My humble thoughts is a section I share with parents and students to express my experiences on teaching and learning. I do not expect everyone to share the same thoughts as me. However, if my article benefits you, I know I have contributed to your life.
Practice, practice and more practice!
There is no short-cut to prepare for exams especially O level exams. It all comes with practice! Make sure one is able to get a good mentor (teacher, tutor, parent, siblings, friends etc.) to help you in anything you do not understand about your subjects and then the main bulk of the results will rest upon own practice!
I have read up somewhere on the necessity of having a good mentor when one is learning how to become an expert in a particular field. Learning from an expert is important as an expert will be able to correct one's mistakes and show one the fastest way to master a field of learning. Looking at the famous world golfer Tiger Woods, he was able to become world best because he had a good coach to teach him the necessary skills and attitudes to master his field of learning which is in golfing. Thus, one needs a mentor no matter how good one thinks he is as a mentor is an expert who has already arrived at the pinnacle of the field of learning and thus is able to show the learner all the short-cuts in mastering a field of learning. This will make the learning proceed at a faster pace to reach expert level.
Similarly, in learning a subject, a student must have a mentor to guide him/ her into the fastest and easiest way to learn the subject. This mentor can be a teacher, tutor, parent, sibling, friend or anyone who is already an expert in the subject who is able to guide the student. Learning thus proceeds at faster pace without the student making all the mistakes over and over until he gets it right. Learning from mistakes is good. However, if someone is able to show a faster way of doing things well, the student will benefit from the knowledge gained and master things faster.
After having a mentor to guide a student, he must also put in lots of hard work in practice. I read up somewhere that it needs at least approximately 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become an expert in any new field of learning. This translates to at least 6 years of practice assuming one practises on the field of learning consistently everyday for at least 4 hours of time. No wonder medical course training for to-be doctors is at least 6 years. Thus, when it comes to mastering a field of learning, practice is very important.
As a student, it is thus important to practise well to prepare for exams. No one goes to a battle unprepared! You will get wiped out by the enemy in a short time! My suggestion is that a student preparing for his O level exams should at least have practised 10 school exam papers and 10 years worth of 10 years series O level papers for a subject. This I feel is the bare minimum to be preparing for the O level exams. Ensure one is able to do all questions in all the papers correctly and find out the correct answers to any wrong answers to ensure one understands his mistakes thoroughly.
Looking at the minimum of 20 exam papers (10 school exam papers and 10 years worth of 10 years series O level papers) for each subject, one needs to plan out a revision schedule so as to accomodate this amount of practice for all subjects. Do not waste any more time if one is preparing for this year's O level exams! Time does not wait for any person. It just ticks on! Failure to plan for one's practising schedule and to execute on it with discipline will mean one is planning to fail!
I have read up somewhere on the necessity of having a good mentor when one is learning how to become an expert in a particular field. Learning from an expert is important as an expert will be able to correct one's mistakes and show one the fastest way to master a field of learning. Looking at the famous world golfer Tiger Woods, he was able to become world best because he had a good coach to teach him the necessary skills and attitudes to master his field of learning which is in golfing. Thus, one needs a mentor no matter how good one thinks he is as a mentor is an expert who has already arrived at the pinnacle of the field of learning and thus is able to show the learner all the short-cuts in mastering a field of learning. This will make the learning proceed at a faster pace to reach expert level.
Similarly, in learning a subject, a student must have a mentor to guide him/ her into the fastest and easiest way to learn the subject. This mentor can be a teacher, tutor, parent, sibling, friend or anyone who is already an expert in the subject who is able to guide the student. Learning thus proceeds at faster pace without the student making all the mistakes over and over until he gets it right. Learning from mistakes is good. However, if someone is able to show a faster way of doing things well, the student will benefit from the knowledge gained and master things faster.
After having a mentor to guide a student, he must also put in lots of hard work in practice. I read up somewhere that it needs at least approximately 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become an expert in any new field of learning. This translates to at least 6 years of practice assuming one practises on the field of learning consistently everyday for at least 4 hours of time. No wonder medical course training for to-be doctors is at least 6 years. Thus, when it comes to mastering a field of learning, practice is very important.
As a student, it is thus important to practise well to prepare for exams. No one goes to a battle unprepared! You will get wiped out by the enemy in a short time! My suggestion is that a student preparing for his O level exams should at least have practised 10 school exam papers and 10 years worth of 10 years series O level papers for a subject. This I feel is the bare minimum to be preparing for the O level exams. Ensure one is able to do all questions in all the papers correctly and find out the correct answers to any wrong answers to ensure one understands his mistakes thoroughly.
Looking at the minimum of 20 exam papers (10 school exam papers and 10 years worth of 10 years series O level papers) for each subject, one needs to plan out a revision schedule so as to accomodate this amount of practice for all subjects. Do not waste any more time if one is preparing for this year's O level exams! Time does not wait for any person. It just ticks on! Failure to plan for one's practising schedule and to execute on it with discipline will mean one is planning to fail!
Famous pianist Lang Lang started practising piano consistently since age three until adulthood and he is now an internationally renowned pianist! To become an expert in one's field of learning, it all comes with consistent, dedicated and disciplined practice under a good mentor!