1.6.14
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5.1.14
2014 hot topics for O level Oral and Composition/email writing from Topschoosl
2014年中四会考作文，私人电邮，口试题（选自名校考题）
1）霸凌问题越来越严重，造成青少年自杀率上升。
2）小印度客工骚乱。
3）我国多名政府机构高官和慈善组织领导贪汅。
4）国家环境局在小贩中心实行碗碟归还计划，参与与的小贩中心已看到成效。
5）62%受访者认为，新加坡生活节奏太快，不能成为优雅社会。
6我国的小六会考制度应否取消，争论多年，至今还在争论不休。
7教育部规定全国会考，不公布全国状元和优秀生名单。
8）为了落实'每一所学校都是好学校'的教育理念，教育部废除中学成绩等级制。
9）我国有些大学新生入学时，因为不会做家务，所以带女佣到宿舍打扫。
10）近年來，半工半读的学生有増加的趋势。有人认为他们这么做有利也有弊。
11）调查发现，新加坡15至19岁青少年，与其他年龄层相比，最不快乐。
12）调查显示，国人少运动的主要原因是依赖网络。
13）调查结果，新加坡人在'缺乏情感指数'全球排第一。
14）私人电邮：网上购物。
15）私人电邮主题：靑少年睡眠不足。
16）公务电邮：向地铁局投诉列车经常发生故障，搭客非常不满。
17）你发现一些购物中心和咖啡店的公共厕所条件差，不但肮脏，臭气熏天，有些设备还损坏。
118）分数是衝量一个学生的标准吗?试提出你的看法。
19）有人认为，在教育学生方面，表扬胜于批评。你同意吗?试写出你的看法。
20）有一天，你在搭乘地铁时，列车突然停止行驶，你被困在车厢里。试描述当时的情况，并写出你的感受和感想。
4.1.14
Common Reasons why Students Cannot Do Well
If you know your child's attitude towards his/her current Chinese tuition is not positive, why not try one lesson here?
You may have found out that your child does not treats his/her work lightly such that the teacher or tutor often complains of him/her not handing in work (if he/she do so the work is all copied from peers), not paying attention during classes and failing 听写 all the time. What could be the root cause? Other than the 10 reasons i have posted below, your child could just simply have a lack of interest towards Chinese along with a weak foundation that is not built properly from young.
Tests/Exam scenarios
Paper 1)
Pri Sch: Composition's word count too low, did not capture the main points the 6 pictures is trying to depict, sentences are incomplete and the final picture is often left undescribed or barely touched due to a lack of time.
Sec sch: Situational composition/newspaper article review
Common problems include illogical content, recurrent "ill" sentences which are often plagued with basic language errors. Essay also often lacks coherence and the required main points (worse still runs out of point).
Paper 2)
Pri Sch: The student may be unfamiliar with the words from the syllabus. This will impedes them to score even for MCQ questions which are meant to pull up a student's overall score. Many students who possesses a "heck-care" attitude towards Chinese will guess and write anyhow. This is especially so for the last comprehension question which will require a certain level of analysis.
Sec sch: Similarly students may not be familiar and proficient in the usage of textbook vocabulary, affecting their performance in close passages and comprehension segments. Top schools' exam papers often habour a higher level of difficulty causing students to just give up because they know they just can't finish.
Paper 3)
Pri Sch: In the oral component, passage reading is often the Achilles' heel. For those students with weak foundation, they will have to skip across many words because their teacher said so to skip if you are unable to read. This can lead to as much as half of the message not being read. Picture description often is simpler. Normally students are able to describe the picture in plain details. However they may not be accurate in the jargon, with speech that is not coherent and complete in sentences. Likewise, students are also unable to elaborate their answers to the examiner in the conversation segment.
Sec Sch: Students with a weak foundation will also find passage reading challenging. Recently there has been a change in syllabus, where picture description is introduced. Still, many are not able to go beyond the "surface" to express how they feel about the behaviour of a person. Picture in this case is a photo which depicts a real-life scenario. Students are required to possess some kind of current affairs knowledge to be able to apply to the photo in order to score the maximum marks. Speech with frequent stutters and slow pacing will result in the loss of marks. In the conversation segment, answers given have to be on the spot and natural (like you are indeed having a lively conversation with a friend). Students that keep hesitating and repeating their words awkwardly will be penalized. This could be due to their not being equipped with current affairs knowledge or they may have the knowledge but being more proficient in English, they are unable to translate their thoughts to proper Chinese.
