Prelims over?

Prelims over? It doesn't stop you from studying! Ever wonder why your prelims is so god damn hard? I have the answer to the question!

So, basically, your school have a very hard prelim paper for you correct? Don't worry if you get very low marks. As the saying goes, "Failure is the first step to success"  Understand now? Your school created a very hard paper just to make you more worried and study more. Hence, you will get higher marks.

Even though I told you the truth, don't relax. You wouldn't know what the PSLE paper will come out! NEVER stop studying.

For more tips, scroll down the blog to see more of the tips for EVERYTHING!
For more info about myself, check this blog http://chengyann.blogspot.sg/

-Little teacher

Tips for you!

Okay! So back to PSLE!
Here are some of the tips that I personally like and works on me:

1) Do not study last minute! Start you revision now and you would remember better!

2) Buy those revision books (Recommendation: the small little book that is sold at POPULAR)

3) Highlighters! They created for you to highlight important notes!

4) Notes! Write down what the teachers write on the board! It may come out in exams!

5) Pay attention in class!

Hope you like these tips!

Love,
Little teacher

My personal blog

As I have promised, I will be sharing to you my personal blog!
www.chengyann.blogspot.sg

Hope you like it and thanks for following me!

Which school am I posted to?

So... after a hard studying year, guess where I go? I went to Nan Hua High School! Great ya? I hope I will be getting more tips and posting! BTW, I will be having a personal blog and will be sharing over here soon!

PSLE OVER FOR 2013!!!

Hey! Although PSLE is over for this year, which is my year... It wont stop me from giving you all more tips!! I will continue giving tips to those people who will be taking PSLE next year! Hope you all will continue supporting me! Thanks for all of your support for this year!!

Love,
Little Teacher

Tips for your PSLE LC tomorrow!

Wish all of you good luck for your listening comprehension tomorrow!

Love,
little teacher

15 more days！

Hey! We only left 15 more days to PSLE!!!

LAST MINUTE REVISION TIPS!

If you hadn't got ready for your prelim, don't worry! These are the top 10 last minute revision tips!

Here are 10 revision tips which should, given a fair wind, culminate in a rich harvest come results time:

1 Go public

Make a detailed revision timetable on a large piece of paper (A3 at least) and post it up somewhere that everyone can see it. That way, everyone knows what you are meant to be studying and when. Strangely enough, letting other people know your plans actually lightens the load, because then it's not just down to you to motivate yourself. Rather like getting married, you feel more committed to your vows if a lot of people have seen you make them at the wedding.

2 Catch the worm

Just like those wriggling soil-dwellers, facts are at their most available and digestible first thing in the morning. Start at 9am, and you can get the bulk of your revision done early, so you don't spend the rest of the day feeling crushed under the weight of unread A4 folders.

3 Ask questions of yourself \

Facts are sluggish, passive creatures and lie piled up inside your head, without giving off any signs of life. You can, however, awaken them through the power of questions. So when you're making notes, don't just write down "The Battle of Naseby was fought in 1645"; instead, put "When was the Battle of Naseby?" in one column, and write "1645" in an opposite column. Cover up the answer and each time you get it right, you'll feel a small, pixie-like pat on the back.

4 De-digitalise

You should unplug your computer or laptop, as it's simply too tempting to go off roaming the wide, open spaces of Web-fordshire, instead of ploughing through the causes of the agricultural revolution. It is also imperative to turn off your mobile phone (one distraction too many).

5 Come up with mnemonics

The word stands for Make Names Easily Memorable by Organising Nominated Initial Characters. The website Student UK suggests My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas as a way of remembering the nine planets in order of distance from the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto).

6 Believe in bananas

Take a leaf out of the top tennis players' book and make use of this potassium-rich performance-enhancer to raise your energy levels. When Federer and Nadal need a lift, they don't reach for a courtside cup of black coffee, they dip into their kitbags and unzip a banana.

7 Act out the French Revolution

If you're studying King Lear for English A-level, your teacher will take you to a performance of the play. Unfortunately, if you're doing history, you can't just go off in a minibus and see 200-year-old events taking place. You can, however, re-enact them in your own home. Get one or two classmates over, share out the parts – one person can play Louis XVI and the French aristocracy, one person Robespierre and Danton, another the Parisian mob. Work your way from the Storming of the Bastille (1789) up to the Fall of the Directory (1799).

