Mindstretcher - Discussion
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buds:
For parents with kiddies in Mindstretcher Science...
1. Does the teacher follow through the questions at the end of their notes?
2. How often are experiments conducted?
3. How fast did you see results, if any.
I recall you have older kids? Ask them to coach your younger child. They are surprisingly in tune especially if they attended the same school, more effective than any tuition center
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sleepy:
I recall you have older kids? Ask them to coach your younger child. They are surprisingly in tune especially if they attended the same school, more effective than any tuition center
Do you really think so? It doesn't work for my kids. DD wont have the patience nor the time to teach DS. -
buds:
For parents with kiddies in Mindstretcher Science...
1. Does the teacher follow through the questions at the end of their notes?
2. How often are experiments conducted?
3. How fast did you see results, if any.sleepy:
Thanks for your reply, sleepy. I have only one older child, but I don't see the relevance of having an older sibling to my queries pertaining to Mindstretcher lessons. :scratchhead:I recall you have older kids? Ask them to coach your younger child. They are surprisingly in tune especially if they attended the same school, more effective than any tuition center
It is common knowledge that each and every child has their own abilities and pace for that matter. Even if they are/were both in the same school, they have entirely different Science teachers with different churn-out of notes and resources or none. :faint: A sibling of older age may not necessarily have more to give. In fact, even for twin siblings. In my instance, my DD1 (now in secondary school) is of below-average ability during her primary school years, has slower processing of information and slower grasp of concepts. There is no way at any point in their lives can they be in tune with one another, be it in relevance to academic ability or life in general. They are polar opposites in temperament, character and abilities.
Our main reason of trying out Mindstretcher is in the hope of getting a fixed / permanent teacher (the lousy neighbourhood school she is in has impeccable record of staff turnover especially for Science and we have experienced teacher-swaps within the year) who can help to at least inspire her to like the subject more to want to learn more about it.
Upon enrollment, we were briefed how students would receive quality Science notes from the centre, be engaged in occasional hands-on experiments, that the teachers will provide exam preps CA / SA (bearing in mind that there will be topics that are not simultaneously covered btwn school and the centre) and that we are welcome to find out more information on how to help our children from the teachers. We were informed that Mindstretcher is academically-driven to push students to do better than their current ability. For now, our nearest goal is that DD can pass, as her marks have been in the red this year. SA results and test papers have not been released to parents yet till now, however, DD mentioned that she passed this time. If indeed that is true then, we are more than happy.
Moving forward, we will utilize the June school holidays to strengthen earlier concepts from lower block, work on more OE practice papers & perhaps some hands-on experiments at home in tackling her weakness in Sci.
Where Mindstretcher is concerned, they have given quality notes that the school is trailing far behind in terms of content.. the teacher is pretty okay but still at early stage to see if her teaching has been effective for DD2.. Mindstretcher spots very good exam-questions for general ability and higher.. distance is manageable.. The fees are pricey for us as we are in a household living under a single income. We hope that Mindstretcher delivers its mission of motivating our DD2 to do better for herself.
The questions at the end of their notes are fantastic and some not as straightforward (challenging), at least in our opinion. My post was to find out if teachers in other branches run though these questions during lessons. Reason we are asking is because we attempted these topical questions every time but have no model answers for check-reference to know if our answers qualify the marks allotted for each / such questions. If the teacher does not go through them, our mere shallow knowledge of answering techniques may not do justice to our child even if we revise or follow closely with what our child has been doing.
Aniwaes, this issue has been resolved during the recent PTM with the teacher at the centre. We are happy that the teacher has made affirmation that she will collaborate with DD2 and I with our home efforts and initiative to help her fulfill her potential.
Apologise for the long post but hope this clarifies. I still appreciate your reply. It may probably work for children with siblings of similar or higher ability / calibre. However, in our case, we can only rely on Mindstretcher and our own constant revision. Working hard alone is not enough. Hence with Mindstretcher's assistance we hope to also learn how to work smart. -
buds
MS did not work for my dd2. Firstly the topics MS covered are different. Secondly, MS already finished their syllabus for the year so the rest of the year are just practice papers after practice papers. Which I see no value because the ‘revision’ is not in sync with school topics.
For kids strong in Science, yes, welcome the revision. For kids who are not so strong, then I would prefer target learning. And no tuition center offers that. I called up a few others to enquire.
That’s why in my desperation, I turn to my dd1 for help and it reaps immediate results. Hence, the reason why I suggest your older kid to help (without being aware of your elder dd’s strength or weakness).
