Looking for Secondary School Chemistry Tuition?
Distinction Tutors can help you find a perfect Chemistry tutor for your child so that he can breeze through his secondary school Chemistry!
Chemistry is often a mandatory subject in Upper Secondary. Therefore, there is no running away from it – students who may not have passion in Science or are exceptionally gifted in the subject may dread the fact that they have to take Chemistry. Chemistry tutors can progressively train a student’s conceptual knowledge by strengthening their weak points over time, eventually enabling him to score a distinction in O Level Chemistry.
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Common problems faced when studying Secondary School Chemistry
Incorrectly Approaching the Subject
Chemistry is a new subject to most, especially when Science is branched out into 3 individual subjects as Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Many students face difficulty in approaching the subject and preparing for it in the right way. For subjects like Chemistry, memory work and answering techniques are critical for scoring. Understandably, many students do not realise this and spend large amounts of time reading textbooks and writing notes of what is written in the textbooks.
Despite their efforts, students often find that their results are disproportionate to their time spent learning. This emphasises the need for productive learning, which involves plenty of concepts, practice and linking topics. However, when self-learning, many students only realise that their method of studying may be ineffective late into their Secondary education. Chemistry tuition can help prevent this, by guiding students to study effectively.
Improper Answering Techniques
Many students often find that what they write during examinations “makes sense” theoretically, but still got the question wrong. For example, a student may write a detailed answer about Bonding – a big idea that comprises Ionic Bonds, Covalent Bonds and Metallic Bonds. Everything he has written is conceptually perfect. However, he can still be awarded 0 marks for his answer if he does not write the essential keywords.
This is because he failed to include key phrases, as seen in the following sentence: Ionic bonds formed due to electrostatic forces of attraction between ion and sea of delocalised electrons“. Simply writing “forces of attraction” or “sea of electrons” can result in getting 0 marks. Therefore, students are often not aware of what exactly examiners are looking out for. Additionally, these keywords are often not black and white and vary based on what exactly the question is asking for. Secondary School Chemistry tuition can emphasise and develop students’ abilities to identify and aptly use these keywords.
Neglecting Certain Components
Practical contribute to 30% of one’s grade, while Multiple Choice Questions contribute to 20%. Students often spend the majority of their time preparing for Paper 2, which is only 50% of the total marks. Therefore, they may be able to score for Paper 2, but lack the necessary skills and experience required to ace the remaining components. This is one of the key reasons why students miss out on their distinctions for Chemistry. Secondary School Chemistry tuition can help students to schedule their learning such that they are proficient in all components of Chemistry exams.
What should I look out for in a Secondary School Chemistry Tutor?
Creativity
A good Chemistry home tutor will deepen a student’s understanding of Chemistry by teaching in many ways. A Chemistry tutor has much more freedom in how he wants to conduct his lessons, as compared to a school teacher who has to strictly follow textbooks.
Therefore, private Chemistry tutors can base their lessons through animations, videos, and diagrams to further enhance a student’s visualisation of molecules. This can be greatly beneficial for chapters like Atoms & Molecules, as well as Organic Chemistry, as these chapters often require visualisation. Chemistry tuition teacher can use apps like MolView, which show a compound’s 3D model, as well as its skeletal formula, which can be greatly beneficial for students.
Passionate Tutoring
A good Chemistry tutor is one that is passionate about tutoring and has a profound love for Chemistry. Chemistry is a subject that requires a good understanding of the “boring” details in order to experience the true joys of it. A passionate Chemistry tutor will be able to transmit his energy and interest onto students, enabling students to develop further interest in the subject as well. Naturally, the tutor will go out of his way to make sure a student excels in the subject. This develops a form of mutual respect where students will also be further encouraged to express their gratitude for their Chemistry tutor by performing well in the subject.
Provides Numerous Materials
A good Chemistry tutor will know that Chemistry is not a subject that one can ace by simply studying 1 or 2 days a week during Chemistry tuition. He will administer fair and manageable amounts of work that is to be done outside of Chemistry tuition, ensuring a consistent building of knowledge. However, it is not always rational to provide homework, as students may be extremely overloaded in some weeks of their Secondary education. Instead, a Chemistry tutor can provide articles for reading, summaries to be familiar with, etc. A good Chemistry home tutor will be able to vary the materials he provides based on the student’s ability and time.
- Submit your request online or call us!
- +65 8875 1100
- Tutor Request Form
Benefits of Secondary School Chemistry Tuition
Secondary School Chemistry tuition has the ability to develop a student’s interest in Chemistry. This is important as having a strong interest in the subject can make the process of learning much easier for students, especially in lower secondary whereby students do not necessarily need to follow a fixed Chemistry syllabus.
Chemistry tutors have more freedom in introducing students to more interesting aspects of Chemistry such as videos of experiments involving colour changes for titration experiments. Tutors can use such videos to explain the intriguing Chemistry concepts behind such colour changes. Tutors can also use these videos to students’ advantage and introduce syllabus relevant concepts like end points. This is relevant for practical examinations, as well as the chapter “Mole Calculations”. This gives students something to look forward to, as churning out content from textbooks can be repetitive at times.
Starting Secondary school Chemistry tuition from as early as Lower Secondary can help in precisely identifying areas of improvement before the mistakes have become a cultivated habit in students. It is always much easier to instill new concepts in students, than correcting incorrect concepts. In addition, Chemistry tuition teachers can guide them in the correct path so that they do not incorrectly learn concepts, or face lapses in knowledge. This will be much easier for students in order to secure a distinction, as compared to identifying, correcting and re-learning concepts.
Learning the concepts required for Chemistry is only one half of what is required to do well in Chemistry. This can be seen as pre exam preparation, as this only develops the knowledge required. The other half can be seen as exam skills. This is extremely important as it ensures that the knowledge of a student is converted productively into marks during examinations.
This is developed through rigorous practice with frequent correction, as well as sharpening answering techniques. In concept heavy subjects like Chemistry, the use of keywords is crucial. Therefore, Chemistry demands proper answering techniques, and Chemistry tutors can help develop such skills as they are experienced and can provide individual attention to honing these skills.
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Distinction Tutors can help
Secondary School Chemistry tuition can cultivate the right learning mindset and skills in students. We can help you find the right Chemistry tutor for your child and ensure that his Chemistry journey throughout Secondary School will be met with minimal challenges.
