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I’m very happy to know that our students are still asking me questions as they prepare for their last paper for Chemistry, their Chem Paper 1 MCQ worth a whopping 30% weightage!

While others think that exams is like almost over, we stayed focus until the very end.

Glad that RE is pushing her boundary. She is asking me very very good questions to consolidate the whole syllabus, by asking me relevant questions to clarify her doubts.

Chemistry is not her strongest subject.

She has been improving consistently in the last few months after joining us.

She seems fired up for the last few weeks!

Let’s see whether we can create another “miracle”! 💪💪💪💪💪

For the first time in the last 16 years, this is the first time we are conducting our annual Score 100% O Level Pure Chemistry MCQ Workshop on a religious public holiday. 🧪🧪🧪🧪🧪

Happy Deepavali.

Since 2009, when we first conceptualise and started this final exam booster workshops, we have always make it a point not to hold it on religious public holiday so that all our students can attend it. This year, the O Level Exam timetable didn’t give us much choice. So here we are, since 8 am this morning.

🏅For the committed.

🏅 For the hungry.

🏅 For those who has something to prove to their naysayers.

And a shout out to the 6 Indian students (and their parents) who are attending this workshop. Cannot thank you more for your trust in us and commitment towards your own success. 🙏

I’m glad to see your happy faces at the end of Day 1, before you move on to celebrate this special day with your family and friends. Happy Deepavali.

Let’s make it count.

Let’s continue to stay focus and work harder & smarter while others choose to chillax like exam is already over.

Previously, we heard from our J1 H2 Chemistry students from CJC, RI, VJC.

This is H. She is from Hwa Chong Institution (HCI). Chemistry wasn’t her strongest subject all this while that’s why she joined us in Winners Education - O & A Level Chemistry Specialist.

People said that online learning via zoom is less effective than onsite, physical class.

My answer: yes and no!

Depends on the person teaching and the other person learning. It takes 2 hands to clap!

H has always been online. She has improved consistently until she gets her high A grade for H2 Chemistry. 83.8% is just amazing.

I have never seen H face to face before. I supposed she will continue to stay online in J2 and learn via Zoom with us.

Perhaps, just perhaps, she will visit us onsite at Bishan premises after she collects her A Level result slip a year plus from now. I will not reject her packet of nanyang kopi treat. Looking forward to it! 💪 meanwhile, we continue to stay focus and work (hard and smart)!

To Strive And Not To Yield.

The previous Practical Theory Workshop was a huge success. We managed to cover all the key experimental components and helped them to do well for their Chemistry Practical Exam. For some especially the newer students, their initial dreams are kept alive again!

Next up is the Structured & Free Response Written Exam aka Paper 2 Written. Now, the theme is somewhat different here. Here we focus entirely on KEYWORDS mastery. Targeted approach. Strategy is still Maximum Results in Minimum Time.

Let’s keep pushing. Obsessed to create “miracles” again. Let’s prove naysayers wrong!

To Strive & Not to Yield! 💪💪💪💪💪

It’s definitely 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Very happy to hear about AJ’s breakthrough.

She worked hard. We worked hard. Truly deserved.

She is among the first in our 2024 JC1 batch to share H2 Chemistry results with us. Her JC is the first to release Promo Exam results.

Waiting for the rest from other schools to share.

We had quite a number of new students joining us for our Chemistry Final Exam Boosters this year. Some online, most onsite. Never been to our trainings before.

First, we start by getting them to believe it’s still possible, even in the shortest period of time.

You don’t just talk. You prove to them.

You don’t tell them. You show them.

You show them the numbers, the stats, the facts that others forgot to share.

You show them the results of our past participants, how they did. Unsolicited testimonials and google reviews from students just like them.

You then show them what needs to be done.

You show them a plan, a clear plan.

Don’t Tell. SHOW.

And once that’s done, and they realized we are all in the same boat, paddling towards the same direction, we work our socks off.

Short and punchy is how I like to call it.
Maximum results in minimum time.

People says “it can’t be done”.

We say “why not? If others (our ex students in the last 25 years) can do it, why not you?”

It’s all about the hunger, the desire and the goal. Once that is set and firm, we stay focus and work. We focus on the most important things. Things that can move the scale.

We leverage on the statistical bell curve. The curve is powerful if you know how to use it.

No, we don’t spot questions (err…actually we do but we won’t tell them explicitly…cos that depends on a lot on luck and we don’t trust luck solely to get us results, to get us success…cos it’s a hit-or-miss and it’s usually a miss). We prefer to take more control.

