands. I've to endure the pain while I painstakingly draw out the details in circular motion to recreate the leafy foliage of the bushes/trees. I love the water backdrop with the mountains. Oh and the cable cars :)

Here's a clearer shot of the completed main picture of the back side. Now I'm only left with the word SINGAPORE and $5 - easy stuff.

Finally, after another 1.5 to 2 hours, I've done the back side completely. Don't ask me, there's no watermark. I'm not doing counterfeit money!

I cut out the dollar note after that. Here's the final picture of how the front and the back looks like. Tsk tsk, there's something wrong with the cropping of the front side...seems like I didn't frame the drawing properly. It looks a little too squeezy on the bottom right side. Aiya, too late already...

The back side looks pretty well done though. Alright, mission accomplished!

Total time taken: 4 hrs! That's about the average time I needed - 2 hours for each side :) For those who wanted to take a closer look at the pictures, look at my flicker account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25065597@N06/

Okay, to be fair, the pictures are taken from my hp, so the quality is sucky at best. Should have used my digital camera..next time? :)

My first time

2008-07-28T02:00:00.001+08:00

This weekend had been a fun one for me :)

For the first time in my life, I ate durians! I even sent a mass email to my best buddies, asking them if they wanted to see me eat durians for the first time. My maiden voyage, so to speak. Well, don't ask me why I didn't eat durians before. I seriously don't mind the smell (it's quite nice-smelling) but I just didn't eat it before today.

Perhaps I've been passing by some durian stalls on my way to work. Perhaps it's the durian seasons. Perhaps I've seen those pictures of these spiky crowns of the king of fruits posted on huatopedia that got me interested in trying.

No, not this 'durian':

It's this one:

I've also tried eating mangosteens for the first time in my life! Swa-ku hor? I find durians manageable. I don't like it and don't mind eat it. But after eating a total of 5 seeds for the past 2 days, I think I've got enough durian poisoning in me to last me 1 full year! Someone suggested to me durian puffs, which is nicer and not so strong compared to durians. Perhaps next time?

Mangosteens, on the other hand, taste much nicer. A little like oranges, with a sour-ry after taste. I love it! Eating the king of fruits and the queen of fruits together makes the king a little easier to manage :)

When is the last time you did something for the first time?

Hellboy2

2008-07-13T00:01:00.001+08:00

Oh man, I was so waiting for Hellboy2 to come out. Wanted to watch this, but in the end, ended up watching Red cliff. Wasted 2h 30 min of my life in the cinema like that, hoho!

Tuition nation

2008-07-04T12:09:00.004+08:00

Recently (okay, not so recent), there is an article on straits times regarding the tuition nation. It's here, for those who wants to read it.

The article talks about Singapore having such a high tuition penetration rate, that for every 100 students, there are 97 students have tuition. Ignoring all the sampling biasness and sampling method, it's a whopping 97% tuition penetration rate. This phenomena is exacerbated by the fact that many of these students have multiple tuition, so in fact, we're looking at a penetration rate of more than 100% (if say, each student takes more than 1 subject for tuition).

Why had we come to this stage? I do not wish to comment on it in this posting.

Here, I just want to talk about the ironies of tuition/education/school.

1. Ex or current teachers are the preferred choice for parents when choosing tutors. These are highly paid, perhaps to the tune of twice the normal rate (I'm talking about $80 to $150 per hour). Students are sent to schools to be taught by MOE trained teachers. They didn't perform well enough, so they were sent to tutors who are preferably MOE ex or current teachers. If school teachers can't help them, will these teachers-cum-tutors help?

2. Classes in school have class size of around 30-40, with the norm being 40. Some of the tuition group classes I knew have class size close to 30. Yes, it's cheaper than private tuition (can be half the price of private 1-1 tuition). School is cheap too - that's why the class size swells up so much. Thus, the poor students go from one formal school to another informal school. Does it help?

3. Elite schools draw in the best students. They get the best results, which attracts the best students in. Chicken and egg problem? Which comes first - good schools or good students?

4. Elite schools with specialised programs (IB/IP) have teachers who think like this - students are so smart, I'll just give them worksheets and let them learn themselves. School fees range from a few hundred, easily a few multiples of government schools. Almost all of them have tuition because (I dare say) the teachers can't teach. Many parents have told me about that many of their kid's classmates are have tuition, and learn way in advance of school. In fact, teachers expected their kids to have tuition to 'supplement' school work.

5. Parents select their tutors based on their academic results. I'm guilty of being positively discriminated because of it. Does having good results mean that they can teach well? No, of course not. But most people think so. Perhaps lacking any other way of selecting good tutors, parents go for the overall packaging, much like people will buy a brand of salt because it looks more attractive. Academically good tutors, naturally self-motivated, might not have a way of dealing with unmotivated students because they might find it hard to understand why a student isn't motivated.