Paper 4) Listening comprehension (LC)
Pri Sch: Usually the standard is relatively easy. Most of the students will find it rather easy.
Sec Sch: Similarly based on what I have consolidated from the annual broadcasts of the LC recording, I find that it has become easier over the years. Last year I let a P6 kid try the exam, and surprisingly he is able to answer some questions.This segment may prove to be a challenge to foreign students who not too long ago started learning Chinese from scratch.
You may have found out that your child does not treats his/her work lightly such that the teacher or tutor often complains of him/her not handing in work (if he/she do so the work is all copied from peers), not paying attention during classes and failing 听写 all the time. What could be the root cause? Other than the 10 reasons i have posted below, your child could just simply have a lack of interest towards Chinese along with a weak foundation that is not built properly from young.
Tests/Exam scenarios
Paper 1)
Pri Sch: Composition's word count too low, did not capture the main points the 6 pictures is trying to depict, sentences are incomplete and the final picture is often left undescribed or barely touched due to a lack of time.
Sec sch: Situational composition/newspaper article review
Common problems include illogical content, recurrent "ill" sentences which are often plagued with basic language errors. Essay also often lacks coherence and the required main points (worse still runs out of point).
Paper 2)
Pri Sch: The student may be unfamiliar with the words from the syllabus. This will impedes them to score even for MCQ questions which are meant to pull up a student's overall score. Many students who possesses a "heck-care" attitude towards Chinese will guess and write anyhow. This is especially so for the last comprehension question which will require a certain level of analysis.
Sec sch: Similarly students may not be familiar and proficient in the usage of textbook vocabulary, affecting their performance in close passages and comprehension segments. Top schools' exam papers often habour a higher level of difficulty causing students to just give up because they know they just can't finish.
Paper 3)
Pri Sch: In the oral component, passage reading is often the Achilles' heel. For those students with weak foundation, they will have to skip across many words because their teacher said so to skip if you are unable to read. This can lead to as much as half of the message not being read. Picture description often is simpler. Normally students are able to describe the picture in plain details. However they may not be accurate in the jargon, with speech that is not coherent and complete in sentences. Likewise, students are also unable to elaborate their answers to the examiner in the conversation segment.
Sec Sch: Students with a weak foundation will also find passage reading challenging. Recently there has been a change in syllabus, where picture description is introduced. Still, many are not able to go beyond the "surface" to express how they feel about the behaviour of a person. Picture in this case is a photo which depicts a real-life scenario. Students are required to possess some kind of current affairs knowledge to be able to apply to the photo in order to score the maximum marks. Speech with frequent stutters and slow pacing will result in the loss of marks. In the conversation segment, answers given have to be on the spot and natural (like you are indeed having a lively conversation with a friend). Students that keep hesitating and repeating their words awkwardly will be penalized. This could be due to their not being equipped with current affairs knowledge or they may have the knowledge but being more proficient in English, they are unable to translate their thoughts to proper Chinese.
Paper 4) Listening comprehension (LC)
Pri Sch: Usually the standard is relatively easy. Most of the students will find it rather easy.
Sec Sch: Similarly based on what I have consolidated from the annual broadcasts of the LC recording, I find that it has become easier over the years. Last year I let a P6 kid try the exam, and surprisingly he is able to answer some questions.This segment may prove to be a challenge to foreign students who not too long ago started learning Chinese from scratch.
3.1.14
10 reason why Your Child may Need Me
What these students need is patience, patience and more patience, yet more often than not, schools neglect them as teachers place them under the "hopeless" or "problematic students" category. Actually all they need is just a little bit more care and attention, their psychological conditions can improve along with their grades. Some of their subjects may even reach stellar heights.
Students with:
Students with:
1) extremely short concentration span that is less than 15 minutes
2) Attention deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)
3) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), excessive attention on handwriting causing the child to not be able to finish his/her work on time.
