Should I attend tuition for faster academic improvements?

last SG · 2005-10-31T21:04:28+00:00

for any language, it's a matter of using the language... incorporate english into ur daily life... communicate with ur classmates/friends in english... alth...

SGEMP SG

Dear everyone

I, SGEMP, is a loyal member of sgForums, and a secondary 3 Express student

Just now in the HKitalk's (a.k.a. italk) A7 (job and education) board, there is a topic on how to be an ace in academic/studying life.
http://www.hkitalk.net/HKiTalk2/viewthread.php?tid=45272&fpage=1

éË\¬×DË¶?

(PS: I am not a member of italk.)

In response, other boardmates (also known as iMember) replied:
(translated from the Chinese Traditional reply of "ccicoltd")

"Aces usually have tuitions on numerous subjects, so they are actually dependant on their tuition agencies to get past the grade.

Pay attention in class and use your own efforts are only second to tuition."

Meanwhile, now, I noticed that many of my classmates were on tuition (some even after exams), while I used my own hard efforts, with no tuition, often studying late into the night, and at worse sometimes without sleeping for the whole night at all.

(The main reason was, in my primary school era, I had attended tuition with my twin elder brother, but there were still no improvement on my grades, and so driving me to a conclusion that tuition does not help my grades, only pull down my grades. And so I detested going for tuition since.)

Hence I sincerely believed that this is all because I have some serious inefficiencies in my method of studying as compared to the others.

And now what I got for the EoY 2005 is as this:

EL - just a narrow pass with the help of oral exam in the early of this year.
Some others are far better than me.
And that was despite my hard efforts, my close focus on my weak areas, and my frequent consultation with my teachers and sometimes my peers for tips on improvement, accompanied with implementation of all their advicees and suggestions.

CL - Others topped my class, despite my hard efforts and my close focus on my weak areas.

For all others, they were mostly satisfactory for me.

But for Social Studies, I was at some distance from the passing grade, and needing urgent help for further improvements, all despite of my hard efforts, my deep focus on my weak areas, and my frequent consultation with my teacher for tips to improve my grades in this subject.

(And so another thread would be started here by me over this.)

Also, I had for the overall passed all the seven O' level subjects I am taking as a Secondary 3 student about to be promoted to secondary 4 express next year, despite my not-so-impressive showing in my social studies.

However, sadly, I could not top in any subjects, even my simplest subject CL, in recent years, despite my hard efforts, and despite seeing others only getting 4 to 5 O' level subjects overall passes, with a few having far better English standards than me. (One of the better-than-me-in-English classmate attends tuition even till this day, as far as I know for today.)

And concluding from all my abovementioned items, to have speedier, further improvement of my grades (especially my EL grades and standards), better efficiency and strategy in my learning process, and to reduce the "burn midnight oil" without sleep incidences, I sincerely believed that it is better for me to go for tuition.

(However the decisions to send me into tuitions are typically decided by my parents, not me.)

(Also from my observations from all the resources, I found out that should one attend tuition is very conflicting for me to consider about it.)

And so what do you think about my desire to go for tuition? Should I? Or should I not?

Also does it mean that paying attention in class and using my own efforts does not help???

And so is there any faster, more efficient shortcut methods and strategies available for me to study and to revise, so that I do not need to burn midnight oil without sufficient rest?

Also I would appreciate if more tips to improve my English standards were given, (in the relevant topic).

Thank you for your kind suggestions and advices.

Yours faithfully
SGEMP

DrTech SG

Honestly, are you really paying attention in class? Even that is not enough, the only way one can learn is to keep questioning. And I don't mean questioning the teachers... Question yourself... ask yourself whether you know why it is this and this and not that. And then try to answer it yourself preferably in your own terms... then reinforce it during lessons and practises. Don't be afraid to make mistakes in your assignments, because that's the best way to assess yourself.

And if you still don't understand the logic behind the theories.... go ahead and question the teacher... until you really understand... and not because you are embarassed and you don't wish to trouble your teachers.

I've relied on this and obtained more than satisfactory results for all my subjects that are based on logic (Maths and Science). For Social Studies, you will need a very sharp mind to ace the papers. From my teacher's opinions, the one's who get A1 standards for social studies are really crazy people. They see a source and they know what it's purpose and the tone of the source. They can even evaluate it's reliability just by one read through. For the normal people, list content and get your Bs.