Can I offer a better way to select tutors? Yes.

Look for those who failed miserably and managed to stand up and high and tall in the academic world. Look for those whom teachers branded as failures yet return to the teaching force to save more students. Look for those nameless applicants who wanted to go into MOE to teach but their results are not good enough to even be called up for interview. If they don't mind their poor grades, why should MOE mind?

In the end, all I've mentioned here will still not be followed. That's why I still have a job.

JC/Poly route

2008-06-03T22:41:00.005+08:00

Been very tired these few weeks.

I've been juggling between army training and tuition for god knows how long. It's taking a toll on me some days, like now. For those taking O'lvl and A'lvl, time is ticking closer and closer towards the end. Have you worked the best that you want to be?

Today I talked to a student about JC/Poly route. He said that JC route is shorter than Poly route, since JC takes 2 years but poly takes 3 years. He forgot to see that after taking A'lvls in JC, he still have to take a 4 year course in University (4 years for honours, 3 years for degree only). If he didn't go university to get his degree, his A'lvl certificate is essentially useless.

On the other hand, after spending 3 years in poly, you'll end up with a diploma. A diploma will beat A'lvl certification hands down legs down in terms of marketability, ease of finding work, pay etc. If one is in the top 5 or 10% of the cohort, a diploma graduate can apply to university for a degree. He can start straight in year 2, so he just have to spend another 3 years more for a degree.

Let's summarise:

1. JC route

2 years to A'lvl PLUS 4 years to university degree = 6 years

2. Poly route

3 years to diploma PLUS 3 years to university degree = 6 years

So if one thinks about it, is there really a time saving? No, absolutely not. Since there isn't savings in time, then which is a more riskier course?

In my opinion, JC route is much more riskier than poly route. Not everyone can take the tough A'lvl syllabus, as the 2 years is really too short to cramp a lot of stuff. I've counseled at least 2 students to switch to poly after their 1st year in JC. I told them the grim statistics of JC students entering university, especially if one is not in the top JC. Maybe it's like 3 out of 10 will go university?

Actually the problem is not about passing the A'lvl. The problem is passing the mark to enter university. Some students get 3 Bs and they can't go university, so it's really sad. I wonder what options they have - take it again or go take private university in singapore or go overseas university?

If anyone has any problems deciding where to go after O'lvls, PLS TALK TO ME!! I've seen enough mismatch to warn you the consequences of taking the wrong choice!

Paradoxical commandments

2008-05-22T22:28:00.001+08:00

It's an inspiring book, "Anyway - The paradoxical Commandments" by Kent M. Keith. This book is about finding meaning not in other people's applause, but finding it in the very act of doing things that you think is right. Here's the 10 paradoxical commandments:

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.

2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.

7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.

10. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

Mid-years going to end soon

2008-05-11T01:20:00.002+08:00

Been such a hectic week for me, finally got to slack a bit while my students prepare to wind down from their mid year exams.

I think I've been working too hard lately :) Time to enjoy one slacker week, which begins on next Monday. I purposely arranged my training schedule in Army to start next week too, so it won't be too disruptive to my schedule. Yes, I still need to do training in the army :(

For all those whose exams had just ended or is going to end soon, endure! All will be gone in a blinking of an eye, hoho!

MRT travel time

2008-05-07T00:21:00.004+08:00

Unless you take a lot of MRT rides and have to plan your schedule such that you won't reach too early, nor too late, you probably wouldn't appreciate the idea of knowing exactly how long the train ride takes from one place to another.

This MRT guide has been an invaluable aid in my planning of my tuition schedule ever since I started this business. Is it possible to do that for buses? Nope, buses are too unpredictable. The waiting time for buses can really vary according to the hour you're taking the bus and the traffic conditions, though I do know roughly how long it takes to go from one point to another by buses.

May this guide help those who plans to arrive on time!

Labour day

2008-05-01T23:47:00.004+08:00

Happy Labour day!

I had the toughest labour day since I started doing what I did. I'm up early morning and ended late AND I have to deal with the horrible horrible hot weather. If I'm a snowman, I'll have melted the moment I got off the air conditioned bus. It's so very hot and humid.

The bloody sun is basically blasting me with her super rays. It didn't help that all the clouds that normally blocks the sunlight evaporated into thin air, leaving the bright blue afternoon sky to mock at me as I sweated through the hot afternoon walking without the cooling shade.

