Does math scare you? Do you find A Level math impossibly difficult? Having trouble even passing math in JC? Well, you’re not alone.
JC A Level math is a subject that stumps many students. Even those who had been doing well at Math in secondary school may start to find it tough to get their As or even Bs in JC. The problem is not that you have become bad at math overnight. Learning math in JC is really not easy!
Why it is difficult to score in A Level math in JC
The common stumbling blocks for JC students boils down to 2 main things.
Firstly, the curriculum is simply too fast. You only have about 1.5 years to finish the whole syllabus made up of so many topics, and you are expected to do this with the pressures of a major examination looming ahead. Most teachers in school simply speed through all the topics and cannot afford extra time to give further explanations or help lagging students catch up.
Secondly, due to every teacher’s focus of trying to finish the curriculum, teachers are not usually trying to make lessons interesting for the students! Every lesson, students are thrown into the deep end to solve problems, without first understanding why they are learning this, how the formulae are derived, or what patterns they can observe to make things easier to remember.
As a result, what you get are students who become jaded and lost, without an appreciation for mathematics, and who are struggling to keep up. Furthermore, many of the A Level topics are interrelated, so failing to master one topic can mean falling behind in the subsequent topics.
How to improve Math in JC For A Levels
At Future Academy, we have helped many JC students score excellent grades in their JC exams and at the A Levels. Here’s how we do it:
Personalised coaching
We don’t blame the teachers in school for not being able to attend to every student. After all, they have about 30 over students in each class!
That is why at Future Academy, we keep class sizes small. Our golden ratio is 1 tutor to 6 students at any one time, so that students don’t have to be shy to ask questions, and they can consult their tutor individually too.
With this arrangement, our tutors can tweak classes according to the students’ needs, focusing on their weak areas and dishing out more practices for problem topics.
Timed practices
Besides problems with conceptual understanding, another big difficulty that students have is time management. They often spend too long on certain questions, and end up having not enough time to finish the paper.
Solving this is a matter of having all the formulae and concepts right at your fingertips! We recommend writing out all the formulae and having them readily accessible as you do your practice papers at first. Over time, you should get used to recalling each one and knowing when to use the different formulae.
Our Future Academy classes also provide plenty of timed practices to simulate exam conditions. Students find this really helpful in improving their exam readiness and answering speed!
Consistency is key
JC students are so busy – we know! Math is not the only subject you have to study for, yet it is a subject that requires lots of time and diligence to master. But rather than cramming 10 hours each day to practice math one week before your exam, we strongly advise a consistent and bite-sized revision method.
Revise topics concurrently with the school term so that the concepts can be deeply ingrained in your mind. Even if it is just 5 questions a day or 1 hour each day, it helps to be consistent and refresh the math concepts regularly.
Attending weekly tuition classes takes out the tough part about planning out a regular revision schedule, because it is already sorted out for you! When the revision period rolls around, you will find it so much easier as you would have been already be familiar with the concepts thanks to regular revision!
Make math fun
When was the last time you enjoyed doing math or looked forward to math class? Well, our students say that they enjoy their JC Math tuition at Future Academy!
Our tutors are first and foremost educators, so they are highly passionate in what they are doing. Bearing friendly demeanours that make them approachable, they are able to build a close rapport with students and conduct lessons that are highly interactive.
With their infectious energy, meticulous lesson planning, and concise explanations, lessons are brought to life! With less resistance to mathematics, students will be more motivated to study for it and do well in it.
Conclusion
JC Math does not have to be a losing battle. With the right strategy, you can definitely win at math! Don’t have a working strategy yet? Join us at Future Academy for our JC Math Tuition to get advice from experienced JC tutors, along with customised worksheets and a conducive learning environment in our small group classes.
We also provide a wide range of other JC tuition classes like JC Physics tuition, as well as tuition for IP students like IP Math tuition. Start 2023 right with trusted tutors in Singapore who can bring you your desired results!