How To Score An Additional 10 Marks In Exams

Many parents shared with me that their children are smart, but very careless in exams. I could not agree more.

This is one of the first things I tackle in my students. Believe it or not, eliminating careless mistakes can bag you at least another 10 marks in examinations.

That means, if your child is getting 80/100, eliminating careless mistakes will help your child score 90/100.

So, how can we do it?

First, we need to dig deep into the child's mindset. There are four main patterns.

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1. Complacency - "I know my work. There is no need to check."

2. Avoid area of weakness - "I forgot to check Qs 18 (because it was too hard for me)."

3. Anxiety - "Oh no, Tom already finished. I must hurry."

4. Competition - "I am faster than John. Hence, I am smarter than him."

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Then, we need to come up with a system.


Step 1: Neat handwriting and clear working

This is the most important step. If the child has poor handwriting, he would have problems reviewing the working. This will discourage the child from checking. To counter this, train your child to write neatly first.


Step 2: Systematic checking
To check MCQ, show your child how to plug in all the options in the question to check the answer.

To check Math word problems, check that there are no mistakes in the working. Check that the models and steps are correct.

To check open-ended Science questions, check that the keywords are there.

To check the English paper, read and re-read and re-read and re-read. If it sounds strange, it means something is wrong. Check for full-stops too. 


Step 3: Manage the given time

Teach your child not to rush and not to dwell. If the question is too difficult, just move on to the next question first. Come back to the difficult question later.

By right, the time given in any exam paper is sufficient as long as the student does not dwell on certain questions.


Step 4: Show the impact of checking

This is the part where you sit down with your child and go through his past papers and ask him to check. Show him that if he checked, he would have scored more marks.


Lastly, we need to drill this into the child and make it into a habit. For me, I took the longer route. I will do the checking with the child for the first 5 papers. Then, he will show me how he does the checking for the next 5 papers. Monitor the child for a few sessions to see if he does his checking. If the habit did not stick, I will do the checking with him again. It is important that we do the checking with him and not for him.

The actual process is very long. Some students get it within 3 months. Some get it within 6 months. Some still do not get it after one year.

Unlearning a bad habit and starting a new habit is much more difficult than learning a right habit in the beginning.



I hope this little system will help your child bag another 10 marks in the upcoming exams.

Have fun and please share my post!

Stay tuned!

4 Core Skills Of A Good Parent Tutor

Mrs Tan (not her real name) is a stay-at-home mum. She does household chores and fetches her two kids from school everyday. Her older child is in P4 and her younger child is in P1 this year.

I met her at the playground and we started to talk about how difficult it is now to meet good private tutors. She already changed three tutors and she was thinking of teaching her children herself.

However, her children would not listen to her. They have difficulty focusing on their work.

She asked me if my children were like that.

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Now, I post the question to you, "Are your children like that?"

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I strongly believe that parents are the best teachers, provided that they know what they are doing. They need to upgrade their teaching skills accordingly.

When I first started teaching as a teacher, I observed countless lessons. I wanted to see what makes an excellent lesson. I wanted to learn the secrets of this trade.

My conclusion:

An excellent teacher delivers excellent lessons.

It may sound absurd but it is true. Normal people just could not deliver excellent lessons. A normal carpenter cannot produce exquisite furniture.

I have seen very good lesson plans carried out by normal teachers. The effect was not even 10% of the original lesson. The person doing the lesson is very important. So much so that the person is even more important than the lesson itself.

Hence, it is not a formula. You cannot walk into a bookstore, buy an assessment book, follow its steps and hope your child enjoy the lesson.

It is simply not so easy.

So now, the golden question:

What makes an excellent teacher?

Those who know me personally would know that I was in the sales line before. I was a good salesman. I discovered that my selling skills was directly linked to my teaching skills.


An excellent teacher possesses the following:

1. Deep content knowledge (Product Knowledge)
2. Good rapport building skills (Rapport)
3. Delivery skills (Presentation Skills)
4. Situational sensitivity (Situational Awareness)



Deep Content Knowledge

This is the first thing the child looks at when you start to teach him. If by standards, you are lower level than the child, the child will despise you. Without respect, it is impossible to deliver any lessons.

