hey there! i'm gonna be doing a part 2 of my o level results reflection. if you have not read my first post, please do so at this link: https://aavocadoo.blogspot.com/2020/01/reflection-about-my-o-level-results.html . this post is inspired by the posts on http://journeythroughtheolevels.blogspot.com/
i will be sharing my tips in a descending order of my results:
double mathematics --> pure biology --> tamil language --> pure chemistry --> english language
--> pure physics --> humanities (ss/history)
ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS
for this subject, i had a teacher who was adamant on everyone in my class getting an A1 (i didn't in the end) so she gave 1 question a day, which became 2 full sets of papers a week during revision period. my school had us do mock papers in the afternoons so i plead you to do full exam timed practice in the afternoon (from 230 to 5pm) so that you will get used to the exam conditions and get accustomed to the pace you should do your papers.
towards prelims, you should be doing papers from top schools like Anderson, Bukit Panjang Govt High, Catholic High, Cedar Girls, Anglican High, MGS and CHIJ St Nick's. they give you a good stand of where you will stand at prelims and even at O Levels for the easier papers amongst these schools. for paper 1, you should aim to complete the paper in 1h30mins so that you have extra time to do the questions you find the hardest. these papers should be done outside your normal homework if your teacher were to give you during the revision period. by doing this before prelims, you will be used to drilling on papers everyday and even if you burnt out (which i did, just before the o levels), you will kinda know what to do. for paper 2, you have to ask your teacher to give you more PRWC (problems in real-world context) questions so that you can do the questions and fully understand the rationale behind a concept.
I WISH I DID questions that i was weaker in because i tend to neglect them and that costed me my A1 and i got an A2 in the end. practice on your trigo and geometry but don't even ignore the other topics because in the end, i found my paper 1 difficult because i didn't use common sense to answer my number patterns question.
towards the o levels, you should be used to doing papers for all subjects. for me, i did the full set of paper 1s in a day and marked the full set. then, i went through all my mistakes, which tend to repeat across the whole tys and then, i will do 2 paper 2s in the remaining days of the week. that cycle worked for me but you might not be used to doing papers this way so i will suggest this: you do 1 years' worth of paper in a day and then, mark all the papers for the day. write down the mistakes you made in a notebook so that you can refer to it just before entering the exam hall. make sure to do the tys at least twice on top of one round of prelim papers.
ADDITIONAL MATHEMATICS
for this subject, i used the same techniques as ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS, but I just identified my weak topics, which were almost all the Sec 4 topics. hence, i used the whole june holidays to brush up on my weak links by practicing on exam questions every single day. thank god for that, i was able to answer most questions at the o levels except the sum and roots and circle questions. i implore you to keep checking your answers because I am sure I lost my marks due to missing steps (don't jump steps and show every single step that's on your mind though it takes up time). you have to practice on your questions and identify weak qn types and write them down in a notebook.
PURE BIOLOGY
it was the first time i got a distinction in sec 4 so take my advice with a pinch of salt.
