Agrade Learning Pte Ltd

Frequently Asked Questions:

- Is it a good idea to do last minute cramming?

The answer is definitely no. It is not a good idea but if you have to do it, you got to do it. You need to know that the information that was squeezed in within 1 day will most probably disappear within a day or 2.

- How useful is burning the midnight oil?

Again, this is not recommended. However, if you really have to reduce your sleeping time, you need to consider the paper you are taking the next day. Sleep has different stages. If you need to take a paper that requires memorizing hard facts (foreign vocab, names, dates, events), you need deep sleep. Deep sleep takes place in the first half of the night. Therefore, sleep early and wake up earlier than usual to do a quick review. If the paper is more of analytical or creative kind (maths, science, writing), you can sleep later and wake up at usual timing. If you are going to burn the candle, you need to know which end to burn.

- Is it better to dedicate a topic a day or multiple topics in a day?

Let me give you an example. You have a Maths test on Friday. It's Monday today. You've decided to allocate 1 hour a day to prepare for it. You can choose:

Monday: Addition. (1 hour)

Tuesday: Subtraction. (1 hour)

Wednesday: Multiplication. (1 hour)

Thursday: Division (1 hour)

Friday: Test

OR

Monday - Thursday: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division (15 min each)

Friday: Test

Which do you think is better?

- What is the optimal number of hours to study a day?

I have yet to find a research/study that answers that. Rather than focusing on the optimal number of hours, it is better to split up the number of hours. For example, you've decided to study for 6 hours. Don't do it in 1 shot. You will burn out. Split it into 3 sessions of 2 hours each. When you reengage after a break, your brain can connect and remember better. A break of 30 min to 1 hour will be good. Switching to a different subject immediately does not constitute a break. Give your brain some time to "digest" the information.

- I always make careless mistakes on easy questions. Why?

When something is easy, we learn almost instantly. This will result in "fluency illusion" and we don't see a need to revise it anymore. That can create mistakes on easy questions and it is not careless. Let me use prime numbers as example. Most people will remember prime numbers as "1 x itself". 7 is a prime number. 5 is also a prime number. Easy right? So, what is the smallest prime number? This "easy" question is usually the one that makes my Sec 4 students lose marks. They learnt prime numbers in Sec 1 and never went back since. The correct answer is 2, not 1.

That's where I will see their "Aha!" moment and they will say "Oh, right. My teacher did say 1 is not a prime number." So, an easy topic (prime numbers) becomes a "1 x itself" but must remember to exclude 1. When they forget/are unsure about number 1 in few months time, they will ask "Number 1 counted or not?". The fluency illusion here is "1 x itself" is so simple and works so well most of the time that we believe we are really good at identifying prime numbers. In fact, that's not the definition of prime numbers. The correct definition for prime number is "a number that has only 2 different factors". That's why number 2 is the smallest prime number. Nothing special about number 1 that we have to kick it out from "1 x itself". Sometimes when we can get our answers fast, we tend to create loopholes in our learning. Be mindful of your learning. For example, if "1 x itself" doesn't work (even if it's a rare case), please find out why.

Of course, I've also seen students making careless mistakes on easy questions. For example, copying the numbers wrongly and such. Apparently easy stuff just weakens our brains. I always like to say this to my students: "Respect every question."

- Are flashcards useful?

Yes, if you know how to use them. Don't copy word for word from the textbook onto the flashcards. You need to extract what you have learnt from your textbooks/notes and write on the flashcards using your own words. I repeat, your own words. If you can't, that means you have not fully understood the content. You only have an idea that this statement/sentence will answer this particular question. It's like linking specific answer to specific question. None of the words can be omitted or rearranged because the answer might not work anymore. This kind of learning is not recommended. Once the question is altered a bit, your "perfect" answer will not work and you don't know how to modify your rigid statement to answer correctly.

Flashcards must go hand in hand with space repetition. Revise those that are recent or easily forgotten. Those we know very well will need less attention. Please be truthful to yourself. Beware of fluency illusion.

At the time of writing, flashcards with space repetition is one of the best way (I know) to learn and remember. The quality of content on the flashcards is also important. Don't be too stressed to create perfect flashcards. It's only for you to see and it doesn't matter if others don't understand what you are writing. Just don't write rubbish or create flashcards for the sake of creating.

If you want some learning tips, feel free to browse my website.

Learning Is Fun – Join Me To Find Out Home Every year-end, thousands of parents will try to prepare their children for a good start of the next academic year. Advice is abundance and all too familiar. Create a quiet study area. Plan out a study schedule. Set goals. Practice past year papers. Such ideas are common and easily accepted b...