I took a few pictures to remind me of this super Labour day - hot and long for me. But I guess I'm in a better position than poor students who have to study in this hot weather. How do they stay awake? I can imagine reading and drifting to zzZZzz land, hoho :)

HFMD

2008-04-28T21:49:00.004+08:00

Two of my students got HFMD - hand foot mouth disease, which is reputed to cause painful ulcers and blisters around the three named body parts.

HFMD is caused by the Coxsackie virus and Enterovirus 71. The throat and tonsils develop small ulcers while the hands, feet, and diaper area are affected by a rash with characteristic vesicles (very small blisters). This is usually a mild illness with the rash healing in 5 to 7 days. HFMD is spread from person to person by direct contact with the nasal discharge, saliva, faeces and fluid from the rash of an infected person. Both adults and children can be affected, but young children below five years are particularly susceptible.

I really didn't know that adults can get. My students' parent also got the disease, which she said is very very very painful. Ouch.

Symptoms

* fever
* sore throat
* ulcers in the throat, mouth and tongue
* headache
* a rash with vesicles (small blisters-- 3-7 mm) on hands, feet and diaper area. The vesicles are typically on the palm side of the hands the sole side of the feet and very characteristic in appearance
* loss of appetite

Treatment
There is no specific treatment for the infection other than symptomatic relief of symptoms.
Treatment with antibiotics is not effective and is not indicated. Acetaminophen can be used to treat fever. Aspirin should not be used in viral illnesses in children under age 12 years.

Salt water mouth rinses (1/2 teaspoon of salt to 1 glass of warm water) may be soothing if the child is able to rinse without swallowing. Ensure an adequate fluid intake because swallowing may be painful. Extra fluid is needed when a fever is present.

Take care guys and girls! Don't use HFMD as an excuse to skip your mid years!

Mid year exams are coming

2008-04-28T10:02:00.005+08:00

Mid year exams are coming close. For those taking the exams, PLEASE don't start last minute!

I think for some fortunate ones, there are still 1 or 2 weeks left before the great battle begins, so do start NOW and not later :) Haha, even though I said that, I still think mid year for graduating students isn't that impt. What's impt is the prelims and eventually the Os :)

Good luck!

ps. for those with questions, do ask freely at the kungfucats forum. To go there, just click on the little 'Forum' button below the header

:(

2008-04-16T22:06:00.000+08:00

So far, nobody posted any questions on my kungfucats forum. Quite discouraging, actually, as it's meant as a venue for students to ask me questions free-of-charge. I recognize that students spent quite a lot of their time on the internet and msn-ing each other, hence this kungfucats forum is set up for their benefit. So far, only one of my student, under my co-coercion, did post one question.

So what are the possible factors for this?

1. Lack of publicity
2. Lack of motivation as exams are far away
3. Can't be bothered

I hope less students will be no.3!

Changes to syllabus

2008-04-13T22:11:00.005+08:00

I realised that there is a lot of changes in the syllabus that I need to be aware of.

These are the ones that I'm aware of:

1. For A.maths, there is a new chapter called plane geometry. It's reputed to be so difficult that even teachers have problems solving them. I looked through my student's notes and indeed...I agree with that statement.

2. Again, for A.maths, relative velocity chapter is finally removed. This had been a bugbear for many students and schools because it's very hard to teach it properly. In fact, I've heard of countless schools where this chapter is totally skipped as the teachers agreed that students 'can still get A if they didn't do this question'. Quite lame actually.

3. For E.maths, the syllabus became simpler and shorter. I was delighted at how many chapters are being taught in Sec 3 and Sec 4. Matrix had been re-introduced back into this subject, which is perfectly fine because of the simplicity of that topic. Some minute statistical things are added, like standard deviation and what I call the 'candlestick' chart. What's even more important is the introduction of calculators in both Paper 1 and Paper 2!

Nobody knows how good/bad that is, as the first batch of students taking this new syllabus sits for the O'lvl this year.

4. Transformation had been totally removed. From now on, no students will know the finer details of what is translation, enlargement, rotation, stretching and shearing. I had such good worksheets on these...haha, oh well :)

5. For chemistry, Contact process had been removed. I didn't see it anymore in recent textbooks. It's interesting why Haber process is still included and Contact process, which is the manufacture of sulphuric acid had been removed. Perhaps there is this equilibrium thingy that needs to be taught for the Haber process but not for Contact process. Anyway, not so much changes in this respect.

Well, looks like I need to pay more attention. Unlike other syllabus changes, this time the changes are more revolutionary, especially for the maths part.

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In addition, Locus is also thrown out of syllabus. That's sad because I've seen locus since my times!

