The dark wind howled through the heart of a lost land.
The leaves of the trees trembled in restless unison, and little swirls of dust performed angry dances of remonstration, as it tore chillingly through the sombre atmosphere on what was supposed to be a day of double celebration.
The wind made The Temple‘s curtains blow inward, threatening to snuff out hundreds of joss sticks burning intensely in these testing times, as a student snapped out of his daydream of his school crush.
Eh Miss Loi, can lower down the aircon or not? Very cold leh.
Miss Loi’s eyes narrowed as she hurried to the window and closed the shutters.
No it’s not the aircon. Can’t you feel its fury blowing from North Buona Vista Drive? It’s here.
Turning to look toward her charges, she’s confident that they’ll be safe for now within The Temple Grounds.
But with just three weeks till the storm hits, she fears for the fate of those who are still embroiled in their game of dai dee at McDonald’s, those who are still stuck in their DotA quests, and most ominously, those who have done well in their prelims and feel that they don’t need to revise anymore.
Taking a moment to wrap herself in a jacket lest she catches another cold like the one last week, she closed her eyes and prayed that, in addition to what was said last year, all may:
- Give priority and focus on the Ten-Year Series (TYS), instead of getting demoralized in the tons of insane “top-school” prelim papers, mock exams that are being piled upon you in this period – this should be sufficient to see you all the way to D-Day.
Attempt the Specimen Papers contained in the latest TYS to get some practise on the new syllabus questions. Alternately you may browse the list of mathematical topics to pick up some discussions on new syllabus questions 😉
For certain topics like the new Addition/Factor/Double Angle/R-Formula in your A-Maths Trigonometry, check out the pre-2002 papers in your TYS.
- Go through the TYS year by year (instead of topic by topic), so that your mind won’t be lost as you flit from one topic to the next in your actual exam.
Adopt the mindset that the O-Levels are straightforward and easy, regardless of whether you’ve been ravaged or mauled by your prelims earlier. Provided you’re on the right approach, solutions can often be attained in just a short series of steps so don’t think until so complicated – it’s tragic when students get stuck in a question that they can’t believe it’s sooo simple.
The wrong path to Mathematical Salvation, obviously.Since TYS are easy, time yourself to finish each paper in 1-1.5 hours, and then use the remainder of your allocated 2-2.5 hours to DO EVERYTHING ALL OVER AGAIN (cover your answers please) – confirm chop stamp 100% that you’ll be able to spot a careless mistake or two.
Should you think that this is a waste of time, remember that this is not a war against yourself nor the Great Enemy, but more a battle against that great Cumulative Frequency Curve with the upper range likely to be occupied by those foreign cyborg half-human half-studying machine classmates of yours.
N.B. Miss Loi always advocates aiming for at least 85% for A-Maths and 90% for E-Maths if you wish to score A1.
Be honest with yourself. Mark with a BIG RED CROSS using your pen/highlighter/lipstick
/bloodon the questions which you failed to get the correct answer – and make sure you GET THEM RIGHT before your exam. It’s been repeated to the death that you’d rather make your mistake now than during your exam.If you haven’t yet done so, please kick that deadly habit of peeking at the answer and then trying to “work towards it”, and then proudly proclaiming to the world “Yay! I know how to do!”. Chances are you don’t.
Don’t keep practising 1000000 questions on your strongest topics (or those you like) and then proudly proclaiming to the world “Wow I got so many questions right! I’m high! I’m good!”. It’s an illusion. You should’ve been practising 1000000 questions on those topics you HATE the most.
- Get a mentor i.e. a friend/teacher/tutor – basically someone with a good grasp of the subject to answer your doubts and questions during these final weeks. Avoid being a part of ‘study groups’ that are dai dee gangs in disguise and end up failing spectacularly together in an “one for all, all for one” manner.
- Last but not least, provided you’ve already finished your revision, the best day (from now till your exam) to relax and watch TV (and go through your formulae and mistakes too) is the day before you paper 😉
- Another last but not least, this will probably not work for everyone 😛
As if it couldn’t stand Miss Loi’s typically cheong hei (long-winded) prayer any longer, the wind suddenly died away.
It’s now or never for all seeking your O-Level Salvation, as we reach the final hours of a cruel Children’s Day, when time has run out for thousands of children across Singapore with PSLE just two days away.