Language wise, it's more practise then anything.

Tuition is not necessary. Because most people I know who take tuition, they also can't be bothered to give half their attention to lessons... what's the point of tuition? You are only wasting money. If only you feel that you need to reinforce on what you already know... then tuition might be a viable option for revision... and not building your foundations. And some people become cocky just because they have tuition.

hisoka SG

erm would say tuition are not needed to do well from my own experience. they might be of use but only if you really get good and qualified tutors which is rather rare

alexkusu SG

u jus need a good teacher

stellazio SG

yes it doesn't hurt you to try to become better... Laughing

ne0matrix SG

Tuition is useless. Add onto your workload only.

Prince Cumming SG

I think i know e reason 4 ur weak results…. do u write like this in school??? ur message are all meticiously detailed & overly lengthy…

Kurs SG

If you want tuition in languages, engage someone who teaches the language in a school. They have strategies and methods to teach effectively.

You should not be looking for untrained teachers, especially for languages. Definately not some university undergrad.

Generally, I would simply read more, to improve the language. It will help, after some time - don't expect immediate improvements overnight - this is unlike maths or sciences, where you can be familiar with the theories and rules in a short while.

No point burning mindnight oil, seriously. You cannot do this for ANY subject. Lack of concentration and tiredness will result in unwanted mistakes - a certainty.

I give Mathematics tuition (both A and E Maths) - which is very different from giving English tuition.

I gave up teaching English, because I wasn't able to handle the grading of compositions and comprehension summaries. Only a school teacher can effectively do that.

For maths, it is a case of right is right, wrong is wrong, all answers are straightforward. In english, you know that anything is but straightforward.

For Social Studies, there is a need to know content. So long as you can ensure that you know what you have to know, you are safe. There are some strategies that you can take to ensure that you know more.

Remembering is NOT knowing. I normally tell my students: Knowing is more powerful than remembering. Know your facts, not remember them. This is true esp. for History or Geog or SS, which are content subjects.

I do feel, that if you are not seeing any results from your "hard work", it may be a case of wrong study methods. Reading the text and notes several times may not mean that the content gets into your head.

Perhaps a trained school teacher can help you with these learning strategies, and these strategies do not apply only to English.

Sometimes parents think that getting tutors is giving the student personal attention, and children ALWAYS learn better when they are one to one. I DISAGREE. For some of my students, it is a clear case of paying the tutor (me) to ensure that the child SPENDS TIME on his work, because if there is no tutor, the child would just do anything else BUT touch his books.

Untimately, the best students are conscientious (aware) of what they want to achieve, and are aware SPECIFICALLY and CLEARLY of WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO to achieve their aim, and have the discipline to DO IT. It is a good idea to LIST OUT the things that the student will do to improve their subject on a piece of paper, and generally stick to it.

Improvement CAN be speedier with tuition, but is not guaranteed, even if the tutor happens to be the best around. It takes two hands to clap. Student must be conscientious, tutor must be competent. Both must cooperate. If the teacher has to force the student to do certain worksheets or exercises, that is useless tuition.

Hope this helps, cheers! Very Happy

Depressed...sigh SG

If you think tution can help you gain your confidence in excelling your schoolwork better, then go ahead and do it! Wink

queiindom SG

I guess there is really no general rule for issues like this. Some people are better off studying by themselves while others simply cannot follow what the teacher is saying in class and thus have to engage private tuition to help them with their subjects.

No harm trying in out though, if you think it could help pull up your grades.

On the other hand, I resent that remark about not hiring undergraduate tutors. I do know quite a number of undergraduate tutors who really know their syllabus and content and are extremely patient and effective teachers. In fact, I know of people who are willing to pay $50/hr to hire them as secondary school tutors.

Kurs SG

Must be referring to me Exclamation

FYI, I was an undergraduate tutor not too long ago. In fact, only recently! Very Happy

My point was - hire an undergraduate ONLY if he or she is COMPETENT in teaching that particular subject, and is familiar with the syllabus. Quality of the tutor is important. This usually comes from word of mouth.

