zac's mum:

pumpkin_pie:

Oh, upon reading the registration form, it mentioned under eligibility that a child needs a valid FIDE ID. This is something like a rating? How to get this?

Apply to SCF. But it needs to be together when joining a FIDE-rated competition. So it’s a chicken & egg thing.
http://www.singaporechess.org.sg/training-courses/ratings-titles/fide-id-application

Just go to SCF for their free assessment & the coaches can advise him after that:
http://www.singaporechess.org.sg/component/content/article/25-trainings-courses/612-SCF-Free-Initial-Assessment-Schedule

Thanks for the info! I am always one step behind your messages. haha!

I see. So he needs to play for a competition to get a ranking. But so which competitions accepts a child without a ranking?

He does know about timings but has never played formally before. Have you tried Power chess before?

Oh, upon reading the registration form, it mentioned under eligibility that a child needs a valid FIDE ID. This is something like a rating? How to get this?

zac's mum:

pumpkin_pie:

Hi parents, do you know of any chess competitions my child can join if he does not attend any chess schools nor in school's chess club? Thank you!

Dunno how old is your son but maybe he can qualify to join this:

http://www.singaporechess.org.sg/images/Forms/Tournaments/2018/35th%20National%20Age%20Group%20Chess%20Championships%202018%20Registration%20Form.pdf

Thanks zac's mum. He is 10. From your opinion, do you think one needs chess training with a school prior to be able to play reasonably well in competitions, and for how long? My son learnt chess himself from books few years back and has been playing with chess apps and online. I do not know how to play thus cannot gauge, but he has the interest.

Hi parents, do you know of any chess competitions my child can join if he does not attend any chess schools nor in school’s chess club? Thank you!

sky minecrafter:

Estéema:

@pumpkin_pie...

For illustration's sake, Must copy these items:
Vocabulary
开头一+二 or 开头二
图一 2. paragraph
心理描写
精彩段落
语言描写
图6, 2. paragraph
结尾
https://s7.postimg.cc/c5gndljzv/wlc1.jpg\">
https://s7.postimg.cc/qbwe8uaaj/wlc2.jpg\">
https://s7.postimg.cc/ok3fdy6d7/wlc3.jpg\">

Thanks for the illustrations, sky minecrafter!

Honestly, if I were to guage by grades, my child's compo grades are not very good, just average. But because I like Wang's materials and I want to believe they can hellp my child, thats why we've been sticking on till now. Anyway, I think I will try to speak to the teacher this week about this.

Thats exactly what I want - for my child to develop own writing style. Thats why Im trying to understand how can WANG facilitate this flow into independent writing, when exams do not have paragraphs, sentences and phrases for our kids to copy. I find its really quite a lot of stuff that are not his own writing in every compo.


My chinese knowledge is only good enough to tell the sentence sounds flawed. At most I can correct it. But I am unable to develop plots with good connecting sentences. You know…those half past six chinese. lol

I agree with you on home tutors, that their materials may not be as good as Wang. Wang’s materials are indeed very extensive, but may be more than what is required by moe, which is ok to me.

btw, how do we know if WANG is a good fit for our children? Are there any signs I need to be aware of? My child doesnt show interest in attending, but he will focus during the lesson, learn his tingxie and moxie. Generally, his chinese communication skills are not good, even though he can score in paper 2. Often, his sentence construction in compo writing are flawed, some direct eng to chi translation.

Esteema,

Thanks for your advices. So do you mean by copying the paragraphs, the students are supposed to subconsciously remember how to structure intros and conclusions? Or are they supposed to memorise the paragraphs at home? My child only memorises the mo xie, nothing else. Other than that, I cant see a good connection between WANG’s style of teaching and students having to write all by themselves independently in school exams. Or perhaps we need to give a few years to see results from WANG? My child only joined WANG in P3.

I like WANG’s teacher that she does bother to mark the compo well and give proper comments for improvement. However, I do not like the lack of feedback between teacher and parents as classes are so packed back-to-back. If I dont call the school to request to speak to the teacher, I will never hear from her.

Dear parents of P4 students,

May I ask if your child copies out chunks of paragraphs (not just 好词好句 ) for their compo during WANG lesson? My child says it’s a must to copy them out (about 1/3 of the whole compo) and another 1/3 teacher guides them. And there are 6 paragraphs in their structure? As a result, the whole compo is so lengthy.
What I’m concerned is whether my child gets to learn how to construct and flow his own story. I’m not good in Chinese so I can’t help much just by looking at the worksheets. I’m in a dilemma whether or not to stop lessons at WANG as I find the style is very different from what my child’s school teacher teaches. Maybe the standard is too high, more than MOE requirements? But more imptly, I want my child to write his own full compo, not copied compos, cos during exams, there are only a few helping words.