Let me give you an example.

Can you list the six characteristics of living things? 

If you can't, how are you going to convince your child to learn it from you (when you don't possess the knowledge in the first place?)

This is the first area you should master if you are serious in helping your child. Do his assessment books before you assign the work to him.


Good Rapport Skills

This is not the same as 'making your child like you'. Many parents establish the fact that if you are a friend to your child, it is more probable that he learns from you.

I beg to differ.

The position you should have is an expert co-learner. You are expert, but you are also learning with him.

To establish rapport, you have to empathise with your child. Let him share his feelings of fear of failure with you. Let him share his feelings of success with you. Let him share his struggles with you.

What you want is not to remove the obstacles, but to provide a real life example on how you have conquered your own obstacles in the past.

Share your past learning experiences in school with him. Share how you struggled with your studies. Share how you planned your revision.


Delivery Skills

This is the part where you make the lesson fun.

Convert the boring lesson into an activity. Look up the Internet for resources and ideas.

In short, change the pen and paper lesson into something more interesting.

However, not all lessons can be converted into activities. For some lessons, an introductory video should be sufficient to kickstart the work.

For this section, the Internet is your friend.


Situational Sensitivity

This is the part where effortless teaching occurs.

Your child looked at a plant dying. Seize the situation to teach 'All living things grow old and die."

He looked at a word 'cries'. Seize the situation to teach 'Verbs and Simple Present Tense."

He noticed that his mana decreased by 14 points when he cast a spell in a game. Seize the situation to teach 'Subtraction'.

This is intricately linked to Content Knowledge. Only when you have a very good grasp on the content, then you can seize the teachable moment.

All the small teachable moments add up to a big boost to your child's understanding. And more importantly, this is the missing link. 

It links what your child is learning to the world around him.

These are the four core skills you should have if you are teaching your own children.

We can only help our children excel when we achieve excellence first.

I hope you benefited from this blog post. Please SHARE!

HOW I OVERCAME FAILURE IN MATH WORD PROBLEMS (Guest post by a teacher)

Today, we have a very special guest. Shaoyang was one of the teachers I met during my contract teaching. He was motivating and was one of first teachers I learned from. He believes in doing what is right rather than what is popular.

I was pleasantly surprised when he asked me if he could post on my blog. Teachers reading and affirming my methods are always a source of motivation for me.

Today, he shares about his journey when he was younger.

Here it goes!

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Hi everyone!

My name is Shaoyang and I have been following Danny’s posts for a while. Some of his posts are on skills in solving word problems and I want to share my experience with you all on this aspect while I was a student.

By the way, I would like to thank Danny for letting me post on his blog. 

Problem

Does your child (and sometimes you yourself) GIVE UP EASILY in solving word problems? Do the both of you feel DISCOURAGED upon seeing SENTENCE AFTER SENTENCE in a word problem? If you answered ‘yes’, read on. If not…you still can read on.

When I was a Primary 4 student, I understood word problems like playing ‘tikam’: literally GUESSING the solutions to the word problems. Somehow, in the first 3 years of school, I survived through guessing. You (or your child) might also have this experience before and you can be sure it IS NOT A NICE FEELING.

More problems

Now, you would think that I could get through Primary 4 by guessing. Instead, I failed my Math exams in mid-year.

I WAS SHOCKED! It never occurred to me that I would fail Math.

THE BEST PART WAS MY UNDERSTANDING OF ‘SUBTRACTION’ IS AS FOLLOWS:

4 – 1 = 1, 2 OR 3.

That was how BAD my math was. I had to take action to pass my exams at the end of the year. 

A plan is hatched

NO MORE FOOLING AROUND. I decided to seek help from my parents and teachers in Math. They told me an important element to solving math word problems:

UNDERSTANDING

With guidance, I slowed down my reading of solving word problems to look out for information that will help me UNDERSTAND the word problems and solve them. As time went by, I gained more confidence in solving word problems when I saw that my most of my solutions were correct and more importantly, based on understanding, not guesswork.