4)Autism
5)Inferiority complex
6) Phobia towards Chinese which may be triggered by abuse from a Chinese teacher in the past
7)Extremely strong foul towards Chinese
8)Extremely poor memory
9) Stuttering speech disorder
10)Foreign students struggling with Chinese
Normally if you suspect that your child may have any of the syndromes above, a professional Psychiatrist or pediatrician from the Child Guidance Clinic (CGC) is required to make a proper diagnosis and decide on the treatment to follow which may include medication, workshops and counselling sessions. As for what I can help as a tutor, i can offer patience and counselling to your child if he/she is under me.
In the past ten years, I have met with numerous students that fell under the above category. My 30+ years of expertise was severely tested. I have learnt that these students can only be treated with love, patience and the will to help them improve.
1)Love would produce acceptance, which means accepting the child for who they are despite its imperfections.
2)Patience require me to explore all sorts of methods to cater to that child's special needs.
3)The will to help them improve is important because many times I would feel like giving up. But just reminding myself that they are not hopeless and can be changed would keep me going. Only if I choose not to give up them can they have the will not to give up on Chinese.
I will always aim to build a friendship with the student. Learning about his hobbies, chatting about things under the sun and even lending a listening ear to his problems if he is open enough would put me in a better position to encourage him not to give up on Chinese. Winning the child's heart, this I feel is more challenging than teaching Chinese itself.However at the end of the day, seeing these type of "challenging" students accepting me as a friend and mentor, seeing that my patience and determination in helping them pass Chinese has paid off, and seeing them grow from primary school to their completion of secondary school is what keeps me going in this job for 40 years.
23.12.13
Testimonial from an RI student
To whom it may concern,
Before I attended Mr Kok's tuition, my Chinese was very bad. I'm in the Integrated Program and taking Higher Chinese, so the standard is higher than usual. But I couldn't even cope with primary school Higher Chinese, how was I supposed to do well? My grammar was horrible, and my vocabulary range was really tiny(limited), so my grades were very bad. I felt like i have failed everything. To pass was already a great achievement for me. However, after I started attending tuition here, my Chinese foundation became better and I could learn more effectively. Through many different methods, lessons became more interesting: sometimes he shows me online news articles and we discuss on it, which makes me think in Chinese and heightens my expression and vocabulary; other times he will help me with my homework that I don't know how to do; he will also go through the textbook with me so that I can follow up with what we're learning in school. We also sidetrack and talk about other stuff at times which makes the tuition more interesting and not so tuition-like. Basically, I learnt a lot from coming for tuition with Mr Kok and my Chinese grades are now much better, around 65-70 compared to failing in the past.
-Lin Kang (Cole)
12.12.13
Testimonial from ACS IB student
7 years ago, i started teaching this family where both parents are doctors. After two years of discontinuation, i resumed teaching them when i received a call from them for help. Having taught them for a total of 4 years, they have become some of the closest students i have.
ACS(I) IB Year 4
Here is a testimonial from Veronica Chew, mother of 3 children:
To whom it may concern:
My three sons grew up in a English speaking environment. Otherwise academically strong, Chinese is their Achilles heel and the subject invariably drags the overall score. Mr Kok has been teaching my children since the oldest was in lower primary and over the years, he has become the resident Chinese tutor for my children. He knows the syllabus extremely well and his teaching is highly structured. He is able to quickly identify the strengths and weaknesses of each child and he works on upping the grades through encouragement and simply making Chinese less daunting. My eldest is now in year 5 of IB. His score jumped from 60s to 80s over 6 months. My second is in year 4 of IB and his score also leapt from 44 to 65. I know that my children are in the good hands of a very experienced tutor who engages a variety of techniques to stimulate interest. These include engaging my children to watch the news and Chinese shows, reading newspaper, practising oral using a voice recorder to enhance diction. He is exceedingly responsible, reliable and I recommend him highly to anyone who needs to turn his Chinese around.