We do proper coverage of what’s required of the syllabus.

Can’t be done?
We have done it before. Since many moons ago. And continues to do so.

It went very well for their first paper, Chemistry Practical, Paper 3. Appreciate that some students and their parents updated me accordingly right after the paper.

Now, we managed to keep their dreams alive. Dreams that they almost gave up.

With their dreams intact, we now focus on their second Chemistry paper, the upcoming Written Questions, Paper 2.

Question is how to score as high as possible for this Chemistry written paper. Good grasp of the key concepts are important, but equally important is KEYWORDS mastery. I am obsessed with keywords WE are obsessed with keywords.

One paper at a time. And let’s see what we can achieve together at the end. Just like last year. Just like every year since inception of our Chemistry Final Exam Boosters.

Woke up this morning and see this message from Ethan, one of our JC2 students. Immediately, you know today is going to be an awesome day! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

So happy for him. He came a long long way. Was struggling with H2 Chemistry when we first met because he has been studying Chem wrongly. He even has phobia going for Chem exams previously. Took me some time to get him to change his way of studying, on top of teaching him the essential concepts and whatnot. So happy for his achievement. More to come from him! I’m very sure! 💪

We often ask students questions in the classes in order to stimulate their recall of prior knowledge, promote comprehension of notes provided and build their critical-thinking skills.

I love to ask questions randomly (really out of nowhere) to help students uncover what has been learned, to comprehensively explore the key Chemistry concepts, and their mastery of the associated keywords.

QUESTIONING is important when it comes to effective learning.

It is part of one of the 5 approach in Pedagogy.

But questioning by me (a Chemistry trainer) alone is not good enough to get them to improve massively in a short period of time and to master this abstract science subject called Chemistry.

Students will only master Chemistry when they personally ASK questions to clarify their doubts.

That’s why we have been encouraging all our students (in the last 25 years!) to keep asking questions to clarify their doubts till they don’t have anymore.

I spend more time answering questions on telegram (previously on whatsapp) than my active teachings in my weekly classes and intensive holiday revision workshops.

If you are my former or current students, you will remember that at the end of the class i will always say: “if you got any questions, do ask me on whatsapp/telegram asap. I will do my best to help.”

So parents, do encourage your child to clarify their doubts asap by asking their school teachers, tutors, siblings and friends more questions!

We often ask students questions in the classes in order to stimulate their recall of prior knowledge, promote comprehension of notes provided and build their critical-thinking skills.

I love to ask questions at the end of each section or each topic, to help students uncover what has been learned, to comprehensively explore the key Chemistry concepts, and their mastery of the associated keywords. Before we even work on questions.

QUESTIONING is important when it comes to effective learning. In fact, I think it is the most important approach in Pedagogy (technically housed under the Reflective Approach).

But questioning by me (a Chemistry trainer) alone is not good enough to get them to improve massively in a short period of time and to master this abstract science subject called Chemistry.

Students will only master Chemistry when they personally ASK questions to clarify their doubts.

That’s why we have been encouraging all our students (in the last 25 years!) to keep asking questions to clarify their doubts till they don’t have anymore.

I spend more time answering questions on telegram (previously on whatsapp) than my active teachings in my weekly classes and intensive holiday revision workshops.

Based on our in-house statistics over the years, those who clarified their doubts by asking questions, tends to do alot better.

So parents, do encourage your child to clarify their doubts asap by asking their school teachers, tutors, siblings and friends more questions! And it’s not just on Chemistry.

Woke up this morning and saw a dozen of telegram messages from our Chemistry students. Most of them were on clarification of doubts and asking me on the angle to start working on application based challenging questions in prelim exam papers given by their teachers.

One message stood out. It was from Tiffany.

She joined us for the June Holiday Revision Workshops and after 3 months, she has improved 5 grades. She was getting the lowest grade (F9) and at the brink of giving up Chemistry. She doesn’t dislike this abstract science subject. In fact, she finds it interesting. However, she study it the wrong way (memorizing and regurgitation) all this while until recently.

Now, she is going to aim higher and I’m sure she is going to achieve it. I’m glad she can now continue to pursue Chemistry-related courses in her higher education.

What’s the secret to her success?

It must be the her positive traits and values when it comes to learning.

She is extremely committed. There’s no IFs, BUTs and NOs when it comes to learning. She don’t give excuses. She clarify doubts consistently and works her socks off. And now, she is creating “miracles” for herself…

We always say: “Cash is KING!”.

But many forget that there’s a lot of other things which could be better in the physical form.

I got a shock when a good friend of mine send me this article minutes ago.