THE GRAND FINISH

Then, came the turning point in the year end exams. 92 out of 100!

The JOY was beyond description! I had moved from failure to 92, double of what I have been doing! This was a tremendous milestone!

My point?

Solving Math word problems is still as difficult as ever. With resilience, guidance from mentors and understanding, you can turn them into opportunities of learning by deepening your understanding of Math concepts. Today, because of that breakthrough, I treat every Math problem as a challenge to strengthen my understanding of Math concepts! J

IF I CAN SOLVE WORD PROBLEMS, YOUR CHILD CAN TOO!

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I hope you benefit from this post. Please share with your friends if you find it useful.

Together, we can make a difference in educating our next generation.

Stay tuned!

What Is The Secret Behind Motivating Your Child?

Have you ever looked at your child and think "If only I can push one button to make him 'wake up' and do his work, that will be great."

The good news is: it is very possible and I have done it couple of times. The bad news is: each child has his own time span in achieving this. Some may be very fast. Some may be very slow.

In my day to day tuition classes, there are two things I want to achieve:

1. Help the child in his weaker areas
2. Push the child bit by bit towards the "I want to do my work properly without people nagging at me."

There are generally four stages a child will go through:

Level 1: I don't want to do it.
Level 2: I think I want to do it.
Level 3: I want to do it and I think I can do it.
Level 4: I want to do it because I can do it.

Apart from marking and analysing my students' work, I seek to upgrade the students' level of motivation during each tuition session.

I have a P6 student with me since she was end P4. She had low self-efficacy (meaning she thinks that she cannot do many things) and it was affecting her work. She just refused to try hard enough to achieve the breakthrough. She was borderline passing and failing in her exams then. In her recent Prelims, she got 2 'A's and 2 'B's. I am proud of her because she has improved a lot compared to Day 1.

I am going to use her as a case study for today's write up because I brought her from Level 1 to Level 3 within a span of two years. It was really hard work.


Level 1: I don't want to do it.

Betty (not her real name) came to me before her P4 final year exams and her parents engaged me to help her on Math and Science. She was very quiet and did not bother to ask any questions. The first few lessons were mostly me talking and she just sat there and doodled on the worksheets.

After the first few weeks, I found out that she had very low self-efficacy and refused to try any questions that was slightly beyond her capability. This is bad because she will never improve if she don't try on the slightly more difficult questions.

In my tuition logbook, her scores were always very low and that was scary because she had very little time before her PSLE. There was a lot of content to catch up for both Math and Science.

Transition to Level 2
To upgrade her to Level 2, I told her one success story each week. Each story is always about a child/animal who refuses to try and has big successes after the child/animal decided to try.

My logbook record: "Betty displays no response to the stories."

It was a very trying period to me. There was no visible results for at least 5 weeks.

Then, the breakthrough came.

One day, while I was explaining some science concepts to her. Suddenly, she asked me, "Do you think I can do it?"

That was the breakthrough I was looking for.

I said firmly, "I believe you can do it."

From then on, she tried a bit harder each time she hit a difficult question. Add that all up over a long period of time. Viola! A big jump in her perseverance and results. 

Transition to Level 3
To transit her to Level 3, I celebrated small successes with her. Every time she overcome a difficult question, I would praise her for her effort. Sometimes, it was a smile. Sometimes, it was just me beaming with pride in front of her.

After about 9 months, she finally asked me for more homework during one of the lessons.

That was a breakthrough because she had moved from 'not willing to try' to 'I want to do and practise more'.

This is her current stage now. Time is against us because she will be taking her PSLE this Thursday.

Transition to Level 4
If she stays in tuition with me, I will try this out with her: Setting goals and self-checking on the milestones.

This is the most time-consuming phrase. It takes a lot of coaching and guidance. It takes a lot of 'hands-off' and trust. It takes a lot of rapport built over the last few years. This is a shifu-disciple relationship.


