Many parents who were referred by ex-students and parents, as well as SimpleChemConcepts.com avid readers asked me how come their child made no or very slight improvements even when they have attended many tuition classes or even home private 1-to-1 tutoring. These students have also “done” many worksheets, Ten Years Series Questions and Top School Prelim Papers as “instructed” by teachers, tutors and parents.
Based on my observations for the last 10 years (in fact 20 years since I went through it also), these are the 4 reasons why your child is still not scoring A in their Chemistry examinations.
1. Doing many worksheets without reviews
“Done” too many worksheets, ten years series questions and top school preliminary questions without knowing why and what they are doing.
When they have a question answered wrongly, they did not review and reflect what are the concepts involved to get the question correct, if it ever comes out again (but rephrased in a slightly different way).
So they just do for the sake of doing.
To put into analogy – say you borrowing books on a certain topic to read and improve your knowledge, Do you think you will gain and learn a lot from that topic if you read 20 books quickly in a week. Or do you think you will gain more by reading just 5 books in that week, but devouring the meaning and tips of what the 5 books have to offer? Isn’t this clear enough? Learning is still learning, be it academic results or self-improvement in certain skills.
2. Weak foundations in chemistry essential concepts
Foundations for Chemistry Basic Essential Concepts are not build properly. Students merely “sit in” many tuition classes to have the “feel good/safe” or “yeah, I am attending tuition classes”, but in fact, they are not learning much as they simply do worksheets at those centres. Nothing much has been done to build up their foundations. Just because the students are attending tuition classes DOES NOT mean that they will simply do well. It is not guaranteed. Progress need to be tracked by the parents as well as the coach. And if you think your child is not improving, you need to check with the coach on method of coaching being used. It might not suit your child at all.
3. Seek help too late
Students (and to be frank, parents also) only seek help when the exams are nearing. I will not say this is too late to revise intensively and still get good grades for chemistry (since we have produced numerous “miracles” over the years. Many good coaches in the market had also done so brilliantly). But what if your child has Chemistry, Physics, A-Math and E-Math are below passing standards, and now they seek Intensive Revision Programs for all the subjects? You must agree with me that the child will feel burn-out and so stressful that he might have mental blocks in actual exams.
4. Wrong learning attitudes
And most importantly, it must be ATTITUDES of the students. Put it these way, when I am in my teenage years, I also play a lot – soccer, basketball, chatting with friends, etc. As teenagers, it is in-built in them to enjoy themselves. Many tutors and teachers forget about what many motivational gurus mentioned before: “WORK HARD, PLAY HARD”!! Yes. In order for these students to do well in their academic results – we need to support them to PLAY HARD, but at the same time, instilled in them the mindset of WORKING HARD too. In our training, we always start with building up their ATTITUDES towards learning (incorporated into part of our Accelerated Learning Techniques)..and i can tell you..this is a lifelong skills and mindset that will last them forever…You need to empower the child to want to get better grades themselves..cos times have changed, you cannot force your child to do things they don’t want. Period.
Whether you are a student, parent, teacher or tutor – I hope you will benefit from the above tips.
In the next blogpost, I am going to share with you an interesting way of looking at ATTITUDES to improve your grades and knowledge.
PS: Do drop me a comment below in “Leave A Reply” section. I would love to hear from you.
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