I am currently studying in a neighbourhood jc. I have a sister who just graduated from a top jc a year ago and she has passed down all her notes to me. The problem I have right now is whether i should study my A levels with her notes or follow my school's notes. Both of the two sets of notes have different standards and at times when i tried reading her notes and attending the school's lecture, it is bit confusing as their teaching approach is different. Moreover, her notes are more detailed and advanced, the school has actually packed it to be really organised, the GP notes actually comes in a few sets of books under different themes, and so does the lecture notes. Compared to mine, its a bit disorganised and sometimes i feel that it is not providing enough for me to prepare especially GP.
I am not trying to discredit my jc as "lousy" but I mean like, of course, since i have a sibling who has studied from a top jc, naturally, you would want to make the best of yourself and take advantage of the system right? But I am really worried because, i dont know if my approach in my studies will eventually affect my performance or not. I don't perceived myself to be academically weaker and I do not have that much problems in reading her notes, except for GP, there are many jargons and terms that i don't understand, but i understood them eventually.What is the best way to approach this? Any advices? Anyone who is in the similar position like me, care to share some opinions? Help will be greatly appreciated!
Uhhh there's no reason why you can't study from both sets at the same time , yeah? = )
of course you have to follow your own jc's notes for tutorials and lectures...I'm sure the top JC notes' is simply organized in a different way with some additional stuff...good luck in studying!
Hi,
I'd advise that you follow your school's learning materials closely all the time, to ensure learning focus and consistency.
To acquire broader and deeper knowledge, refer to your sister's resources. However, do be selective and use your discretion to decide what is or what is not relevant, based on your learning context.
Good luck, thanks!
Cheers,
Wen Shih
What Wen Shih said was right.
Originally posted by dollydimsum:I am currently studying in a neighbourhood jc. I have a sister who just graduated from a top jc a year ago and she has passed down all her notes to me. The problem I have right now is whether i should study my A levels with her notes or follow my school's notes. Both of the two sets of notes have different standards and at times when i tried reading her notes and attending the school's lecture, it is bit confusing as their teaching approach is different. Moreover, her notes are more detailed and advanced, the school has actually packed it to be really organised, the GP notes actually comes in a few sets of books under different themes, and so does the lecture notes. Compared to mine, its a bit disorganised and sometimes i feel that it is not providing enough for me to prepare especially GP.
I am not trying to discredit my jc as "lousy" but I mean like, of course, since i have a sibling who has studied from a top jc, naturally, you would want to make the best of yourself and take advantage of the system right? But I am really worried because, i dont know if my approach in my studies will eventually affect my performance or not. I don't perceived myself to be academically weaker and I do not have that much problems in reading her notes, except for GP, there are many jargons and terms that i don't understand, but i understood them eventually.What is the best way to approach this? Any advices? Anyone who is in the similar position like me, care to share some opinions? Help will be greatly appreciated!
Erm ..poor thing...
Well , this did happen to me in my Secondary 3 times where i have some top Secondary Notes..I guess the best is keep a copy of your sis if u understand the subject betta
but try not to produce it in exam ,else the teacher do have "occupation sickness" or
"school pride" and mark ur answer as incorrect
Follow what Wen Shih said; it's good advice.
Don't worry about which jc you are in. It's afterall pre-u preparation. You will shine if you find your own resources instead of merely relying on spoonfed resources. This skill, when brought to uni, will work wonders.
May I know what subjects you take? There are still free materials online.
For H1/H2 maths, you can refer to http://www.freewebs.com/weews
For both H1/H2 Maths and Physics, you can refer to http://examworld.blogspot.com
On the useful links, you can access this good UK website as well for all subjects: S-Cool Revision
You can also read some of the articles written by me and other forumers as well:
The Principles of Academic Success
Notes are just notes. Don't over-rely on them (no matter what JC they come from). True learning is not route memorization of notes. I find it unfortunate (perhaps even deplorable) that so many students over-rely on their school's notes, mistakenly regarding it as if it were the one and only authority, limiting their own (the students') conceptual understanding of the subject.
You should make the subject you study your own, view it, conceptualize it and organize it within your head in your own unique way, not merely blindly following the way your school teacher (who did the notes for this particular topic and/or year) did. Only when you own a subject for yourself, then you may excell in it.
Finally, don't misconstrue or misinterpret my advice here as saying "all notes are useless"; some notes are better than others, and notes CAN be useful, but just don't over-rely on them. Keep an open mind.
