KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

My DS is in HCI Sec 3. I would like to check if anyone knows if I can obtain past years test and exam (esp Maths) papers from the different IP schools or are these being consolidated and sold anywhere?

There are "challenging" questions in these papers whereby it can never be found in the assessment books or ten years series etc.. I had ever put my DS to tuition with a tutor (previously from a known IP school) but realised that his method of tutoring was more of a consultancy manner which did not suit my DS hence I had quitted and currently my DS is with a tutor (not from IP school). Having been with this tutor since beginning of this year, my DS had shown improvement in this subject however I realized that this tutor has limitations in coming up with "challenging" questions for him to practise, nor can I find it anywhere to share with her. As a result, usually in a test, my DS will not be able to do well in those 2 - 3 more "challenging" questions. Hence has never been able to attain an A1 for the past 2 tests.

Separately, if you know of any Maths tutor (providing 1-1 tution) whose tutoring is not of a consultancy style and yet able to provide more "challenging" questions (outside the ten years series or assessment books type) for the student to practise, please do let me know too.. TY

Hi, maybe you might check if HCI (most likely the library section) keeps an archive of past exam papers for students to photocopy?
I know Nanyang Girls' has this thingy. RI has too.


I don't know about the type of challenging maths questions that appears in HCI, but I seen the ones that appear for NYGH sec2 (they have this bonus section of challenging questions too). All I can say is, theirs are very challenging too (definitely meant for the cream of the crop), and given the fact that there are many possible topics in Maths to set just 1 or 2 challenging questions, the student that actually manage to solve it, must be quite lucky or quite versatile and well-prepared.
If you have heard of SMO (Singapore Maths Olympiad) or AMC (American Maths Competition), you might wana take a look at the questions to see if they are relevant.

With regard to your last question, certain centres (e.g. MathsOasis, MathsHub, AEP?) do offer math olympiad courses for secondary school students, just in case you decided that SMO training will be helpful.

Thank you CoffeeCat for the sharing.

For past year exam papers in my DS school, usually the teachers would have already let them tried out, so not an issue. I am also not so keen in the olympiad course at the moment. However had just met up with the school teacher the other day and she recommended to practise from their text and workbook as within it, the questions are already segregated by the level of difficulty. So maybe I can explore into this area and share with the tutor.

still have so much time for doing extra? Mine are too busy with their school worksheets & projects!

i am looking for some too. anyone knows where can get?

me too..not only maths, if knows where to get for science and humanities subjects, it would be good..!

I've listed some math textbooks on my website. I have found some of the older (e.g., those authored by RI Porter, Harwood Clarke, etc.) textbooks to be pretty good. You'll also find some materials on mathematics on the site. It's at:

http://ascklee.org/

Thanks.


Sincerely,
CKLee

ascklee wrote:I've listed some math textbooks on my website. I have found some of the older (e.g., those authored by RI Porter, Harwood Clarke, etc.) textbooks to be pretty good. You'll also find some materials on mathematics on the site. It's at:

http://ascklee.org/

Thanks.


Sincerely,
CKLee

Thank you for creating such useful link.

Really appreciate your contributions, Ascklee.

Can I also check with regards to the Panpac Additional Mathematics Workbook, if you have also tried working out the full solutions to them especially on the "Advanced" and "Challenging" sections? It would be great and beneficial for the students.

Dear Hans and Gladiator,

Thank you for your feedback. No problems at all, maths is my passion! I'm glad you found the resources useful. Actually, all the problems in the Panpac (including the red dot and the yellow dot problems) and Shinglee books have all been solved -- it's the typing out that's taking lots of time and effort! 8-) What I don't upload are questions:

[1] that involves long division (I have not found a software to do easily this yet
[2] that are best illustrated with the help of a diagram (e.g., questions that involves the length of a shadow) -- I'm really lousy at Adobe Illustrator and I take a lot of time just to produce the simplest of diagrams
[3] that involves a lot of typing (questions from the binomial theorem chapter fits into this category) -- the typing for binomial expressions is very tedious, and also very error prone, and I've not found the time to do this just yet, but plan to do some during the December holidays.

If you do find something from PanPac that I've not put online, please email me, and I'll try to find time to do it immediately.

A postgraduate student of mine is helping me to port all the materials to a new website that uses a platform in which visitors can post comments (ascklee.org is a "download-only" site -- comments are welcome, but just not possible on ascklee.org). The URL for this new site is http://OpenlySolved.org/. It's now being tested (it still "goes down" every now and then), but will be fully functional in 2012 -- it's my December 2011 project 8-).

I'm also trying to convince some of my students who are themselves teachers to share some of their knowledge and materials. It they agree, it'll be made available on OpenlySolved.org.

Thanks.


Sincerely,
ascklee