CMA Math - Discussion

[klitz]

Precious2.lee:

I heard of the benefit of CMA through words of mouth and is keen to send my youngest one for the class. Can someone let me know if 3 is a good age to start or is it better to start at 4 or 5? Thank you.

if ur child can write numbers 0-9, then ur child is ready To start. Have dropped u a pm

[Coney Tingting]

Hi my girl is 6 yo. Thinking of Cma center in novena or bishan. Which one is better? Thx!

[Poohbear]

Coney Tingting:

Hi my girl is 6 yo. Thinking of Cma center in novena or bishan. Which one is better? Thx!

Pm u

[love.016464actually]

I think 3.5 to 4 years is probably a good age to start, as long as the child knows 0 to 10. On the other hand, it is also never too late to start. My boy started late too. However, I think it is good to start younger so that they can complete the course by end of P2. In P3, there will be a lot more homework from school and CMA homework is quite a lot too. There are 3 to 4 books and an audio CD - 70 questions. In total, each child does about 150 to 200 questions per week. My DS enjoys but DD just complete the bare minimum.


Putting academic results aside, what I find really effective is it trained my children how to stay focus and be meticulous in their work. DS is in P3 now and I am glad he was able to obtain 98% for overall semester 1. In the recent SA, he completed his paper in 30min and had 1hr to check the answers. For math, it's really about speed and accuracy. There are some students who could not complete the math paper. Likewise for my DD in p1, she managed to get perfect score for her math assessment (of course P1 is super easy but also super easy to make careless mistake) so I hope she remains consistent.

I am just sharing my personal experience and I do hope it will benefit your child too. Out of so many enrichment classes that my children attended (from piano, international chess, ballet, phonics, speech & drama etc...) in their pre-school days, I find abacus and phonics among the most useful ones. The only regret is I should have let my DS start CMA when he was younger so that he could have complete DAN level by now.

Hope this sharing helps...

[supermum1]

Hi, I live in Tiong Bahru and am considering sending my 5yr old to CMA TB branch. Pls give me as much feedback as possible and let me know if you find another branch more ideal.


Thank you.

[Poohbear]

supermum1:

Hi, I live in Tiong Bahru and am considering sending my 5yr old to CMA TB branch. Pls give me as much feedback as possible and let me know if you find another branch more ideal.


Thank you.

Pm u

[dazehead]

Hi! I have just signed up my daughter at CMA tampines branch. Just want to check which teacher is good?

[chocoball]

i m looking to send my kid to CMA at either Toa Payoh or Farrer Park.

Any recommendations on which centre is better? and why? thanks!

[Poohbear]

chocoball:

i m looking to send my kid to CMA at either Toa Payoh or Farrer Park.

Any recommendations on which centre is better? and why? thanks!

Pm u

[love.016464actually]

8th International Mental Arithmetic Olympiad was held yesterday. No doubt it was a great event that both my children really enjoyed, I was totally drained after the prize presentation and thought there are some rooms for improvement.


1. Allocate the seats at Agora Hall 1 & 2. Limit 2 tickets (seats) to each participating child + 1 parent. In view that there are more than 1000 participants, the seats are really limited. I saw so many people bringing whole kampong of "supporters" and selfishly blocking the seats even when their children were competing at Agora 3 & 4. Many parents ended up standing and squeezing behind while watching the live-feed. I am sure it was really uncomfortable and we had so many overseas participants and visitors. It shows nothing but how ugly Singaporeans are.

2. While watching live-feed, parents noticed there were students who continued writing for at least a couple more seconds after Master Tai announced loudly "停". However, the invigilators did nothing. There should be tougher rule to this. It was too obvious especially the first few rows where the camera kept focusing on them.

3. Releasing of results. It was a complete chaotic at 4pm when results were released. Almost all parents rushed forward to check if their kids are among the top 3s. Too much of squeezing and pushing! My goodness!! Instead of pasting the tiny A4 size results slip on the wall by centres, each centre should send the results by sms / email to the parents. Centre manager can simply take a photo of the results and send a mass email to all parents. If the child is among top 3, come back and re-assemble at Agora Hall 1 & 2 at 4.45pm for the prize presentation.

Hope that next year will be more organized. If Republic Polytechnic is too small to accommodate so many people, maybe the Olympiad should be held at Singapore expo.