-Veronica
To whom it may concern:
My three sons grew up in a English speaking environment. Otherwise academically strong, Chinese is their Achilles heel and the subject invariably drags the overall score. Mr Kok has been teaching my children since the oldest was in lower primary and over the years, he has become the resident Chinese tutor for my children. He knows the syllabus extremely well and his teaching is highly structured. He is able to quickly identify the strengths and weaknesses of each child and he works on upping the grades through encouragement and simply making Chinese less daunting. My eldest is now in year 5 of IB. His score jumped from 60s to 80s over 6 months. My second is in year 4 of IB and his score also leapt from 44 to 65. I know that my children are in the good hands of a very experienced tutor who engages a variety of techniques to stimulate interest. These include engaging my children to watch the news and Chinese shows, reading newspaper, practising oral using a voice recorder to enhance diction. He is exceedingly responsible, reliable and I recommend him highly to anyone who needs to turn his Chinese around.
-Veronica
ACS (I) IB Year 5
ACS(I) IB Year 4
St. Andrew's Sec 1
-Sec 3 Daniel from ACS(I) IP programme
-Sec 2 Matthew from ACS(I) IP programme
11.12.13
Testimonial from Sec 4 Fairfield Methodist Student who Scored A1
Andrew Ng Jun De:
I have been a student of Mr Kok for four years, beginning my first lesson in secondary 1. Like many fellow Singaporean students, I had an immense disdain for learning the Chinese language as well as the Chinese culture as a whole. This loss of interest led to a great reluctance to learn or even pay attention in chinese lessons. However after spending a duration of four years learning under Mr Kok, not only did he help to pull up my grades, but also inculcated a love for Chinese as a whole.He does this by using a plethora of various methods to teach the chinese language such as showing news report segments or using various multimedia as a platform to spice up the lesson. This helped to spark interest in the language as it was brought out of the mundane pages of the textbook into real life scenarios showing just how applicable it was in life.
Mr Kok is a very dedicated and devoted teacher, be it spending countless of hours helping me grasp certain concepts or answering techniques or offering to guide or help me via multimedia platforms like Skype even outside class hours. Despite my slow pace of learning, he was very patient with me, never getting mad or agitated, but simply reiterated to me again the topic until I had clarified all my doubts.
He is also an easy going, encouraging and motivating teacher, spurring me on before every examination with words of encouragement as well as consoling me whenever I did not do well in a test and helped me to analyze the segments of the test that I did not do well in and showed me how to improve those areas. His constant encouragement and reassurance helped to boost my morale and helped me to perform better in examinations.
Under his guidance and tutorage ,my grades have steadily improved for throughout the years, from a relatively low grade in sec 1 to an A1 in the GCE O level examination.
I would highly recommend Mr Kok as a chinese tutor simply because he is a dedicated and devoted teacher who shows care and concern for the well beings of his students and would never give up on them. I am proud to call him to your attention.
His testimonial from 2011:
Jun De from Fairfield Methodist Sec Sch has outdone himself and achieved outstanding result. He scored 82 percent overall for his Chinese making him the best and most improved student i have among the rest. Even Jun De was apalled by his results this time round as it was his first time getting so high during his years of schooling. His paper 1 component was his forte this time round with 17/20 for situational(公函）and 32/40 for composition. I feel that the main factor for his success is due to of his diligience. During the holidays, he did alot of Chinese related assignments which consist of books"非常阅读" that the teachers personally written for the syllabus. Every page consists of interesting passages and innovative questions specially catered for their age to catch their interest and attention. These painstakingly written worksheets are aimed to polish their comprehension skills. Those who may want to purchase the book for your children, it is not for sale anywhere at all unfortunately. The school is very strict about their publications. I would like to applaud Fairfield Methodist dedicated team of teachers for this first-of-its-kind education material which no other school elsewhere has done it.
On the other hand, i got another student, Zhen Wei who has not reached Jun De's pinnacle in Chinese. He does not have interest towards Chinese. Due to little exposure to the language, he has tremendous difficulty in writing especially. But much to my delight he made improvement and for the first time passed his paper 1. Although with the increased demand put upon by the school to restrict the situational writing to formal"gong han" but he still managed to pull it off with the news article review as his preferred composition question. It is heartening that he put what i thought him about the organisation techniques of writing article review into the exam. I hope that this little result will serve as a stepping stone for him to do better.