From my experience and from what I heard, undergraduates are better at teaching subjects such as maths and sciences, where much of the emphasis is application of theories and rules. I think, you don't need NIE training to teach such subjects effectively. The tutor must know his/her stuff thoroughly.

However, most are not able to handle or teach effectively languages, particularly so if there has been no prior NIE training. There is more to teaching a language than ensuring the correctness of grammar or general sentence usage.

Like I said, I tried, but found myself not competent in teaching O level English. I KNEW that I was not doing what a normal school teacher would have done. I wasn't able to gauge or benchmark just how effective I was, or how ineffective I was. The grades were simply not improving. After 1 year, I told the parent that they should find a school teacher instead. They might have to pay more, but certainly there is greater assurance that grades will improve (no guarantee of course).

However, I knew that I was tutoring Maths quite well, going by the jump in grades. I applied the method of how my school teacher taught maths when I was in school last time, and it worked well!

To a CERTAIN extent (I am not generalising here), undergraduates are teaching something they are not competent in, only because of the financial incentive. Worse, they do not even know that they are not competent, as they are not subject to comparisons with other tutors to gauge their effectiveness. By the time the exams come, and the grades do not jump up, maybe 1/2 a year is already wasted, not to mention the money. No "quailty control" here.

Of course, not all are black sheep. But seriously, most undergraduates are never trained tutors in the first place. Some parents understand this, and insist on school teachers right from the start. Quality wise, school teachers win hands down. But this is not to say that undergraduate tutors are all losers, some have proven to be winners as well.

Just be discerning in hiring a tutor! Very Happy

Good luck!

WiNtEr'SkiLL SG

Tutition is good for clarification with some doubts, but the tutition teacher might have some views which are different from your class teacher so u might get confused in the end

but tutition is the best way to practise your maths , science etc etc esp u are a lazy person who will not practise your sums out of school

Arena SG

good tuition teacher and teaching will do wonders...

i'm a shitty student in pri sch... and at pri 3, my mum wanna send me to tuition... i say wtf.... so sianz... i did rather go for taekwondo classes...

but after i went for tuition classes... my grades went skyrocketed...

and i found interest in studying or actually gaining more knowledge...

Devil1976 SG

Originally posted by SGEMP:
Dear everyone

I, SGEMP, is a loyal member of sgForums, and a secondary 3 Express student

Just now in the HKitalk's (a.k.a. italk) A7 (job and education) board, there is a topic on how to be an ace in academic/studying life.
http://www.hkitalk.net/HKiTalk2/viewthread.php?tid=45272&fpage=1

éË\¬×DË¶?

(PS: I am not a member of italk.)

In response, other boardmates (also known as iMember) replied:
(translated from the Chinese Traditional reply of "ccicoltd")

[b]"Aces usually have tuitions on numerous subjects, so they are actually dependant on their tuition agencies to get past the grade.

Pay attention in class and use your own efforts are only second to tuition."

Meanwhile, now, I noticed that many of my classmates were on tuition (some even after exams), while I used my own hard efforts, with no tuition, often studying late into the night, and at worse sometimes without sleeping for the whole night at all.

(The main reason was, in my primary school era, I had attended tuition with my twin elder brother, but there were still no improvement on my grades, and so driving me to a conclusion that tuition does not help my grades, only pull down my grades. And so I detested going for tuition since.)

Hence I sincerely believed that this is all because I have some serious inefficiencies in my method of studying as compared to the others.

And now what I got for the EoY 2005 is as this:

EL - just a narrow pass with the help of oral exam in the early of this year.
Some others are far better than me.
And that was despite my hard efforts, my close focus on my weak areas, and my frequent consultation with my teachers and sometimes my peers for tips on improvement, accompanied with implementation of all their advicees and suggestions.

CL - Others topped my class, despite my hard efforts and my close focus on my weak areas.

For all others, they were mostly satisfactory for me.

But for Social Studies, I was at some distance from the passing grade, and needing urgent help for further improvements, all despite of my hard efforts, my deep focus on my weak areas, and my frequent consultation with my teacher for tips to improve my grades in this subject.

(And so another thread would be started here by me over this.)

Also, I had for the overall passed all the seven O' level subjects I am taking as a Secondary 3 student about to be promoted to secondary 4 express next year, despite my not-so-impressive showing in my social studies.

