How to excel in JC1 Promos?

JC1 was certainly the most stressful time of my academic life, even more than my PhD i would say. Simply because the stakes were just so high or so we thought :p. So without wasting time, how to excel in the JC 1 Promos? There is only 1 rule:

Rule: Know your Terrain, Never underestimate the examiner!

You might have gotten away by doing last minute study for your O' Levels. Well Kudos to you. But you will most likely fail if you try to do that in JC! Why do i say that? Well the content and depth of what was covered in JC is way beyond what was covered in Sec school. So its almost like going to war after having practiced pillow fights with your little brother or sister. To begin with, understand that there is a substantial amount of work to be done. You can't run a 400 meter race by just practicing running 400 meters all the time. You have to train with short sprints, interval training, gym sessions and of course long distance endurance training. Similarly if your strategy is to just do the Ten Year Series questions (TYS), you will be simply run over! So how do i prepare?

Firstly you have to understand the terrain and here is how you go about doing that!

a) Carefully go through the syllabus which can be easily downloaded from the MOE SEAB website.

https://www.seab.gov.sg/

b) Plan how much time is required to cover each unit.

This includes not just reading your lecture notes but also doing tutorial questions and past year papers under timed conditions. I cannot stress this further! And make sure you mark them and understand what went wrong and ensure you can do it by yourself without looking at your solutions!

Now some of you may ask where to get my resources?

In Singapore you have people selling almost anything under Carousell! You don't like your school lecture notes? Sure you can just buy ACJC notes or RJC or any other JC notes for about $20-30 bucks! You can get all JCs exam papers for about $20-30. You could even buy revision packages! All with solutions! I like the following seller

https://sg.carousell.com/trendyline/

I am not related to this person in anyway!

Now how long do you think you would need to do all of the above?

Maybe you should have started in sec 3 itself! Just kidding but i do know that some people actually do that (GEP stream for example and of course the rest of our Kiasu Lot!)

So its clear that one has to start immediately. Any procrastination could be lethal!

C) Then Do Them! Mark Them and Review!

Yes knowing all of the above and not doing it will be just useless.

So where does the tutor come in?

If you are self motivated to do the above, you will spend most of the time asking tutors to explain the solutions to problems which you can't understand even after reviewing them. It could be that you don't understand the concept thoroughly and you need help! This way you will be driving your own learning. Else it will be the regular baby sitting,spoon feeding story that happens across the country. Do i care? No, because i am still getting paid! But i am just trying to make it a bigger bang for your buck! Let us be nice to other humans (your parents!).

Best Wishes

Dr. Kajen

Hp: 90629874

I specialize in teaching Physics and Math across all levels

Picture Credits:

1. http://www.whostherealboss.com/2016/09/time-plan/

2.https://www.businessinsider.co.za/hardest-mountain-bike-races-2018-3

3. <a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/school">School vector created by freepik - www.freepik.com</a>