Education Archives - Page 3 of 3

4 Tips To Study For Math Exams

August 16, 2022March 6, 2026By ILLAC

As students prepare to take their exams, many of them might feel unsure and a little stressed over how to study for maths. The good news is that studying for a maths exam doesn’t have to be an overwhelming experience. Maths exam techniques can be picked up by preparing for it with the right strategies, making the process a more manageable one. I Love Learning provides math enrichment classes in Singapore for a range of levels, and we’ve prepared some tips to help you manage your next math exam better, all on top of acing that test! Read on to learn more.

Time management

Instead of leaving everything to the last minute, create good habits by getting some studying done daily ahead of the exam. Incorporate time management by working on topics in blocks of time to ensure you are not switching frequently between topics and getting confused. We suggest spending 50 mins on one topic with a ten minute break before the next – this will enable you to divide your time evenly across all the chapters and topics.

Practice with mock tests

Practising with mock tests is one way of acing your maths exam that is often overlooked. Doing so exposes you to the different types of math questions, preparing you for whatever may come your way. Alternatively, consider signing up for math enrichment classes with an enrichment centre for the right academic support and guidance.

Keep a positive attitude

Preparing for the exam requires your mind to work well. Sitting in front of your textbook all day practising problem sums might sound like a good plan at first, but doing so may cause stress and exhaustion in the long run. It is therefore crucial to also place focus on your mental health even while studying for your exams. Start with taking care of your physical health – have a balanced social life, and find hobbies that will allow you to relax and recuperate amidst the studying. Eating nutrient rich food and staying fit will also help in your preparation. The goal is to perform activities that will keep you feeling refreshed, healthy, and happy.

Bring in a social element

When planning your maths exam revision, make sure to factor in a mixture of group study sessions with friends apart from time alone. Constructive discussions can help you have a deeper understanding of the subject, especially in times when you might not grasp a concept that your friend does. In these cases, it’s a great idea to set up study groups and work alongside your peers. Studying in groups can also keep you on track as you learn from each other.

We hope these tips have been helpful in taking on your next maths exam with confidence. Revising for your exam is hard work, but taking your maths studying seriously from day one will alleviate unnecessary stress when it comes down to taking your exams.

I Love Learning provides lessons for secondary math tuition and A math lessons taught by qualified teachers with NIE experience. Reach out to us if you’d like to find out more!

Choosing The Right Tuition Centre For Your Child

August 1, 2022March 6, 2026By ILLAC

Tuition is deemed as beneficial for a child’s education and learning experience in Singapore. That is why choosing the right tuition centre can sometimes come with a lot of pressure. It is important that parents know how to find the right tuition centre in order to aid their child’s learning. But with such a large pool of tuition services to choose from, selecting the best tutor for your child can often be an overwhelming process. This article aims to help by sharing a few things you should consider before choosing a tuition centre for your child. Read on to learn more.

Location

Locate tuition or enrichment centres that may be near your child’s school or your residence for greater ease and convenience. This allows less time and energy spent on travelling for your child, especially if you intend to send them for classes after school or on the weekends.

Class size

choosing the right tuition centre can help guide your child’s education

The tuition class size could also determine how they learn. In large classes, there is frustration for both teachers, in the form of managing a large group, and students, in terms of getting their individual doubts cleared. With smaller class sizes, students may find it easier to have their questions answered, and teachers will be able to cater to each student’s needs more easily. This essentially means a smaller class size will allow your child to receive more individual attention, and experience a better learning environment particularly for students struggling with weaker subjects. At I Love Learning, classes are kept at less than 9 students per class, ensuring a conducive learning environment for your child to excel.

Qualifications and experience

When searching for an enrichment centre for your child in Singapore, you want to be certain that the founder places emphasis on a strict hiring process. Tuition is a billion-dollar industry in Singapore. It is inevitable that centers are run by profit-oriented people who are inexperienced in education. When looking for a center, pay attention to the management team. A profit-oriented management team will focus more on profiting than on developing your child to reach his/her potential. i.e. A huge classroom is a result of trying to profit rather than teach optimally.

Look through reviews

girl wearing graduation clothes shows effective teaching methods of a tuition centre

Learn how effective the teaching methods of a tuition centre is by reading reviews of what other parents and students have to say about it. Doing so lets you have a better understanding about the specific attributes of the tuition centre that parents and students are satisfied with.