3 Study Tips:

1. Pretest

Let’s say you unintentionally received a copy of your year-end examination paper at the beginning of the year. The teacher had accidentally emailed you the copy together with your lecture notes. Assuming that the teacher was not aware and the same paper would be used in future, would that paper help you in taking the exam at the end of the year?



Definitely! You know the questions beforehand. You know what to pay attention to and what to study. On the actual exam day, you will ace the paper and most likely get an A*. Of course, that is considered cheating.



Now, what if, instead of having the actual paper, you have a copy of a similar paper. Like a 10-year series (TYS). You can have an idea of what kind of questions are most likely to be tested. When the teacher is explaining those concepts, chances are you will pay more attention to them. This will greatly improve your chances of doing well for the exam and it is not cheating. This is called pretesting.



When it comes to pretest, you need to take the test. Do it, even if you get zero since you know nothing about it. People remember better when they have the wrong answer and get corrected. Let’s take a multiple choice question as example: What is the capital of Jordon?



Adamstown
Amman
Ankara
Asmara


Ready for the answer? The capital of Jordon is Amman. Did you get it right? It’s okay if you get it wrong. It might be the first time you come across this information. You’ve just learnt it.



Compare this to reading a line that says “The capital of Jordan is Amman”. This is the traditional way of learning. Just like reading a textbook. Let’s say a few months later, the same multiple choice question appears. It will be very difficult to recall the capital of Jordon from a line you saw months ago. Distractors like Adamstown, Ankara and Asmara will just make it worse. Research has shown that doing the question (even when a person knows nothing about it) and getting it wrong has a better chance of remembering the correct answer than reading the same information from a book. The same research also shows that those lucky correct answers will be easily forgotten compared to questions that were answered wrong. So, don’t be afraid to make mistakes in learning. Our brains seem to remember mistakes better.



2. Space Repetition

If we want to remember anything, the most obvious way is to revise it. However, if we have a lot of information to remember, revising the same material every day is time consuming. Not efficient and impossible as time passes.



We need to recall only when memory starts to fade. So when will that be? I will use the Forgetting Curve as a basis for it. It is best to revisit new information within a day or two. When that happens, our brain will remember this information better and last around 4 days to a week. Actually this varies from individuals. You will need to try it out yourself. Continue to lengthen the period after each revision and you will be able to remember the same information for a long period of time without repeating it every day.



Here is what you can do. Prepare 5 boxes and label them “1 day”, “3 days”, “1 week”, “1 month” and “3 months”. For information you need to remember, create a flashcard and study it. When you are done, drop it into the “1 day” box. 1 day later, take it out and have a look. You should be able to remember it pretty well. Promote that flashcard into the “3 days” box and review it 3 days later. If you can’t remember it, don’t panic. Review it again and put it back into the “1 day” box. Review it the next day. Promote the card once you are confident with it.



Repeat this process and the older cards will get promoted to 1 week, 1 month and 3 months. Most of the time, you will be looking at the more recent cards. In the event that you have a card in the “1 month” box (for example) that you can’t recall well when you revisit it, demote that card all the way to “1 day” box and start all over for that card. It contains information not easily remembered by your brain. That card needs special attention.



When you follow this method of revising, you will spend less time looking at concepts that you already know very well. Your time will only be spent on the difficult concepts. This is a very efficient way to revise for exams but the tough part is to make those flashcards. Do you have the discipline to do it?



Like I mention earlier, the duration above is just a guide. You get the idea now so what you need is fine tune it. If you want to find out more, do search for “Leitner System”.



3. Exam Anxiety

Many students view exams and tests negatively. Tests are seen as a way to find loopholes in their learning. Tricky questions are created to make them lose their marks. Ask around and chances are you can hardly find a student who loves tests.



I think that test should be viewed as a way to show how much you have learnt. Do as many questions as you can and get as many marks as possible. My idea is this: since you need to take the test anyway, you might as well view it positively. In fact, I think that is the real purpose of a test.



Maybe you don’t get full marks. Maybe you realize that you only understand a little of that chapter. In that case, that test would have served its purpose. You know what is needed to do better.



Many of my students used to say that they answered a question wrongly and lost a few marks. Some of them lost more marks and only scored 80 marks. I realized that they started counting from 100 marks and started feeling negative for every mark lost. It became demoralizing for them, maybe (I wanted to say confirm) stressful just to maintain 100 marks. Even the joy of finally getting 100 marks will be greatly reduced (happy becomes glad) due to their expectations.