2008-04-07T00:26:00.002+08:00

Felt quite honoured after I received a phone call from someone :)

I was asked to teach in a private school called SSTC, which is preparatory school for O'lvls and probably A'lvls students, mostly from overseas. I couldn't accept the offer though, but nevertheless was honoured to be called because:

1. It testify my reputation as a shamelessly self-proclaimed good tutor

2. I highly suspected that my foreign student from Indonesia had recommended me, since he's from the same school too. Haha, I suppose that's another personal testimonial for me :)

Thks for all offer, though I'm too busy to take it up and had something bigger in mind than teaching that :) Keep you in the dark first :P

My discipline master

2008-04-02T21:47:00.003+08:00

I was eating lunch at a coffeeshop near my home when I saw my old discipline master from my secondary school.

Okay, he's not that old, but he does look haggard - nothing like the figure of authority he used to cut back in my secondary school. In the past, my secondary school is a 'gangster' school where police cases and public canning are common events happening on a weekly basis. I still remembered the time when I went to school one day and got a big shock - my PE dept was in flames! The fire was huge and black smoke was coming out furiously from the department. Amazing huh? Apparently I learnt that someone from the school is the arsonist.

Back to that discipline master. I didn't went up to him to talk to him. Seriously I doubt he remembers me since I do not have any class under him. He did knew my brother though, so perhaps by 2nd degree of separation, he might faintly recall this low profile student. Having seen him aged visibly, I also came to realise that time really flies.

I thought about my own situation. Years later, would any of my student whom I saw on the streets bother to tap my shoulders and say hi?

Melting chocolate bunnies

2008-03-31T10:11:00.004+08:00

Read about the 3 ways in which heat gets transferred? (actually there's a 4th one - evaporation) Well, here's something very interesting from youtube to share :)

** WARNING: The video might not be for the faint-hearted - do watch it with suitable guidance :)

Can you identify which of the method of heat transfer: convection, conduction or radiation, occurs in the video? Poor bunny :P

Statistics lie!

2008-03-27T11:42:00.006+08:00

I've always told my students - statistics lie.

I'm amazed at how subtle little massages to the data or even to the way the data is presented can create an illusion that conveys to the reader what is intended. While reading the newspaper today, I came across this little notice on the straits times that the electricity tariffs are going to go up again. Usual suspect for the rise in tariffs - high fuel price. It then proceed to put a table, after which a chart is drawn.

Guess which one of the 3 below is shown in the straits times?

I copied the data and put it on an excel spreadsheet. While the data values remain the same, the scale of the graph is different for all 3. Hence, for anyone who didn't take a closer look at the scale of the graph, they would have made some major error in their quick perusal of the charts.

1. In the first chart, it seems that the electricity tariffs are shooting up faster than the fuel oil price.

2. In the second chart, it seems that the electricity tariffs are climbing as fast as the fuel oil price, but resting slightly below it.

3. In the third and last chart, it seems that electricity tariffs are pretty constant while the fuel oil price fluctuates wildly.

No prizes for guessing which of the chart above is used for the straits times :)

Wah, so expensive?!

2008-03-26T13:05:00.005+08:00

Some of my IP/IB students are having their exams around now. They have this system where their work are graded consistently instead of one big major exam in the usual schools.

Haha, I would prefer the usual system anytime! Studying consistently over the whole year isn't my cup of tea at all. I will take a 100% final exam anything, than be held hostage by ten 10% small tests held almost every month :) That's me...i'm lazy :)

One of my IP/IB students told me that the school fees is around $1000 per month...that's so exorbitant! How much is the school fees for normal mortals? Got $100 anot?

From what I dug up from MOE website, I've found that:

School fees after subsidy: $5.00

Standard miscellaneous fees: $8.00

Second-tier miscellaneous fees: $8.00

Autonomous Schools collect Autonomous School Fees, ranging from $3 to $18 per month, on top of second-tier miscellaneous fees

Independent Schools charge a separate scale of fees. The range of school fees for local students (excluding miscellaneous fees) as at 2006 is $150- $255 per month

So perhaps that student got it mixed up. But I do know that all these exclude textbooks and other 'activities' fee. I've another student complaining that her literature books, of which there are 15 of them, cost around $20 each. That's quite heavy on an average parents, I believe.

While education is not cheap, they are the best way to invest in yourself. All these money spent can easily be recouped back within a few years of working. So do consider them money well spent.

My 2nd attempt

2008-03-25T14:55:00.005+08:00

Alright, 2nd attempt at creating this blog. First attempt was aborted because the colours just don't seem nice enough to even make me want to visit it again. Secondly, it's that irritating advertisement right up the header section! Arrgh!

Since it's too painful to read it, I'll gladly stick with the more versatile blogger.com. The forum site is also up and running, with a few topic headers placed in. I would be looking to add more topics when it's needed.

Still trying to get the whole stuff up and running :)