Ability to connect with your child

fun learning with the right tuition centre

Finding a centre that your child connects well with will encourage them to be more receptive to the lessons. This is where requesting for a trial lesson can come in handy for parents and students to assess the suitability of the class before committing for the longer term. If your child shows a dislike for the tutor from the onset, this could be due to incompatible teaching methods or personality. Keep in mind that a good learning relationship between the tutor and a student typically results in better academic performance, and a good tutor should be able to connect with and motivate your child to achieve more.

Selecting an enrichment centre for your child can seem like a daunting task. We hope these tips have been helpful in guiding you through choosing the right tutor for your child’s educational needs. Our experienced team of tutors are here to support your child on their learning journey. Reach out to us for more information on our wide range of courses!

How to Get Your Child to Start Reading On Their Own

July 13, 2022March 6, 2026By ILLAC

a group of children reading book and playing toy

The benefits of reading in a child’s development are well documented. But contrary to what most believe, learning to read is a complex process that requires a child to be properly taught various skills and strategies, such as phonics and phonemic awareness. The good news though is that the steps to take in order to build these skills are actually fairly simple and straightforward. Apart from preschool enrichment classes, are you also looking at other ways to have your child become an avid reader? We’ll share some tips to help with kick-starting your child’s love of reading at an early age.

Make a simple word card game

Cut out simple cards and write a word on each card. Locate a staircase nearby and place one or two cards face down on each step. Say a word aloud and have your child find the matching word card. Then have your child read the word. He gets to keep the card if he has chosen the correct word. If it’s the wrong card, he leaves it on the step. The game continues until all the word cards have been found.

Incorporate phonics

Many studies have shown that children with a strong background in phonics tend to become stronger readers as they grow up. A phonetic approach to reading teaches a child how to go letter by letter, blending each sound together. Once a child has developed a level of automatisation, they will be able to sound out words almost instantly, only needing to apply decoding with longer words.

Try doing so using songs and nursery rhymes; the rhyme and rhythm help kids to differentiate the sounds and syllables in words, which is a good and fun way to build phonemic awareness and confident readers. Alternatively, you may also consider signing your child up with a learning centre that provides phonics classes with a well-rounded reading program.

Read aloud to your child regularly

Many people aren’t aware of just how many skills can be picked up through the simple act of reading to a child. Reading aloud to your child regularly not only creates a special bonding time for the both of you, but it also builds key comprehension skills, grows their vocabulary, allows them to hear what a fluent reader sounds like, and more importantly, instils in them a love for books. This feeling of enjoyment while reading is one of the single greatest predictors of reading success in school-going children.

Be patient

mother teaching her daughter to learn study online

Remember that every child has his or her own pace of learning, so it’s helpful to keep in mind that the single most important thing you can do is to make it an enjoyable experience. A combination of reading regularly, mixing things up with the activities you choose, and letting your child pick out their own books occasionally will help them to develop an early love of reading and give them the best chance at reading success.

We hope this article has been helpful for you in getting your child started on becoming an avid reader. I Love Learning has a range of classes for children in Singapore, starting as young as preschool enrichment classes. Reach out to us for more information!

How to Choose the Best Tuition Center for Your Child

September 17, 2021March 6, 2026By ILLAC

With the myriad of tuition centers out there, what are the few considerations you’ll need to take in order to pick the best tuition center for your child?

Consider these factors:

1. Teacher-Student Ratio

The reason why you are looking for a tuition programme for your child is either because you want your child to get that extra help, or you want your child to reach his/her potential. Either way, you want your child to be given extra attention. Therefore, try looking for classes with not more than 8 students. The bigger the class, the less attention the teacher can render for your child. That being said, a very experienced teacher with excellent classroom management and high energy will definitely be able to handle a larger class.

And that leads us to the next point.

2. Qualifications of Teachers

The experience and qualification of the teachers employed in the center are very important too. The best player may not be the best coach. The same goes for teachers. A scholar may not be the best teacher unless he/she is a scholar in pedagogy (teaching methodology). It is therefore, very important to enrol your child in a center that emphasizes teaching methods and child psychology because such a center will surely produce teachers and a curriculum that really help to develop your child.

