Augmum:
Hi Gearhat,
Thanks so much for yr sharing.
PCME is likely my gal's subj combo for yr5 too.
Yes, seems that most yr5 pupils do not do well in the initial stage as read in some postings here by senior high's parents,
not limited to DHS alone, also evident in other Top IP schools and JCs.....
Gal's senior high told her that DHS econs dept is not as good as other IP/JCs....
What is yr view on this ? DHS 's econ teachers and their resources ?
Congrats to u for gettIng As for both yr Econs and GP.
Hmm.... Since u did not take up yr mum 's offer of engaging an Econs tutor,
can u share or give advice to yr juniors HOW and What are the effective ways to ace yr econs N GP ?
Well, I've heard that said too many times with regards to DHS econs dept. The truth is that I, and every other student only have been through 1 set of teachers and resources in school, so nobody can say with absolute certainty that one school is inferior compared to others. I think we are in no position to judge since we haven't gone through 2 or more for accurate comparison.
There's this trend that when the a-level batch does badly, say like only 20%+ As for econs, less students in the next yr 5 batch will take the subject. Last year, my batch did quite well (50%+ As) and all of a sudden the subject is popular again. It is quite silly if you think about it seriously.
At the end of the day, it really depends on each individual student. Remember that for every school and every subject there is a span of students from A+ to fail. Having a high percentage of As doesn't gurantee an A for everyone. Same as the other way round. If most people fail, it doesn't mean that you can't be the one that does well. It really depends on how you interpret and use the resources and I think the teachers get a bad rep when students don't understand because they don't take the time and effort to understand. I think we students should take some responsibility in our own learning as well.
Again, I can only speak for what I've been through, but that having been said, I am incredibly grateful to my econs tutor for all the time spent of consultations and I do think the teachers are a dedicated bunch.
If you want to judge our econs dept using statistics and results (as we singaporeans always do), then I would say they are doing very well indeed based on last year's a-levels.
Effective ways of study depends on individuals again. Like, some people can listen to music and study, while some need complete silence. Generally, for GP, language skills is important so reading will definitely help. I'm not a good reader and find it tough to read through an entire book or novel, so I went to look for other kinds of text. I found that reading plays were much easier for me so I went down that route and looked for plays to read in the library. Stuff like that, you know? Just find ways to make things easier for yourself. Also general knowledge is important for GP, so newspaper and news should be a staple (cliche lah, I know lol).
For econs I realised much of the problem was that there was way too little time to write all the stuff needed for the exam questions. It's not that you don't know the stuff but the time pressure makes it incredibly difficult to think of the right things to write AND write everything out in time. It's something like writing 1.5 page essay in 10mins including thinking time. So you just have to be familiar with the material and train writing speed.
And for everything, practice is always important. Stuff like writing for GP gets better with each practice. Teacher can also go through the extra essays that you wrote in your free time to point out your problems. So in short, practice, check what you're doing wrong, change and improve.
and give a student's perspective of course.