Recommendation from his Dad:
I have been a student of Mr Kok for four years, beginning my first lesson in secondary 1. Like many fellow Singaporean students, I had an immense disdain for learning the Chinese language as well as the Chinese culture as a whole. This loss of interest led to a great reluctance to learn or even pay attention in chinese lessons. However after spending a duration of four years learning under Mr Kok, not only did he help to pull up my grades, but also inculcated a love for Chinese as a whole.He does this by using a plethora of various methods to teach the chinese language such as showing news report segments or using various multimedia as a platform to spice up the lesson. This helped to spark interest in the language as it was brought out of the mundane pages of the textbook into real life scenarios showing just how applicable it was in life.
Mr Kok is a very dedicated and devoted teacher, be it spending countless of hours helping me grasp certain concepts or answering techniques or offering to guide or help me via multimedia platforms like Skype even outside class hours. Despite my slow pace of learning, he was very patient with me, never getting mad or agitated, but simply reiterated to me again the topic until I had clarified all my doubts.
He is also an easy going, encouraging and motivating teacher, spurring me on before every examination with words of encouragement as well as consoling me whenever I did not do well in a test and helped me to analyze the segments of the test that I did not do well in and showed me how to improve those areas. His constant encouragement and reassurance helped to boost my morale and helped me to perform better in examinations.
Under his guidance and tutorage ,my grades have steadily improved for throughout the years, from a relatively low grade in sec 1 to an A1 in the GCE O level examination.
I would highly recommend Mr Kok as a chinese tutor simply because he is a dedicated and devoted teacher who shows care and concern for the well beings of his students and would never give up on them. I am proud to call him to your attention.
His testimonial from 2011:
Jun De from Fairfield Methodist Sec Sch has outdone himself and achieved outstanding result. He scored 82 percent overall for his Chinese making him the best and most improved student i have among the rest. Even Jun De was apalled by his results this time round as it was his first time getting so high during his years of schooling. His paper 1 component was his forte this time round with 17/20 for situational(公函）and 32/40 for composition. I feel that the main factor for his success is due to of his diligience. During the holidays, he did alot of Chinese related assignments which consist of books"非常阅读" that the teachers personally written for the syllabus. Every page consists of interesting passages and innovative questions specially catered for their age to catch their interest and attention. These painstakingly written worksheets are aimed to polish their comprehension skills. Those who may want to purchase the book for your children, it is not for sale anywhere at all unfortunately. The school is very strict about their publications. I would like to applaud Fairfield Methodist dedicated team of teachers for this first-of-its-kind education material which no other school elsewhere has done it.
On the other hand, i got another student, Zhen Wei who has not reached Jun De's pinnacle in Chinese. He does not have interest towards Chinese. Due to little exposure to the language, he has tremendous difficulty in writing especially. But much to my delight he made improvement and for the first time passed his paper 1. Although with the increased demand put upon by the school to restrict the situational writing to formal"gong han" but he still managed to pull it off with the news article review as his preferred composition question. It is heartening that he put what i thought him about the organisation techniques of writing article review into the exam. I hope that this little result will serve as a stepping stone for him to do better.
Recommendation from his Dad:
Dear Vincent,
I like to express my sincere thanks for your dedication in teaching my son, Andrew Ng, in his preparing for his June 2013 Chinese “O” level, and helping him to gain the confidence to do well in the June paper, achieving a “A”. I have witnessed very often, you have gone out of your way to research and introduce new and refreshing materials, such as radio recordings, news articles etc.. so as to keep my son interest in the subject. -
28.11.13
27.11.13
Testimonial: From a C to A in primary & FAIL to B4 in secondary!!!