8 Make the stairs work for you

Let's face it, travelling between the ground and first floor of your home is pretty much dead time. In which case, why not put those stair-minutes to good use by placing revision cards on each step. Try the kings and queens of England, for example. Start at William The Conqueror (1066) and by the time you reach the first turn, you should be at Richard II. If you run out of stairs, do the Normans and Plantagenets one day, the Tudors and Stuarts the next. If you live in a flat, line the monarchs in order along the hallway.

9 Quality time

Ask friends over for a revision session. With things like dates and vocabulary, it's always better if someone else is testing you, rather than you testing yourself (and peeking at the answers).

10 Watch television
Of course you shouldn't tr
y to learn the periodic table of chemical elements while watching Columbo reruns or a Shopping Channel knitwear special. But that doesn't mean you can't record a favourite programme and watch it as a treat, between your morning and afternoon revising time.

IN GOOD COMPANY
Not optimistic about the forthcoming exams? Don’t worry, here’s a list of famous people who didn’t do at all well at school:
• Winston Churchill, British prime minister
• Abraham Lincoln, US president
• George Bernard Shaw, author and playwright
• Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb
• Leo Tolstoy, writer of War and Peace
• Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse
• Richard Branson, British tycoon
• Michael Faraday, pioneer of electromagnetism

Hope these helps you!

Xoxo,

little teacher

How can you score well for your composition exam (chinese/english)

Application of grammar knowledge, vocabulary and literary techniques are the keys . This techniques are proven to work from our years of experience with teaching the children. As follow are the tips:


1) STOP memorising, be flexible. Many great writings are merely ideas adapted from another. Hence, reading model essays are important to help children generate ideas for a creative composition. However, how to the children apply what they have read to the exam questions? That is a technique needed to be learnt through professional guidance.


2)increasing vocabulary, variation of words are used to show very slight difference of feelings in the character. For example, surprised in comparison with shocked , both are feelings of astonishment but surprise is different. It is used to describe happy occasions. Hence, vocabulary is not only used to impress the markers but also to ensure the essay to be interesting.


3)grammar mistakes are unsightly. For example: John is running and shouted for help.
Could you spot the error in grammar?


Is should be was, as shouted is past tense.
"was running and shouting " would demonstrate the ongoing action
"was running and shouted" would show the two action happened at different time
Grammar is essential to ensure the flow in the essay.

Hope this helps!!

LOVE,
Little Teacher

Writting your composition!

                              Composition Guidelines

 

PLANNING YOUR STORY

Step 1: YOU MUST PLAN!

Before we discuss about how to plan a composition, I always ask my students whether they plan their compositions at all in the first place. Although some students claim they plan their composition, after careful enquiry, you will realise very, very few students indeed plan their compositions. It is always an uphill task to persuade any student of the necessity of planning their composition since most of them have survived to-date without having to do so. "If it isn't broken, don't fix it" seems to be the over-riding principle of inertia for young students.

Well here's a new rule, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail".

You MUST plan. Don't just use the first idea that pops into your head. That is quite like playing Russian Roulette. You're relying on pure luck whether that idea is a good or bad idea. We all know that it's a bad idea to answer any (test) paper relying on plain luck, but for some strange mysterious reason, when it comes to composition, students abandon all logic to trust in their Stars/Ancestors/Relevant Deity to provide them with inspiration. While we're at it, let's also walk across the PIE blindfolded. Remember: you MUST plan!

 

 More often than not, the first idea that pops into your head is the most obvious idea. It also means it will be first idea that pops into every other student's head. Your composition will drown in a flood of hundreds of other almost exactly identical stories. Unless you relish the idea of writing the exact same thing as everybody else, consider other alternatives. Take for example a typical composition title: A Day At The Beach. I have marked at least hundreds of picnic compositions on that theme. By the time I have finished marking the hundredth picnic account, I'm just about ready to take commit ritual sepuku (check on google whats the meaning) except thankfully, I'm not Japanese.

Some brighter sparks (that means you of course) add in a bit of originality and excitement by including a drowning, accident, criminals, daring rescue and so on. Unfortunately, the very same idea has occurred to all their classmates. Come on, Beach... Drowning... not exactly original material. Unfortunately, if you don't plan, that's the kind of story you will come up with. My point is, YOU MUST PLAN! Or have I said that already?

SO, the next question is: HOW TO PLAN?

