GCE \"O\" Level English touches a whole let lesser on grammar as compared to Secondary. The papers assumes that you have at least some basic mastery over grammar. Hence, the exam is more on understanding. The examinations have 4 segments, mainly, Oral, Listening Compre, Writing and Editting, and finally Comprehension and Summary. I can say that pure hardwork is impossible to get an A1.


> ORAL
The examiners mostly look like they're asleep. But they are sharp. For my examination (Year 2015) my topic was shopping. Everyone was shocked. A completely new topic. Reading and memorising points from TYS won't help much. Oral tests on your moral evaluation skills - how well are you able to morally evaluate certain matters. As well as, it tests on critical thinking and evaluation - how fast are you able to generate points, perspective and solution, as well as reason with what you are saying. Suddenly cramming world news in your head won't help. You just have to speak truly from your personal experiences because there are just SO MANY topics. It helps. For reading aloud is basically sheer practice and correction. You have to encounter as many words as possible and learn their pronunciation.

> LC
Probably one of the topics that does not require practice. Of course, LC has been getting harder over the years. The key thing is have a good sleep the night before to stay alert during LC.

> EDITING, ESSAY WRITING
- Editing
[/u]It comes with sheer practice. To score in editing is really to be so used to grammar that you can naturally spot the mistakes when reading. TYS (Ten year series) helps quite a bit here.
- Situational Writing
This is extremely technical, with its main focus on formatting. Most of the facts are presented in graphics (Webpages, posters, so on and forth), in which you will need to write about. It usually has a persuasive factor involved. In 2015, the exam tested on a blog post (pretty much an extremely strip down format as compared to other sit. writing). But a few key points in Sit. writing to score. 1. CONTEXT AND AUDIENCE. Imagine who you are speaking too - The principal? Your friend? Or maybe even the police. Write like how you would talk to them. That addresses the proper context and audience. The tone and what words to use comes naturally afterwards. 2. FORMAT. Format is something that has to be memorized. There is no way around it. Heavy penalization is dealt on wrong format so be very careful. 3. POINTS. Sit. Writing always involve addressing certain points which can be found within the question itself. Make sure all points are addressed.
- Essay Writing
>> Discursive/Argumentative
You must be extremely critical, providing really and extremely strong support for each point. Here is where you live examples, world news comes in. Words use must be strong and solid, leaving no room for doubt. Never end off your points with a maybe or a meh.
>> Narrative
Probably one of the most difficult to score, narrative has no rigid scoring structure. Over here is where you connect with your life examples, playing the scene through your head and describing the little details to really create the atmosphere. Personally, I am not a huge fan of mouth-dropping phrases or wow-ing vocabulary, but what I aim for is to describe the scene such that it can be recreated in the readers' mind. Of course, try to avoid repetition in the vocab you use. The most important thing with expanding you vocab for narrative is to search for words unique in their meaning. You don't need to know 1000 synonyms to happy, but words with other meaning. Narrative is really up to how much you can describe what you imagine, how you set the atmosphere and really make the reader feel the emotions.

> COMPREHENSION and SUMMARY
For year 2015, comprehension tested heavily on technical aspects of how you understand the passage. It holds very much similarity to literature with questions such as \"Why did the author use this word or what is the effect of that phrase.\" Over here empathy is important. Thinking from the perspective of the author helps. But of course, the easy way out would be to really familiarize yourself with different writing techniques. Don't be put off by chim words. Try to read the passage and grasp the meaning of the word. Imagine the chim word wasn't there. What word would you fill up that blank with instead, that fits in? Next off is summary. This is a HUGE test on your vocabulary and your synonym bank. If you clearly understand the passage, you will be able to dig out the very key point and sub the words with their respective synonyms. There is no way out of summary but sheer practice.

I managed to clinch an A1 for 2015 O's. I can't say that I studied crazily hard. (Haven't touch any practice papers at all). Studying smart, not hard. Remembering what is only necessary (format!) and leaving the rest instinct worked for me. By instinct I refer to how you will naturally talk to people and just write it out as you are talking! Good luck to the parents out there whose son will be facing GCE \"O\" Level 2016! Don't take it too hard if you can't score super well in school tests (Never gotten an A1 in Sec 3-4)

1. B | 11. C | 21. D | 31. A

2. D | 12. C | 22. A | 32. D
3. D | 13. D | 23. D | 33. B
4. B | 14. C | 24. B | 34. A
5. C | 15. A | 25. B | 35. B
6. B | 16. B | 26. C | 36. B
7. A | 17. A | 27. D | 37. C
8. A | 18. D | 28. C | 38. B
9. D | 19. C | 29. A | 39. C
10. D | 20. B | 30. A | 40. A

Any disputes/questions?

I beg differ, sometimes, vendors answers are incorrect. Now if we take a look from a different perspective. If the boy, who was playing soccer, hadn’t eaten in a long time. The food would have been cleared through the body. In the sense, the body doesn’t stop functioning. Even during sports, you body’s main systems active are the respiratory and circulatory system for the transport of oxygen, waste, and glucose.