However, sadly, I could not top in any subjects, even my simplest subject CL, in recent years, despite my hard efforts, and despite seeing others only getting 4 to 5 O' level subjects overall passes, with a few having far better English standards than me. (One of the better-than-me-in-English classmate attends tuition even till this day, as far as I know for today.)

And concluding from all my abovementioned items, to have speedier, further improvement of my grades (especially my EL grades and standards), better efficiency and strategy in my learning process, and to reduce the "burn midnight oil" without sleep incidences, I sincerely believed that it is better for me to go for tuition.

(However the decisions to send me into tuitions are typically decided by my parents, not me.)

(Also from my observations from all the resources, I found out that should one attend tuition is very conflicting for me to consider about it.)

And so what do you think about my desire to go for tuition? Should I? Or should I not?

Also does it mean that paying attention in class and using my own efforts does not help???

And so is there any faster, more efficient shortcut methods and strategies available for me to study and to revise, so that I do not need to burn midnight oil without sufficient rest?

Also I would appreciate if more tips to improve my English standards were given, (in the relevant topic).

Thank you for your kind suggestions and advices.

Yours faithfully
SGEMP
[/b]

If you can, get some tuition for your weaker subjects...

Else, at least ask for some guidance from your friends when you don't understand certain points...

Last but not least... Get a study group which doesn't meet up too often (maybe once or twice a week) to get each other in various subjects...

borntolive SG

my 2 cents worth...

english dont even go for tuition...for this if u r studying last min kinda too late lor..must start early read newspaper,increase vocab..i think wad u can do is practise some past yr paper compre lor then u roughly know wad type of qns..for compo read some good model compos..dont memorise but see how they write lor..btw i got a C5 for Os so my advice may be useless

social studies just buy guide books that teach u how to ans lor...

the only subject that tuition may help is Maths cause qns r rougly the same

hisoka SG

study group may not work first you need a good group second you need to be able to study in a group

Erinu SG

SGEMP:

it's never a good idea to make a (near) sweeping statement. I personally know many people who did not take any tuition whatsoever and had straight A1s and then As (O then A levels). It really depends on how you study and learn, which is something most tutors will not be able to help you with Exclamation

This is a wild guess but how are your English grades? O levels at least, are in my opinion, heavily weighted against people who aren't good in English, being that apart from Chinese and Math everything else is predicated on writing ability. In fact, you can avoid studying sciences at all if you are confident enough of getting A's for your humanities, math and languages. If you have problems writing then getting an experienced English teacher to tutor you might be a good idea (get an experienced upper Sec. teacher). Btw, beginning sentences with 'and' or 'also' is not a good idea unless you're trying to be creative or you're doing so simply because no one will grade what you write online - no offence Very Happy

Lastly, doing badly in O/A levels is not the end of the world. Ultimately it's about how much you earn right? Let's take a real-life example. Student A does well for O and A, goes to normal uni, say NUS and gets 1st class in civil engineering comes out to work and gets 2k/mth with very minimal increments until he gets to management level or branches out on his own. Student B barely passes O and A, barely passes poly, does a lot of programming in his spare time and lands a job paying him 3k/mth just based on his non-academic resume. Granted, the examples are a bit extreme but these are *real* ... so don't worry too much about studying, you're only young once - carpe diem Exclamation

Devil1976 SG

Agree.

That's why he has got to get the RIGHT PEOPLE. And cut down on the FREQUENCY. Make SURE that each time it's OBJECTIVELY for INTENSIVE DISCUSSION. Cool

ditzy SG

At sec 3 I used to suck at maths, so i went for tution. All the tutor made me do for maths was practice sums all the time. Eventually I aced at maths, and came to the realisation the tutor didn't really do anything. I'm paying someone to tell me how to practice. Doh. Laughing

bitchyme SG

i suggest attending tution. myself, personally i sucked at maths big time last year. but after attending tution, i topped my class every test. it;s only a matter of did you practise? did you complete all hw given by ur teacher? is your teacher a experienced teacher. lastly, are you attending a grp tution where the teacher attention is divided into a class of 20 or maybe even more? social studies is all about memorising, well, i suggest you memorise your facts well and u’ll get gd results.