I believe we should view test score from zero. As students answered more and more questions correctly, they will be rewarded with marks. When they finally reach 100 marks, that joy is jubilant. When they get 90 or 95 marks, they will be more willingly to try for 100 marks. Compared with the previous mentality of expecting 100 marks, they will most likely think that 90 or 95 marks is already very good.



Let me try to give an example using the analogy of the games/puzzles that you can play on your phone. Those games that reward you with 1, 2 or 3 stars when you clear a stage. Usually a stage can be cleared with minimal effort of 1 star. However, when you see 2 stars, it might prompt you to think a bit harder and see if you can achieve that perfect 3 stars, especially so since you cleared that stage with 2 stars. Imagine, if all stages in that game can only be cleared by achieving 3 stars, I think most people might not even want to play.



There is no way we can avoid tests and exams. If we have to do it, we might as well try to inject some fun into it. There is a saying “All exams can be prepared”. If you believe in that, then it is a matter of preparation. If you are not prepared, then you can’t really blame tests or exams. If you want some learning tips, feel free to browse my website.

Learning Is Fun – Join Me To Find Out Home Every year-end, thousands of parents will try to prepare their children for a good start of the next academic year. Advice is abundance and all too familiar. Create a quiet study area. Plan out a study schedule. Set goals. Practice past year papers. Such ideas are common and easily accepted b...

Every year-end, thousands of parents will try to prepare their children for a good start of the next academic year. Advice is abundance and all too familiar. Create a quiet study area. Plan out a study schedule. Set goals. Practice past year papers.



Such ideas are common and easily accepted because everyone is using it. The problem is: Are these ideas tested? If so, what are the conclusions?



In recent years, cognitive scientists have found some simple techniques that can reliably enhance a student’s learning. Be it a primary school child learning multiplication table or an adult learning a new language. So, how do people learn?



Ever wondered why children could do well in weekly or term tests but fared badly at year-end exams? There is a science behind it. (Hint: It is not entirely due to memory.)



We have a lot of misconceptions about learning. Do you believe that research has shown that studying at different places is better than a dedicated study area? How about the saying “It’s hard to remember; easy to forget”? Let’s do an experiment now.



Let me give you 10 seconds to remember a hypothetical fact. “Human can take a cab to the moon.” Please give yourself 10 seconds to remember. Got it?



Now, I’ll give you 1 min to forget this hypothetical fact. Go ahead. Try your best to forget about the cab going up to the moon. After 1 minute, if you genuinely try your best to recall what is the hypothetical fact but fail, then you are the first person I’ve known that can do it. Most people can’t forget that fast. In fact, the more they try to forget it, the better they can remember. You see, we can’t really control our brains. We need to know how they work and use it to our advantage.



In this Nov/Dec holidays, I will be sharing some research (done by scientists) that parents can use to help in their children’s learning. They include:



Why children do well for mini weekly tests but not year-end exams
How our brains work
Why we have difficulties in remembering names to faces
What is our brains preferred mode of learning
How to remember better and faster in addition to never forgetting them
What should be your first reaction when your child wrote even the first step wrongly while you are coaching them
and many more…


There is really no value in me telling you how much I know about our brains. I believe in putting theories into practice. Let me show you how you can improve your memory instantly simply by using the correct techniques preferred by your brain. Register for a free 2-hours of sharing session. I believe that you will go home with many tips on learning and improving memory. Hope to see you soon!

Click below to register for trial lesson.

"How To Help My Child Learn Better" - Sharing Session For Parents Topics include: - Why children do well for mini weekly tests but not year-end exams - How our brains work - Why we have difficulties in remembering names to faces - What is our brains preferred mode of learning - How to remember better and faster in addition to never forgetting them - What should be...

The Science of Learning Mathematics
Trial Lesson includes:

- How a typical lesson is conducted

- Explanation on why children do well for mini weekly tests but not year-end exams

- Demonstration of the importance in practicing after understanding. (* Very important. Especially for students who believe that they need not practice once they have understood.)

- Experience how our brains retain information

- How to solve the question below

Click below to register for trial lesson.

Free Trial Lesson For Secondary Mathematics (Parent + Child) Lesson include: - Experiment on how our brains retain information - Explanation on why children do well for mini weekly tests but not year-end exams - Demonstration of the importance in practicing after understanding. (* Very important. Especially for students who believe that they need not practice...