Conquering Singapore's Education System

  I hardly bought reference books as I had received many used books from friends. Thanks!   This is just another good one that I want to recommend, Primary 3 Chinese Model Compositions .   It is true that one shall read more library books, story books, etc. so that you can be creative in writings. Nevertheless, one short-cut way is to learn how others write good essays. I just finished teaching/going through all the 20 model compositions below with my boys recently. I find it useful for the kid to learn new Chinese words in this way and also to learn how to write a proper composition.     This is just one example of the model composition.       For each model compositions, it ends with explanation and exercises to test your understanding. For the entire 20 model compositions, below are the vocabulary/phrases/keywords that the author believes Primary 3 students can han...

  Many Singaporean kids are afraid of Chinese language, not to mention Higher Chinese. That will be a nightmare for them.   You can still survive well in Singapore even though you are not good in Chinese language but it is an advantage if you can master or good in Chinese language especially while you are working with China/Taiwan counterparts. I had the opportunities to have a close working relationship with Suzhou/Shanghai colleagues and even had a direct reporting boss stationed at Suzhou for 3 years. That was the time I truly appreciate why mastering in Chinese language is a good thing to have!   Back to Primary 5 & 6 Higher Chinese.   I particularly like the Higher Chinese Paper 2, Section B (one example was shown below).   That is one section to confuse and test the student's ability to know what shall be the right word to be applied in the sentence.   I just love it. I l...

    “ Pattern, pattern, pattern .” Can you see it? By far, this is the most controversial mathematics question appeared in year 2019 PSLE . It is shown below too. Some primary 4 students have encountered such question in the school test. Among the 12 famous schools, “ seeing pattern through figures ” question appeared only 5 times out of total 24 test papers. The schools are: (1) Nanyang Primary School (SA1 test) (2) Tao Nan Primary School (SA1 & SA2 test) appeared twice ! (3) Henry Park Primary School (SA2 test) (4) Catholic High School (SA2 test) The above 4 primary schools have early exposure with such topic to be quizzed. Nanyang Primary School 2018 SA1 Mathematics, question 42.   Part (a) is easy. The pattern is obvious. 4, 6, 8, 10. You need to find the pattern carefully for the number of matchsticks, 12, 19, 26, etc. It has the pattern of ( number of triangles x 3 + n ) . Alternatively, you can draw the ...

You can buy past year test papers at the bookstore or newspaper stall easily. I  bought those test papers from Carousell at more than 50% discount instead. Alternately, you can also download FREE from the websites below: (1) https://www.sgtestpaper.com/ (2) https://bestfreepapers.com/   (3) https://www.singapore-exam-papers.com/ He is attending Primary 2 at Qi Fa Primary School (West Coast).   He just completed the last SA2 P4 Mathematics test paper today and in my eyes, he had graduated from Primary 4 Mathematics class. He completed all 2018 Primary 4 Mathematics test papers on June 24, 2020 with an average score of: SA1: 88.67% and SA2: 93.36% . Total 34x test. He also completed all 2018 Primary 3 Mathematics test papers on December 15, 2019 with an average score of: SA1: 85.08% and SA2: 85.25% . Total 34x test as well.  A total height of 9 cm test papers had been completed. Doing past year test papers is much more...

    I teach science at home with the 2 books above only. That's what he had learnt today.       Cell – smallest unit of life . It is a able to grow, take in food, reproduce and respond to changes in the environment. Cells come in different shapes, sizes and structures to suit their specialized functions. The simplest living organisms have only one cell ( unicellular ) or single-celled, e.g. bacteria, yeast, paramecium, amoeba, euglena . Organisms made of many cells are called multicellular organisms. Cell -> Tissue -> Organ -> Systems An animal cell has a nucleus, cytoplasm, cell membrane and vacuole (they are small if present) . It has no chloroplasts and cell wall . A plant cell has a nucleus, cytoplasm, cell membrane, vacuole, chloroplasts and cell wall . Not all plant cells contain chloroplast (e.g. root cells & onion skin cells ). Plant cells that are not green do not contain chloroplast. Not...