For myself and my students, I obtain a variety of different sources, different textbooks, different notes, different practice questions, but I always advise my students not to blindly accept any one particular source, and to think intelligently for themselves.
Especially once you get to JC level and University level, if you're an intelligent thinking individual, you will not 100% completely agree with any one individual source of notes. Because at higher levels, there are more ways of looking at a given topic or issue or discussion. And therefore, there will invariably be unique sets or combinations or perspectives.
I recommend certain books and certain notes over others. But none of these sources do I completely agree with. I advise my students (and everyone reading this) to be exposed to a variety of sources, and benefit from each as a guide or reference (for certain topics, you may prefer book/notes A, but for another topics, book/notes B, and so on), but not as a dogma or doctrine to blindly memorization from (as most students unfortunately do).
Studying should be enjoyable. It should be a deeply personal exploration and journey. It should be an exciting and unique adventure for each student. How enjoyable can a subject be if it's reduced to a set of notes, to an unintelligent dogma?
A good piece of advice from UltimaOnline.
Originally posted by UltimaOnline:Notes are just notes. Don't over-rely on them (no matter what JC they come from). True learning is not route memorization of notes. I find it unfortunate (perhaps even deplorable) that so many students over-rely on their school's notes, mistakenly regarding it as if it were the one and only authority, limiting their own (the students') conceptual understanding of the subject.
You should make the subject you study your own, view it, conceptualize it and organize it within your head in your own unique way, not merely blindly following the way your school teacher (who did the notes for this particular topic and/or year) did. Only when you own a subject for yourself, then you may excell in it.
Finally, don't misconstrue or misinterpret my advice here as saying "all notes are useless"; some notes are better than others, and notes CAN be useful, but just don't over-rely on them. Keep an open mind.
For myself and my students, I obtain a variety of different sources, different textbooks, different notes, different practice questions, but I always advise my students not to blindly accept any one particular source, and to think intelligently for themselves.
Especially once you get to JC level and University level, if you're an intelligent thinking individual, you will not 100% completely agree with any one individual source of notes. Because at higher levels, there are more ways of looking at a given topic or issue or discussion. And therefore, there will invariably be unique sets or combinations or perspectives.
I recommend certain books and certain notes over others. But none of these sources do I completely agree with. I advise my students (and everyone reading this) to be exposed to a variety of sources, and benefit from each as a guide or reference (for certain topics, you may prefer book/notes A, but for another topics, book/notes B, and so on), but not as a dogma or doctrine to blindly memorization from (as most students unfortunately do).
Studying should be enjoyable. It should be a deeply personal exploration and journey. It should be an exciting and unique adventure for each student. How enjoyable can a subject be if it's reduced to a set of notes, to an unintelligent dogma?
well said
you should put this on your website as well
I agree with this fully:
not as a dogma or doctrine to blindly memorization from (as most students unfortunately do).
That happened to me during my Os; I blindly memorized for my 3 sciences. Fortunately for me, I still managed to scrape through an A1 for my 3 sciences. By scraping through, I mean marks like 76, 78, etc... (prelim scores)
For A levels, I did not rely on notes as much, and particularly because I didn't even buy any maths or physics textbooks to use. Most of my time were spent doing practices and questions from different sources, schools, TYS... Like that can get 90 marks somemore.
That's why I have this conclusion that learning and mastering how to do questions is much better than blindly memorizing the notes. And this is the way in which I taught students. And this is the way in which I'm training my sis now for her A levels at the end of the year. So far so good.
May I suggest a third stack of paper to solve your problems - namely, The Syllabus?
You can find it on the MOE website, I think. especially for sciences, it's very helpful.
basically it's a point form, line-by-line deconstruction of the knowledge you require in order to pass/answer all the questions in your A levels. coming from a (somewhat) top JC myself I know there can be alot of extraneous information and unnecessary explanation/derivations.
I made my own notes culled from various data sources and structured it around the syllabus. it's especially vital for bio, as bio notes are usually just floods of useless text.
if not, I would say, use your own JC notes for the work, exam, tests, and then in further revision and studying look through your sister's work for help.
as for GP, since you feel your sister's GP notes are better, why not use them. inasmuch as they will help, since GP notes are primarily data and examples and quotes and trends for you to incorporate into your essay; ideally you could draw from both notes, as they are just data anyway and they should cover different areas.
I agree with Eagle; there is a way of studying that involves learning to solve questions and how to take tests.. that way works best.
take the responsibility for your own learning, never ever blame lousy notes or poor teachers! sgforums is here for you, so is wikipedia and the tonnes of resources out there =)
Unless you are too lazy, study both.