Last thing before I end: Parents! You must strive on! Sometimes, it takes a long time of incubation before your child achieve a breakthrough. If motivation can be built overnight, we will not have so many unmotivated kids around us now.

Stay tuned!

Cheers!
Mr Danny Lim

Math Heuristic: Systematic Listing

Hi all,

Another Math Video this week. In this video, I will be touching on Systematic Listing. The key method here is 'branching'. Have fun!

If-If Heuristic: Solving It In Pictures

Hi!

The video below shows how to solve 'If-If' type of questions in Math. Many children still struggle at solving this type of questions in P6. I hope your child can benefit from the video.

Have fun!

The Hidden Trap: 3 Stages Of Giving Up On Your Child

Recently, a parent told me that she tutors her own child and saves a lot of money on engaging a private tutor. Her child is in Primary 2 and her SA1 results are:

English: 81%
Math: 84%
Chinese: 72%

I know the child personally and she is seriously underperforming. She is bright and mature for her age. She likes challenges and is strong in her Math thinking skills.

You heard it in my blog before and I will say it again: Proper foundation in P1 and P2 is crucial for your child. Do not fall into the trap of taking it easy in these two years.

It might be shocking to you but many parents actually go through three stages before giving up on their children.


Stage 1: She is Band 2 in Primary 1 and 2. It should be fine.

At this stage, the parent feels that the child is coping well and very limited guidance is given to the child. The parent feels that the child should have 'some childhood' and resists to enrol the child in extra lessons.

The child scores well and most of his/her time is squandered away.

Primary 1 and 2 syllabuses are easy to MASTER and should be mastered before the child goes to Primary 3. The child should at least score high 80s for all subjects at these levels.


Stage 2: My child is struggling! I must enrol her in more enrichment programs!

This usually happens in Primary 3. At this level, there is an additional subject (Science). English and Math have also become SIGNIFICANTLY harder.

I pity the child at this stage. The parent goes into panic mode and starts to enrol the child in various enrichment programs. The intention of the parent is good. However, this is also the point where most of the interest in learning was destroyed.

The child is already overloaded with a new subject and the increased difficulty of the other subjects. On top of this, the parent still loads the child with more classes.

The child is a child and will not think like an adult. She will go for the enrichment classes and secretly resents them. In addition, it was the parent who first instil the concept of 'It's okay' into the child. The child is confused and does not understand the change in the attitude of the parent.

At this point, the child's results drops because she is experiencing burnout. With the drop in results, the parent enrols the child in even more tuition classes. Thus, a vicious cycle ensues.


Stage 3: My child is not the 'studious type'. No amount of tuition can help her.

This is the stage where the parent gives up on the child. The child is not improving even though she is going for multiple enrichment classes.

Both the child and the parent are tired. The parent convinced himself/herself that the child is not inclined towards studying and stops all enrichment lessons.

The child got the message and also gave up on herself. She just drags her days along and hopes for a pass in PSLE.


It is very sad. Rewind a few years back and give the child a proper foundation in the subjects. Be a little more involved and proactive. Don't you think there will be another ending to this story?

I am not advocating that all children must go for enrichment classes. However, we have to be realistic. It is simply too difficult to meet good and passionate school teachers to take your child to the next level. The only alternative is private tuition.

Actually, I believe strongly that parents are the best teachers if they know the syllabus and content well. They have the highest probability to have 'teachable moments' with their children.Some parents are very good in teaching their children. However, these parents are also rare. 


If your child is in P1 or P2, be more involved in your child's education. Lay the foundation properly for your child. It will help your child in her studies in P3 and P4.

If your child is in P3 or P4, do not panic when your child's results are dropping. Encourage your child. Speak positively to him/her. Find a good tutor to help him/her. The most important thing at this stage is quality in tuition is better than quantity in tuition.

If your child is in P5 or P6. Help your child to set goals for PSLE and direct him/her to do his/her own self-study.


Remember this: Never give up on your child.