How To Plan

Now that I have made put my point across, we ask: how to plan? Strict planning formulas are almost as bad as no plan. I've seen some quite horrifying tables and guidelines in student guides that has the words "Introduction", "Body" and "Conclusion" somewhere in there. Well, actually I'm making that up. But my point is - there is no instant formula. No great author ever came up with an original work by filling in some table. Well, maybe except Adam Smith and we all know what happened to him.

Just guide yourself with the following basic questions: Who, When, Where, Why, How and What. This is not meant to be a magic formula. The reason why I suggest these is because they are the most basic questions I could think of. If you can think of anything more basic, please e-mail me your suggestion. The order in which you answer them is also not important except What is always answered last, and I will explain why later.

Who

Who are the characters in your story? You? A 3rd party? Your friends / classmates / family / relatives? John? Who?

Pick your characters to improve your story. If the topic is A Day At The Beach, pick characters that will add to the story. Naturally, throwing in a sky-diving champion would be better than throwing in a lawyer. But what would be better than a sky-diving champion? A sky-diving grandmother? A sky-diving iguana? Don't take my word for it, try it out for yourself.

TIPS: Don't always use the first perspective. BE MORE SPECIAL! Use other people such as 'Jake' or some other names. Imagine you reading and marking a hundreds of composition and everything is using the first persperctive, wouldn't it be boring?

Where

Where did it happen? In School/at the graveyard/in the toilet?

Of course sometimes you can be limited as in the example A Day At the Beach would have to happen at the beach. But a good student always asks, which part of the beach? A better student asks where is this beach? It can range anywhere from East Coast Park to Madagascar.

When

What day did the story occur? Yesterday? Your birthday? Last Christmas? September 1939? When?

Don't forget the time! What time did it happen? It is shocking how many students forget about the time. Obviously a story set in the afternoon would be very different from one set in the middle of the night.

When did it happen? In the morning? At night? While you were in the toilet? Eating cornflakes? Reading the newspapers? Doing all three?

Have fun with the facts. There is no limit.

Why

Why? What do you mean why? If the topic is "A Heartbreaking Christmas", why was it heartbreaking? If it was "A Joyful Reunion", obviously it is not necessary to ask why it was joyful. All reunions are joyful except maybe old school reunions but that's another story. Why were they separated? Why did they take so long to reunite?

For some topics it may be harder to explain why. For example, "A Day At The Beach". Why were you there? Was it for a picnic (no!) or for some other reason (yes)?

How

How did it happen? This may overlap with "What" which I will explain later. Sometimes people have more fun reading how something happens than the fact that it did happen. Especially if the method is especially clever or amusing. Sometimes, you don't need to tell how something happened (how you went to the beach), sometimes you do (how the prisoner escaped from jail). Use your common sense.

What

Lastly, What happened? This is a blow by blow account of the whole story. In other words, it is a concise summary of everything you intend to put into your story. Once you have put together WHO, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW, you are now ready to say answer WHAT happened. It is like putting meat on the skeleton of an animal except without all the blood and stuff. Actually it isn't like it at all, but I could not think of a better analogy.

A NEGATIVE EXAMPLE

Back to the example of A Day At The Beach. One teacher I know told me about a student who wrote about a picnic he had with his friends. It began optimistically with them finding a nice shady spot to set up. It went downhill from there as he began to narrate they had sandwiches (nice delicious sandwiches), fried beehoon (nice delicious fried beehoon), fishballs (nice delicious fishballs) and packet drinks (nice delic... you get the idea). By the time the teacher got to packet drinks, it was so boring it could physically drive breath out of your body. If you are that student, I apologise for using you as a negative example.

Be Realistic

Use your common sense. Don't go overboard. A story that is wholly absurd is as bad as a story which is boring. Don't insult your reader's intelligence by expecting them to believe ridiculously exaggerated heroism. Really don't. Really.

If you set up your story right, you won't have to resort to extreme solutions. Nobody is going to believe you beat a man with a machine gun by dodging through a rain of bullets and karate chopping him on the neck.

Last Words

Have fun. Planning makes it more fun, not less. Because it depends only on your imagination, every student is as good as another. It is the only place where the competition is completely fair. Go for it.


Taken from: http://www.oldschool.com.sg/index.php/module/PublicAccess/action/Wrapper/sid/62fa95dd33bdfcea4a4e3d4849ad676e/hash_id/c7fc2c48876caca681d7244ac5992573/desc/Composition+Guidelines


But some tips from me! Have a great day!

LOVE,
Little teacher