First, I feel sorry for those students who have lost their school studying materials/notes. Especially those hardworking ones who has copied down all the gold nuggets of wisdom as their teachers explained the concepts and ideas of each affected subjects.

I can still remember that eons ago, we always safeguard and ensure that our bag of books/notes are always within our sight when nearing our exams, even when we are playing basketball or soccer. We will never leave our precious notes alone on the tables while we go and buy our lunch at food stalls. They are that precious to us.

So in Winners Education - O & A Level Chemistry Specialist, we always reject requests for soft copy materials. We insists on giving them the hard copies notes. We emphasised the importance of printouts and that they can jot down important notes, a pen-and-paper skill set which they need in exams anyway. We are also afraid of any hacks or bugs which will cause them to lose their notes. Call us timid. Call us not in trend. Being a small establishment, we do not have the financial strength to prevent any black swan event when it comes to IT related stuff. So much so, that some parents (their children) decided to not join us simply they NEED to have all notes on their iPad and tablets.

Now, if you are students who are affected by this surprise attack, it’s important to stay focus and get the best out of the situation. Stop whining, stop complaining and stop crying. Got to be strong. Nothing can bring back those notes apparently.

This is the time whereby E + R = O must come into action. The unfortunate Event has occurred. The final Outcome (your IP, O and A Levels exams) will be determined by how you Respond to it!

If you have not copied much notes onto them. That’s the easiest to solve. Ask your teachers to send you the copies again (soft copy 😬 or hard copy).

If you have written a lot of notes down, time to recap back what you have written, the key points. Not word for word.

For example, in Chemistry 🧪🧪, it’s all about Key Concepts and Associated Keywords/Applications. Try to recall them. For those exam based questions, they are just questions and answers. It’s just application of your concepts and keywords. Let them go. Focus on the essentials.

All the best! Stay calm.
Focus on your outcome 🎯

'How am I going to pass my O-Levels': Students lose notes due to Mobile Guardian hack “We didn’t even know that this was going to happen, so it just caught us all off guard,” said one Secondary 4 student who discovered her notes were gone just as she sat down to revise.

Yes, indeed, we have a dinosaur in the house!

The dinosaur came together when we took over the premise from the previous centre owners. That was like 4-5 years ago when Winners shifted from middle road to Bishan.

Have been playing minimalist, classical or piano music for students who arrived earlier for weekly tuition classes or holiday intensive revision workshops. The norm is hearing Richard Claderman piano pieces via the gold CD I have since eons ago.

We used to play music via iPad and surrounding speakers at the old place. But realized this super old CD player plays music very nicely for our students. That’s us!

We don’t do a lot of things that others does….

We won’t buy expensive sound system and play Taylor swift songs or hip hop for students. Cos that doesn’t help them to learn Chemistry.

We don’t offer free flow of bubble teas and pizzas, sandwiches, etc. I don’t know how by having more pizzas and bubble teas will help them to improve their Chemistry concepts. Maybe it does? Lol. Sorry, we don’t really get it. To us, these are just shiny things.

We don’t print tee shirts (more like uniforms) and enforce you to wear it. Wearing that uniform does not make you smarter, more focus or more discipline. Does it? Maybe I miss the point..but I seriously doubt so.

💥💥💥💥💥

What we do at Winners is to simply ensure that the environment is conducive for learning, whether is on-site or online via zoom.

We invests heavily in systems, softwares and hardwares which aids our teachings as well as learning by students. We got a known stable laptop, a good camera, a good mic used by YouTubers, etc.

We ensure that the wifi is strong and stable.

We make sure that the air-con is cold enough and service cleaned regularly.

We ensure that the ceiling lights are bright and comfortable enough.

We used proper tables so that students have space to place their materials, stationery and water bottles. We got chairs which is sturdy and comfortable enough to sit for long hours. It supports their back properly.

(I personally hate those chairs with the small flipped table. I know that saves a lot space and others wanna max out the room by using them. But heck, I don’t care! If I hate those tables, our students will hate them equally. Cannot even write properly! Then how to learn properly?)

Projector lightbulbs changed regularly so that it’s bright enough to see the screen clearly.

Windows are opened regularly to air the training rooms.

And then we focus on curating and improving our teaching materials every year. I won’t apologize for that.

And we focus on improving our soft skills to deliver our teachings. I’m relentless about this.

If you read so far, lol, I’m just babbling to myself while waiting for the next appointment. And reminding myself to stay focus on the important things. Ignore all the shiny stuffs cos they are not useful at all. Let others be shinny. We continue to be minimalist.