for biology, i basically read the textbook and used the syllabus learning outcomes as a guideline to make notes. there is a lot of fluff you need to know for prelims but not for the o levels so after prelims, you have to redo your notes, which will model after the learning outcomes in the syllabus and you should also write the answers to the ten-year series questions in your notes. what i did was to do at least 20-25 years worth of o level questions, which i bought from the bras basah complex and read from the reference section in the national library headquarters. by doing these questions, you will know the style of questions cambridge is likely to ask and also, some schools are very lazy and copy and paste questions from the old o level papers (not in the tys). by doing all the different questions, you should look at the answer key and take note of the points they want you to write. all these should be in your compiled notes so that you can easily refer to them outside the hall. for practical papers, you should look through the textbook and find the different practicals listed so that you kinda know the steps and the reason behind the step. for bio, you should understand first and then, memorise using acronyms, especially for the human biology parts because it is all within you. what i did was to memorise using the visualization of my body parts and think through the full body systems and its functions. i know it sound gross but what you remember tends to be trivial or absurd so it works! while preparing for the actual o levels, i didn't do much mugging for this subject because it was just getting used to the concepts and also, youtube videos help you to visualise the conceptual questions like the cardiac cycle graph (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJi3G_kf8yA&t=114s)
TAMIL LANGUAGE (NOT HIGHER AH)
I got a B3 overall and a Merit in Oral/Aural, which was quite shocking in a bad way because I tend to get A1/A2 in school so please don't be complacent at your O levels and whack points randomly. Make sure to use some common sense to link your points when speaking in front of the 2 examiners. There will be emphasis on your pronunciation of words because Tamil teachers are very particular about your pronunciation and how you bring about your point. To prepare for your O Level Tamil paper, make sure to do your TYS as many times as possible, especially if you take the May/June paper. The questions are very repetitive so take note of the question types so that you can quickly study, just before exam starts. For Paper 1, memorise the formats for email and take note of every single word in the essay question because according to the SEAB marking scheme, the examiners will check if you explained each word properly to meet the requirements of the questions. If you want to boost your language marks, make sure to include some திருக்குறள் and பழமொழி in your essay, which should be explained to the context of the question. Be familiar with all question types because if not, your essay will not as coherent as you feel it will be because the topics tend to be quite random. When writing essays, make sure to explain the question in relation to you, your family, you school, your neighbourhood, your nation and the world. You have to read the TYS comprehension passages and make essay plans for potential essay and oral questions. 2 weeks before the O Levels, make sure to do timed practices for Paper 1 every single day and for each day, do an essay and an email on a different topic so that you will be able to think quickly during the actual exam itself. Before writing each essay, do an essay plan with shorthand examples to jog your memory whilst writing the essay.
PURE CHEMISTRY AND PURE PHYSICS
same as PURE BIOLOGY, but make sure to do as many planning questions as possible so that you will understand the rationale of experiments. memorise formulas and know how to use the formulas and laws in questions. for these 2 subjects, the practicals tend to be quite hard, so you have to bank on your planning marks, which's quite easy to score in. do your topical tys every single day and ask your school teacher to mark and ask them for consults to clarify your mistakes. whilst doing your topical tys, make sure to do some questions in prelim papers every day. i got a B3 for both because i did some practices (both tys and prelim papers) very last minute like a month before o levels so i urge you to start on practices right away. even though it can get damn tiring, you MUST do practices every single day and make sure to learn from all your mistakes (including keywords).
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
same as TAMIL LANGUAGE
Paper 1: purchase the Present Perfect magazines, read the magazines and find relevant points that you can use to support different types of essay questions. Find some common idioms and phrases that you can use to boost your language marks in essays. Know the appropriate ways to use the idioms and phrases so that you won't be penalised for wrong usage. You'd rather use simple words to explain your points than use complicated words in the wrong form
Paper 2: practice 1 paper a week from June Holidays onwards (on top of homework) so that you can make sure to be flawless in your comprehension skills
Oral: look through news articles to be aware of the current affairs in the country and the world and also Present Perfect magazines for ideas
LC: just dig your ears HAHAHAHA and do the paper. Just before going into the exam hall, listen to British radio stations to be used to the accent because some of the people in my school didn't understand what the persons were speaking during the LC paper.
HUMANITIES(SS/HISTORY)
I can't really help you for SS because it is my worst subject and I don't want to screw up because of my tips but from what my A1/A2 friends did, they did their notes early on in the year and also nearer to O levels to recap their content. For History, I focused on the Sec 3 book and made notes for content extensively on the Sec 3 book. I totally ignored the Sec 4 book because ain't nobody got time for that. I did a timeline for both Sec 3 and 4 SBQ topics so that I can back up my SBQ inferences with contextual knowledge. Take note that CK will pull up your SBQ marks and make sure to add relevant details so that you can be sure to attain full marks in an SBQ question. For SBQ, just make sure to remember your formats (the main gist of what you need to write) but don't stress over the formats because you can just write in your own words as long as your different aspects of the format is covered. For your notes, start doing it from NOW!!!! if not, procrastination will kill you at the actual exam. Even if you don't complete either of your humanities papers, don't be scared that you will fail as long as you did your best because I did my best and jumped from E8 to C5 in the end.
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