Studying With W@W From Secondary 1 to 4
By WR!TERS@WORK
Having been a student at W@W throughout secondary school, I can confidently say that students are in safe hands. W@W boasts a conducive learning environment with passionate teachers, and their learning materials are oriented to give them a head start in their exams. I always enjoyed attending class every week as the lessons were delivered in an engaging manner.
As a former student of W@W, I found myself always having the upper hand over my peers at school for the English language subject, due to several advantages: the lesson materials are relevant and helpful to my learning, and the teachers spend their non-teaching hours getting together to review and update their lesson materials. Whenever MOE releases a change in syllabus, W@W is always one step ahead as they are updating their learning materials to help students constantly tackle the challenges they face for their examinations and assessments.
Moreover, the dedicated teachers at W@W are always willing to help students clarify their doubts. Whenever I had doubts about an assignment or concept, I would always approach my W@W teacher, which helped a lot especially when I was dealing with 9 subjects in secondary school.
Another benefit of W@W is that they always gave me fantastic examination tips which gave me more confidence in preparing for my English exams. Regardless of whether it was a common test or a major examination, I always found that my grades were in the 80th percentile of my cohort, or better.
The following are some tips and tricks which I learned from W@W:
1. Plan Your Essays Well.
Often, a major challenge students face when writing essays is their frequent use of run-on sentences and going on irrelevant tangents. This problem largely arises because students fail to plan their essays before they start writing them. W@W gives their students an arsenal of essay plots to help them tackle their exams, along with a process to answer the question.
Firstly, the student should identify the key words of the essay question. Next, the student should pick a W@W essay that they have written before which can answer the essay question. Lastly, the student should plot the essay and expand on information, providing elaboration to answer the question.
I was always very happy when I could use a story I had learned at W@W during the exam, as I would have expanded points with strong examples to substantiate them at my fingertips, as well as relevant vocabulary at the back of my head. I would feel more confident when I was doing the paper as opposed to if I had not prepared at all.
However, without any prior preparation, students should ensure that their points are valid and that they can elaborate on them and provide strong evidence or examples. These examples are important to bolster your points and should be planned out before the student starts writing to improve the flow and organisation of the essay.
2. Clarify Your Doubts Well Before the Exam.
It is important for students to clarify their doubts well before their exams. At W@W, the teachers will always ask students whether they understand the concepts. Intellectual curiosity is highly important so that the student can learn more about the subject. There are no stupid questions, and even small questions about how to use the correct vocabulary and grammar rules are good questions.
Some students may not be too keen to ask questions because it makes them seem like they are not as smart as compared to their classmates. However, there is no shame in asking questions if the student is unsure about their content, as the goal of the student should be self-improvement. The fear of looking silly or being judged by their teachers and their classmates should not affect the student, as it is likely that other students are facing similar challenges and will appreciate their questions being answered.
When asking questions, it will be a good idea to write down the answers given by the teacher so that the student can remember what they asked and how it was answered. Students will find that they are more confident when they know how to tackle similar questions or concepts in future and will thank themselves for asking these questions well in advance before the exam.
3. Use Your Notes to Your Advantage.
The notes provided by W@W are an excellent resource filled with well-scaffolded plots which are substantiated by vivid phrases. It is important that students know how and when to use the essays they have learned from W@W in their assignments to improve their grades. For W@W to help improve your grades, students need to first help themselves by studying and using the phrases they have learned from these resources during their exams.
It is important for students to practice and constantly apply what they have learned. To be familiar with the phrases and the flow of the story, students need to practice writing under timed conditions to simulate an exam, where a student has less than an hour to produce their essays.
For secondary students, the examples they need to substantiate their essay are provided in the notes, so students should read the examples and internalise them so that some of the work they need to bolster their essay has already been done. Although the question may not be the same questions as are provided in the notes, the examples can be useful to any essay question provided that they are relevant to the points being made.
4. Write Out Other Good Essays to Be Familiar with the Writing Style.
At times, students may face writer’s block and they may not know how or where to start an essay. Finding good essays written by other students and copying them out word for word may help students get a head start on how the flow and structure of a good essay is like. After all, experience may be the best teacher to master the English language, and students should try to emulate their role models in writing good essays by copying them out to learn from them.
These simple points and tips learned from W@W will definitely be beneficial to any student having to take on the daunting task of English examinations. It is important to get into the right headspace and know how to prepare for the challenges coming your way.
Study English with WR!TERS@WORK!
At WR!TERS@WORK, we are committed to providing the smoothest learning experience for your child sitting for their English exams at both primary and secondary school levels. With our carefully curated methods of teaching English for PSLE, O Levels, and A Levels, your child will be able to identify the answers to the questions and present them in a concise manner in no time.
English is a compulsory subject that has direct impact on your chances of advancing to upper secondary. Overall, English tuition and writing courses can help primary school students enjoy a smoother transition between education levels by reinforcing their language skills and providing a strong foundation for academic success.
Engaging in English tuition and writing courses can greatly assist students in smoothly transitioning between education levels. These programs reinforce their language skills and establish a solid foundation for academic achievement. For more exam tips, parents and students can explore our website and watch our YouTube videos.
If you are interested in our primary English tuition and secondary English tuition in Singapore, WR!TERS@WORK has expanded to 8 convenient locations. To find the nearest location that suits your needs, please explore our options. If you have any inquiries regarding our range of programs or class schedules, please feel free to contact WR!TERS@WORK.
Frequently Asked Questions about Studying English:
1. How do I find the best English tutor?
Firstly, research and ask around for good recommendations from family or friends. Next, research online and read the reviews of tuition centres to find suitable candidates. A good idea is to drop by the tuition centre and let your child experience a trial lesson to find a good tutor.
2. What is the purpose of an English tutor?
An English tutor is supposed to guide your child to their full potential in terms of mastering the English language. Different children have different skills and capabilities in their academics, and the job of the tutor is to identify strengths and weaknesses of the child and help them accordingly.
3. What skills should an English tutor have?
A tutor should have a discerning eye for strengths and weaknesses of the student, patience to deal with different students, the requisite qualifications and experience, and they should be up to date on the relevant changes in the Singaporean English syllabus.
4. What are some important skills in English?
The English language requires the understanding of simple rules such as grammatical rules and sentence structure. Moreover, it requires more complex skills such as inference and synthesis which come later on as the student progresses to more difficult exercises.
5. Which English language skills is most difficult?
Synthesis is one of the most difficult skills in the English language as it involves using present ideas to generate new opinions and viewpoints.
6. What is the most difficult part of English class?
The most difficult part of English class is to understand how to craft your own ideas from an existing body of work, and how all the individual parts of English – grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, clauses, etc. – fit together in an essay as a whole.
