With Singapore’s tuition industry being worth more than $1.4 billion, it is safe to assume that Singaporeans generally place a heavy emphasis on the need for tuition classes. Needless to say, many students, and perhaps even you, are looking to or have enrolled in tuition classes to supplement your school’s curriculum teaching. However, have you ever stopped to consider what distinguishes a tuition centre that best suits you from the others? Tuition centres today offer a myriad of resources, ranging from summary notes to online materials, so much so that it is important and perhaps more challenging to discern which can better match your learning needs.
So, before you attend your next tuition trial lesson, here are 3 things that you might want to take note of!
1. The Tutor
Most importantly, to do well in any subject, the teacher and the students have to work hand-in-hand. Just like how students have different learning preferences, tutors also have various teaching styles. As you attend a trial lesson, take note of whether the tutor has been able to engage you and explain in such a way that you can easily comprehend.
Complemented with the materials the centre provides, the tutor’s teaching style needs to match your preferences in learning. One way to find out what stands out about the centre is by reading up on their ex-students’ testimonials. Their reviews may point out details such as the tutors’ out-of-class consultations, ability to engage the class, use of visualisation models to aid the students’ understanding etc, that is crucial in determining how much you’ll learn there.
Besides that, it is also vital that the tutor is passionate about the subject he/she teaches, as this may rub off on you and benefit you in time to come. Numerous studies have shown that students tend to perform better in a subject when they have an interest in it. Beyond academics, a good teacher or tutor will also inspire their students to understand and enjoy the significance of the learning process.
At Tim Gan Math Learning Centre, our ex-students have often raved about our tutors’ dedication and passion in their testimonials. Here, we aim to provide the best quality education by adopting various teaching methods, such as the use of three-dimensional models and statistical graphs, to facilitate our students’ understanding of Math. Read more about what our ex-students have to say about us.
2. Quality of Lesson Materials
Besides establishing a rapport between you and your tutor, you might also want to take note of the quality of the centre’s lesson materials. One way to help students learn better is by breaking down the concepts to be taught into a concise and structured manner, which students can easily internalise. Whether this takes the form of summary sheets, or structured notes, these resources need to suit your learning preferences.
Many students often have the idea that rote memorisation is the key to doing well in school. While this method works in the beginning, it is, by no means, a sustainable and efficient way to study. As you attend your next trial lesson, take note of what the centre emphasises in their teaching, and question yourself if they dig deep into the fundamentals.
Understanding core concepts from the very start is essential in building your foundation in the subject. As time progresses, you’ll start to realise that the links between topics in any subject will gradually become more complex, and your knowledge of the fundamentals will play a bigger role. For example, in Math, especially at a higher level, topics are often intertwined and closely related. Higher-marked questions often mix in a couple of seemingly unrelated topics into one long question, where students are often made to connect the dots between the concepts by themselves. As such, it is crucial to have a strong foundation from the very start, a quality that a good tuition centre will build upon.
Here, at Tim Gan Math Learning Centre, our materials are carefully structured on the current MOE curriculum, and designed to build on our students’ foundation. Providing topical summary sheets, a myriad of essential questions from over the years, and conducting regular mock tests, are just some of the ways we adopt to adequately prepare our students for major examinations in our tuition classes.
3. Out-Of-Classroom Support
Frankly speaking, attending one tuition lesson a week is simply insufficient in ensuring you’ve acquired all the skills you need to do well in any subject. We all know that consistent practice and feedback is crucial in mastering any subject on hand. As such, before you enrol in any tuition centre, you might want to consider what kind of support they can provide you beyond the four walls of the classroom. Such support systems may take the form of extra consultations and having an online portal where students can review lessons again.
At Tim Gan Math Learning Centre, our Online Student Learning Portal has been set up to ensure that our students receive the help they need outside of class. In the learning portal, our students gain access to video explanations and step-by-step workings to past lesson materials and additional practices whenever they need. Doing so helps them to effectively consolidate their learning, as well as seek further practice to strengthen their concepts. On top of that, our H2 Math Question Bank contains a wide collection of questions asked by our current and past students to ensure that we clarify gaps in their understanding. Experience learning with us today by accessing our free online materials.
Many tuition centres offer trial lessons today and it is definitely useful for you to attend one before deciding to commit to attending regular lessons. As you attend a tuition trial lesson, it is important to take note of the above few points so as to have the most fruitful and insightful experience as you make an informed decision to join the tuition centre. I hope this blog has helped you in that process!
