The GCE O Level examinations is a significant checkpoint for many students across Singapore, in their educational life. This is because, O level results determine the kind of courses students would choose to enter their desired polytechnics, or to get into their desired junior colleges. Apart from school tutors, O Level home tutors and O level tuition teachers at tuition centres play a significant role in guiding students through their long and arduous educational journey. O Level is pretty challenging in its own way and this is such that school teachers alone would, unfortunately, be unable to push students to achieve excellence
Hence, let’s take a look at some tips to excel in O levels!
#1: STUDY SCHEDULE
Study schedules are exhausting to make and could be challenging to stick to; however, this first step is crucial. Study schedules should be made a month in advance before the examination. For example, if exam starts on the first of July, your study schedule should be made at the end of May and your schedule would be detailed planning of what you will study during the month of June.
Print out a calendar of the month that you would be planning out for, and for each day in the calendar, write down what you would like to accomplish and be specific about it. Having targeted goals with a systematic approach keeps you focused; you will be more confident and less confused.
#2: CONTENT
A lot of subjects at the O levels can be content heavy and may seem intimidating. It is important to explore different methods and strategies to make studying just a little easy:
(i) Rewriting notes helps some people to refresh their memory on what their science tutors went through with them during lessons. Keeping personalised notes, crafting them in a way that that only you can uniquely understand is effective
(ii) Watching content-related videos is extremely helpful for visual learners. This will clearly demonstrate how complicated processes occur and you would be able to easily remember each step and will be able to confidently recall them during examinations.
(iii) Creating mind maps helps you look at the bigger picture, link concepts and simplify huge topics. This makes everything easy for understanding and absorption. This technique will especially come handy during your examinations when you have to figure out the concepts being tested by the question.
(iv) Teaching somebody is an excellent way to be able to attain clarity, it then means that you have a good understanding of what you have learnt. If you find yourself getting stuck at any juncture while explaining a concept to someone, it then means that there are some learning gaps that you have to patch up immediately.
#3: O LEVEL TUITION
The biggest advantage of having a private O Level home tutor or going for O level tuition at a centre is that students will have access to customised teaching. Tuition teachers understand that the students they teach, are there in front of them because they need the extra push and guidance, and as such, there will be a conducive learning environment.
O Level tuition teachers would have space and comfort (due to small class strength) to understand their students’ learning pace and be able to apply the method of teaching that best suits their students, such that they are able to absorb and analyse information effectively. Tutors would also be able to analyse their students’ pattern of mistakes and train them accordingly; they would also figure out their students’ train of thought and use different teaching methods and strategies.
O level tuition will also emphasise the need to practice using test papers and hence there will also be sufficient resources for students to train themselves and hone their skills.
BOTTOM LINE
As the saying goes, “a stitch in time saves nine”, it is important to take the necessary steps (as soon as possible) to improve your grades from test to another that is the way to paving your path for success in O levels