However, most centers focus instead, on employing teachers who are MOE-trained and/or scholars. Having experienced teachers who are also trained in child psychology will be the most ideal. ILLAC is one center that focuses on employing not just teachers who are MOE-trained, ILLAC also develops and trains their teachers in child psychology so they are equipped with the knowledge of helping students overcome their weaknesses and develop their strengths.

3. Who Manages The Center

Tuition is a billion-dollar industry in Singapore. It is inevitable that centers are run by profit-oriented people who are inexperienced in education. When looking for a center, pay attention to the management team. A profit-oriented management team will focus more on profiting than on developing your child to reach his/her potential. i.e. A huge classroom is a result of trying to profit rather than teach optimally.

4. Curriculum

Singapore’s curriculum for the primary level is actually very unique. The PSLE is entirely developed locally, unlike the O Levels or A levels that are developed overseas and used internationally. Therefore, when choosing a tuition center for your child, ensure that the curriculum is designed by and developed for locals.

For example, some may think that we should send our children to native speakers of the English language to learn proper English. If the objective is to learn proper pronunciation and intonation, yes, that is agreeable. However, if it is to learn proper grammar and sentence structure, a native speaker will not be the best teacher because they grew up speaking the language without such difficulties. They will never understand why our children cannot understand the difference between “I have done my homework” versus “I had done my homework” because the difference is obvious to them.

Another example will be imported centers. A foreign curriculum, even when translated, will not teach Mathematics the same way we do in Singapore. Singapore’s Mathematics emphasizes a lot on model drawing and these techniques are not commonly learned in other countries. Therefore, a foreign curriculum will unlikely cover model drawing as a problem solving method in their curriculum.

The Best Tuition Center

To summarise, the best tuition center for your child should have a low teacher-student ratio of less than 1-8. Secondly, the teachers should be experienced not just in teaching, but trained in child psychology to be able to develop your child to reach his/her potential. The management team that manages the center should be trained in pedagogy to be able to make the best decisions for their students. Lastly, the curriculum that the center uses should be developed by locals.

Good luck in finding the best tuition center for your child!

How to kickstart the love for learning from a young age?

August 28, 2019By illac_admin

You must have heard of the old adage, “If you love your job, you wouldn’t have to work a day in your life” and it applies to children too! The love for learning can make them love every single activity, every single subject, and every single learning opportunity. Imagine your child being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about learning, would you ever need to worry about their academic performance?

What are needed to kickstart the love for learning?

1) Strengthen their working memory

Working memory is used to hold multiple information at the same time. For example, I gave you 3 apples, you ate 1 and bought another 4, how many apples do you have? Your working memory is actively engaged in order to hold and process the information given.

Children who have good working memory are able to handle complicated tasks like “picking up their shoes, putting it onto the shoe rack, before queuing up to enter the classroom” all as per instructed by the teacher. These may sound easy but children with weak working memory might “line up immediately without picking up the shoes”, or, “pick up the shoe and queue up without going to the shoe rack”.

Children with good working memory therefore excel in the classroom and are more motivated for new challenges ahead.

2) Enhance their Mental Flexibility

With so many things to learn and so many stimulants to handle everyday, it is stressful and taxing to the little brain. Enhancing on the mental flexibility of the child can help them learn to handle different situations using different “gears”, therefore, maneuvring safely and confidently around “obstacles”.

A child with poor mental flexibility might find it really hard to share, because he is used to playing with a toy his way. When another child comes along wanting to play together, he gets all uncomfortable, not able to process the new situation nor come out with a new playing method, thus cries out loud.

Mental Flexibility helps a child adapt to new situations and pick up new knowledge readily.

3) Heighten the Inhibitory Control

“Naughty”, “Hyper”, “Not focused”…

If these phrases sound familiar to you, no worries, they are used extensively on most children. It’s not their fault, children are meant to explore, play and be active. All that they need to learn are rules and boundaries. As soon as they are able to self-regulate their behaviour and manage their emotions according to the rules, they will be able to enjoy school and look forward to a great learning journey every day.

A heightened inhibitory control will allow your child to focus in class, capture teacher’s instructions and learn effectively. Imagine the praises they will get because of that.

Want to know more about how to improve your child’s working memory, mental flexibility and inhibitory control? Join us at our parenting workshop!

Date: 12 Oct 2019, Saturday
Time: 3 to 5pm
Venue: Westgate, #04-09 (beside Jurong East MRT station)

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