It was announced in 2022 that midyear examinations for secondary schools will be removed from 2023 in a move to focus on more learning and less on marks.
This year is the first year O level students do not go through midyear examinations. Indeed, there is more time to finish the syllabus compared to previous years. In the past years, students only had around 4 months to prepare for their midyear examinations. It tested almost all topics from Sec 1 to 4 and most students need a refresher class for the lower secondary topics. This year without the midyear examinations, there was less stress and pressure on students as they was more than enough time to complete the syllabus.
However, there is flip side to this. Students are not aware of their time management in examinations and the difficulty of O level papers. They also only had 1 actual examinations to gauge how they fare in the O levels. By then, there is only 1 month left till the start of o level examinations and students may not be able to catch up.
In addition, students may be complacent and only revise before the prelims. The June holiday would be a good time to start revision for the prelims.
There was a parent who found Ms Chua for help in mid September as her son was failing badly for Amath and POA prelims. The student was faring okay for his Amath and POA for secondary 3 and Weighted Assessment. It was only till the prelims that the parents realise he scored F9. After a weak topic analysis from his prelims papers, we found out that he was not familiar with differentiation and integration formulas. While it is not too late to get help in September, it would be much desirable to start earlier to be well prepared.
We offer mock exam classes from June holidays where we go through exam papers similar to O level. From there, we provide weak topic analysis and work on them. We also go through the ten years series to spot commonly tested topics and questions that students have problem in. Join us now to help your child achieve his or her desired grade. Check out our lesson schedule here