Paiseh if my post rubs you the wrong way. I’m just trying to help. -
zbear:
Yes it worked (like a dream surprisingly) and I only resorted to that because I was desperate. All those OE questions are beyond me.sleepy:
I recall you have older kids? Ask them to coach your younger child. They are surprisingly in tune especially if they attended the same school, more effective than any tuition center
Do you really think so? It doesn't work for my kids. DD wont have the patience nor the time to teach DS.
They have different Science teachers but the school syllabus (topics) is the same.
My dd1 isn't very patient either and she's super busy. That's why must endure a bit of impatient comments but her advice is valuable, she told dd2 what to look out for in those topics to be tested and tune dd2's almost non-existence answering techniques.
That is the target learning I'm looking for. To zoom in quickly to correct any misconception. Of course impossible to achieve perfection within a short time but enough to salvage and turn around dd2's results beyond my expectation
Possibly that's why dd1's own result takes a beating? Her Maths result slipped rather drastically. I hope it's not due to coaching dd2 :nailbite: She spent a total of 5 to 8 hours coaching dd2 over a few days period. -
sleepy:
My dd1 isn't very patient either and she's super busy. That's why must endure a bit of impatient comments but her advice is valuable, she told dd2 what to look out for in those topics to be tested and tune dd2's almost non-existence answering techniques.zbear:
[quote=\"sleepy\"]I recall you have older kids? Ask them to coach your younger child. They are surprisingly in tune especially if they attended the same school, more effective than any tuition center
Do you really think so? It doesn't work for my kids. DD wont have the patience nor the time to teach DS.
She spent a total of 5 to 8 hours coaching dd2 over a few days period.[/quote]truly 伟大！姐妹情深 ：）My parents would never allow us to tap on the PSLE/O/A level sitting sibling. They/we were the untouchables or 自身难保了! -
jetsetter:
Oh no! did I do harm to dd1 by asking her to coach dd2 :yikes:
My parents would never allow us to tap on the PSLE/O/A level sitting sibling. They/we were the untouchables or 自身难保了!
I thought it could serve as a revision for her too.
I asked dd1 to spend an hour each week to coach dd2 during this school holiday
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sleepy:
Hi sleepy,
Oh no! did I do harm to dd1 by asking her to coach dd2 :yikes:jetsetter:
My parents would never allow us to tap on the PSLE/O/A level sitting sibling. They/we were the untouchables or 自身难保了!
I thought it could serve as a revision for her too.
I asked dd1 to spend an hour each week to coach dd2 during this school holiday
You have amazing kids. You must have done a very good job coaching them.
Just wondering, which level was your DD1 when she attended classes at MS?
Suprise to know that they finish their syllabus v early. -
Just to share with all. My experience with MS@TPY for P3 Science under Mr Tony Loo was not good. My gal started attending the class about 4 months ago. The class is on Sat 8:45am. During this period, the teacher is either coming in late for the class or rushing into the class on the dot with MacDonald breakfast. While the students are doing the worksheets, he will be eating his breakfast in class. In other times, he will leave the class to buy MacDonald and eat in class.
After tolerating this for a few months, I finally gave my feedback to the centre manager Marie a week ago. I question the ethics and discipline of their educators. I do not believe the teacher can deliver effective teaching if he is not even prepared to turn up on time to prepare for the class. Most of the time, the students are just given worksheets to do. After that, the teacher goes through the answers and if there isn't enough time (which is more than often), the explanation stops there.
Upon the centre manager's investigation, she offered if I would like to transfer my gal to another class under a different teacher. I am still hesitant as I do not have confidence in MS teaching method. For Science (esp. starting at P3), I believe it must go beyond doing worksheets. I do not want to kill my gal's strong interest in Science at this early stage.
Unfortunately, my decision to continue with MS becomes clearer today (2 Aug 14) when the teacher turned up in class at 9:23am for a 8:45am class. The teacher told the class there was a traffic jam (I do not know jam from where but to me, it seems that he always gets traffic jam on a Sat morning!) If students can all turn up in class punctually waiting for the teacher, why can't the teacher?
As usual, my gal was dismissed punctually at 10:45am. I have left a message for the MS@TPY centre manager to return call to me.
I want to escalate this to MindStretcher Management as I believe they have an interest to uphold their reputation. It would be unwise for them to allow any black sheep to tarnish their name and continue to believe and market that their educators are all good and most importantly learning is still effective at MS. Unfortunately, I do not know their contacts or emails. Even their corporate website is still under construction.
That's so much for my bad experience with MindStretcher :mad: -
This teacher sounds terrible. Its high time to withdraw your child from this class.
why don’t you ask the centre’s reception for the contact number of MS HQ or the person in charge of complaints?
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