The digestive system isn’t operates when it needs to, and I beg to differ that it operates just because the kid is playing soccer.

am.virdi:

Pls help

A farmer had some geese and ducks.
If he bought another 40 ducks, the ratio of the number of ducks to the number of geese would become 5:6.
If he bought another 60 geese instead, then the ratio of the number of ducks to the number of geese would become 2:3.
How many more geese than ducks did the farmer have?

Let the number of ducks be d and the number of geese be g,

d + 40 = 5/6 x g (Equation 1)
g + 60 = 3/2 x d (Equation 2)

From Equation 1,
d + 40 = 5/6 x g
d + 40 - 40 = 5/6 x g - 40
d = 5/6 x g - 40

Substitute d = 5/6 x g - 40 into Equation 2,
g + 60 = 3/2 x (5/6 x g - 40)
g + 60 = 3/2 x 5/6 x g - 3/2 x 40
g + 60 = 15/12 x g - 60
g + 60 + 60 = 15/12 x g - 60 + 60
g + 120 = 15/12 x g
g + 120 - g = 15/12 x g - g
120 = 3/12 x g
g = 120 / (3/12)
g = 120 x 12/3
g = 120 x 4
g = 480

Substitute g = 480 into d = 5/6 x g - 40
d = 5/6 x 480 - 40
d = 400 - 40
d = 360

g - d = 120

There is 120 more goose than duck.

wiser2020:

Hi


Could anyone help me on Speed topic question:thanks

Mr Koh & Mr Ng left the shopping mall at the same time, travelling in opposite direction along a straight road.Mr Koh drove at a speed 80 km/h while Mr Ng drove at a speed of 70 km/h.After how long will they be 30 km apart? :?

So you have a shopping point. which in fact is the starting point. Lets call this point M. Now, Mr Koh left the shopping mall at a constant speed of 80km/h, while Mr Ng left at the opposite direction at a speed of 70km/h.

Let Mr Koh be K and Mr Ng be N


K < M > N

We can assume that K travels to the left and N travels to the right. Now, we know that after one hour, K will be 80 km left of M, and N will be 70km right of M. So after one hour, K and N will be 100km apart. Now after 2 hours, K will be 160km left of M and N will be 140km right of M. Realise, every hour, their distance apart increases by 150km? We can safely say that the distance apart increases by (80+70)km/h = 150km/h.

So,
Distance = Speed x Time

30km = 150km/h x Time
Time = 30km / 150km/h = 1/5h = 12min

KiausuLormee:

Need help to explain this question.

http://i57.tinypic.com/11sjpcp.jpg\">

In the question as shown, there are 4 metals, W, X, Y and Z. Now, W, X, Y reacts with cold water while Z does not. W and Y floats on water, so it must be either: Lithium, Sodium or Potassium as only these 3 metals are less dense than water.

Metal X is very unique. Metal X is denser than water and has less vigorous reaction than W and Y. From this we can infer the following - Metal X cannot be a Group I metal and is less reactive than Li, Na or K. Metal X is less reactive than Li, Na or K as it has less vigorous reactions than Metal W and Y, which has to be either Li, Na or K. That being said, the metal cannot be a group I metal as, it cannot be Li, Na or K, and any metal denser than water in Group I, Rb, Cs and Fr are all more reactive than W and Y. Hence, X cannot be a Group I metal. X must be therefore be Calcium since it can react with water and is not a Group I metal.

To question (a) the answer would be:
Metal X is Calcium
Ca + 2H2O -> Ca(OH)2 + H2

Metal Z does not react with cold water, and produce a reddish brown substance upon leaving in water. Whenever there is a presence of a reddish-brown compound, it is most probably the presence of Iron(III) ions. Z reacts with water to form rust, which is a reddish brown substance, also known as hydrated iron(III) oxide. Therefore metal Z is Iron. Now iron has a very unique characteristic, it has a reversible reaction: 3Fe(s) + 4H2O(g) <> Fe3O4(s) + 4H2(g). It reacts with steam to form Iron(II, III) oxide and hydrogen gas, and its oxide reacts with hydrogen gas to form elemental iron and steam. Since iron is ranked above hydrogen ion in the metal reactivity series, it reacts with hydrochloric acid.

To question (bi) the answer would be:
Metal Z is Iron
Reaction with steam: 3Fe + 4H2O -> Fe3O4 + 4H2
Reaction with hydrochloric acid: Fe + 2HCl -> FeCl2 + H2

Now, the reddish brown substance formed can either be iron(III) oxide or iron(III) hydroxide, however for simplicity sake, lets take it as iron(III) oxide. Oxidation involves the losing of electron, i.e. the charge of the species becomes more positive. E.g. Mn loses 2 electrons to form Mn2+, the oxidation state of Manganese increases from 0 in elemental manganese to +2 in manganese(ii) oxide. Note that oxidation state is written as +n and charge is written as n+.

To question (bii) the answer would be:
Iron gains 3 electrons from oxygen to form Iron(III) oxide. Since iron gained electrons to form iron(III) ions, the reaction is an oxidation reaction.

All the explanations are based off the best of what I can guess and see from the photo which cuts off half the questions.

BUMP

KiausuLormee:

Need help to explain this question.

http://i57.tinypic.com/11sjpcp.jpg\">

Hi, is it possible that you take a better picture? Part of the question got cut off.

BUMP

BUMP