"I started to enroll myself in the Wayne Jones tuition at the start of 2010, joining the Additional Mathematics class. Considering that I failed Mathematics in Secondary 1, and that I attained average grades for Mathematics in Secondary 2, I didn’t think I would be able to meet the hectic demands of Additional Mathematics. I joined the Physics class later on in mid 2010, after getting a D7 grade for my Physics midyear examination. Physics used to be the subject I loathed the most, because I had difficulties understanding the concepts in class and I even had thoughts of dropping the subject by the end of Secondary 3.
My decision to join both classes turned out to be a wise decision after all, because Wayne Jones is certainly not an ordinary tutor. What I loved most about his teaching techniques were his concise and succinct notes which he called the ‘Edubites’. For the Additional Mathematics Edubites , all the topics were broken down further into sub-topics which include different patterns for questions that have appeared in the O Level examinations. He discussed them and taught us different tricks in answering them, which I found very useful and easy to understand. He even used other learning methods such as the ‘sum-ba proca’ (which are the addition and multiplication formulae for roots of a quadratic equation) and also listing a set of standard steps to solve certain questions (which he kept repeating all the time during lessons so that we do not forget). He also emphasized on the importance of memorizing certain formulae that were frequently required, so as to save us from the hassle of searching for suitable formulae to use from the given formulae sheet. These were very valuable because they were certainly not taught in school.
For Physics, he laid down the important points in bullet points, so that students need not read the lengthy paragraphs in textbook. In between the notes, he also puts in a few examples that further explain the points, unlike teachers in school who choose to teach all the pointers first, before moving on to examples and questions. Through that, he managed to keep us on the right track so that we do not get easily confused as to how we would if things were just spoon-fed to us at one go.
Apart from the notes, he even set test papers for us that required us to spend extra time at the Eduhouse to finish them. Although students may grumble, I found that the tests were very useful as it certainly did help me in revising certain topics that were taught a long time ago so that we would not forget them. In school, we didn’t usually get to revise the topics that were previously taught because teachers had to rush the syllabus before we sit for our prelims. By then, it would be a little late for revision.
All of the effort he had put in for his students came to fruition when eventually I attained an A1 for both Elementary and Additional Mathematics, and an A2 for Physics. Thank you Wayne Jones Eduhouse because I wouldn’t be able to achieve such grades without Wayne’s help. " ~ Ermanda
What I remembered of Ermanda:
Ermanda came to WJE through the referral of his friends. I gave him a trial lesson on "Solving Cubic Equations" when i could afford some time back then. Eventually he signed up for our Maths Program. Ermanda's command of Mathematics needed more attention as he would make careless mistakes when manipulating the equations around. Despite his weak foundations in lower secondary, he attempted to work harder, and complete most of the work given to him. His obtaining of A1 for both Mathematics in O levels is not without effort, but because of his resilience and his "never-say-die" attitude in Mathematics. Ermanda really takes pride in his work, if you have ever have the privilege to see his homework or paper, you would agree with me that his presentation of Mathematics workings is second to none, and it was really pleasant to mark his papers. For that, it was no surprise that Ermanda also got Top in Mathematics for his School's Prelims.
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