Hi this is Sandra. In the past, you could probably say that I was not the smartest girl in town. When I was in primary school, Nanhua/CHIJ, my results were just a borderline pass or fail. I only scored a mark of 53 for my Chinese SA1. I was not good at my creative writing and my comprehension. That was when my parents decided to let Mr. Kok teach me for the next 4 months. When I got back my results for my SA2, I scored 70 marks and I started to regain my confidence through Mr. Kok’s teachings. And, most surprisingly, I got an A for my PSLE!!! Like all mothers, my mother was uncomfortable with a male teacher teaching me. But once she saw the change in my brother’s attitude towards learning Chinese, she let Mr. Kok teach me. I found him really comfortable to talk to as he is very funny and friendly. In the past, I found Chinese tuition boring as I had no interest in studying. But ever since Mr. Kok taught me. I started to grow an interest in learning Chinese as his method of teaching is different from other teachers, unlike using books all the time. I enjoyed learning on the computer especially using OMY.com.sg. When I went to CHIJ STC, I was very stressed out as there were many subjects to learn and I thought that it would be much better to self-study. To my shock, I only scored 48 marks which is a fail. It was my first time failing Chinese so it was a great shock. After receiving my results in July, my mom started to get worried and called Mr. Kok for help. This time, I started to do my work diligently and cautiously. Through all the programs on the computer, I got to learn many Chinese vocabularies which I have never encountered before and I was even top in my Chinese class. This year, I scored 64 marks for my SA2. My parents were very happy when they heard the news. I hope that I can get an A1 for my O-levels and through Mr. Kok’s teachings, I am sure that I can get an A1 for Chinese.
Achieving A1 from D7 !!!
I am Randy, and I have a twin brother, Gordon,
although he has the basic grasp of Chinese, he doesn't like to work
hard. Despite having tuition for Chinese his results are always C's or
D's. He even failed Chinese Language in SA1. He complained that the
Comprehension Passage was difficult and he didn't understand a lot of
the words. After realization, he has decided to work hard. Gordon
started paying attention in class and in tuition, he even did the
exercises in the workbook that were not taught. He also automatically
wrote down all the HanYu PinYin for the tough words in the Chinese
Textbook. Just before the SA2 exams, he even came for 2 more extra
lessons to ensure that he remembers the good phrases,format and
technique for Chinese news article review. Post-examination, Mr Kok sent
an SMS asking him for his Chinese results and surprisingly, Gordon got
an A1! Mr Kok was extremely surprised as he had only expected at most a
B3 from Gordon. Chinese is a subject that requires a strong foundation
to score well unlike Math or Science. Gordon unexpectedly managed to
jump from D7 to A1, skipping 6 grades altogether! Such cases of this
happening is extremely rare. Most of his students get a F9 for O Levels
as the Chinese Essay they have written is usually out of point and the
Comprehension passage wasn't done properly. Overall, the big jump in
results can be attribuited to Mr Kok's analysis and teaching, students
are able to find out their mistakes and correct them. They even became
more versatile to changes, being able to adapt to whichever topic given
to them, hence making them self-reliant during exams.
*SST* Student from B4 to A2 !!!
I first
took Mr. Kok’s lesson about 4 years ago. I was P5 then and was not amused as I
did not like tuition in general as I had found them boring and thought of them
as a waste of time and energy. Mr. Kok’s lessons are far from that. He utilized
various resources and media, such as online websites and videos, to help keep
the lesson interesting and engaging, while still imparting new knowledge and
teaching new skills. He is fun and easy to talk to and makes me feel
comfortable while learning Chinese. Soon after, I saw an improvement in my
results from a low A to a high A especially in my Chinese writing, in which he
taught me many great concepts and methods of writing. Sometime later, the PSLE
was coming up soon and I was getting rather stressed and nervous about it as it
was the first national exam I was taking. However, thanks to him teaching me
his useful examination techniques and significantly increasing my Chinese vocabulary
bank, I found the examination to be a breeze and was able to score yet another A.
I am
now Secondary 2 and have gotten into the secondary school of my choice and is
currently taking Higher Chinese. Mr. Kok still assists me and allows me to do
decently well in the tougher secondary school environment. For example, helping
me improve from a B4 to an A2 for my Chinese within half a year. Overall,
throughout the past 4 years I have learned a lot from Mr. Kok as his lessons
are super interesting he is a very interesting and humorous person to
communicate with. I would highly recommend those whose Chinese are weak to
attend Mr. Kok’s tuition.
-Wei
Jun (SST)
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