O Level Chemistry
A compulsory science subject for all students, O Level Chemistry requires students to have a strong understanding of scientific knowledge, good time management, critical analytic skills and precise answering techniques.
A compulsory science subject for all students, O Level Chemistry requires students to have a strong understanding of scientific knowledge, good time management, critical analytic skills and precise answering techniques.
IN-DEPTH UNDERSTANDING & INTEGRATION
Concepts between Chemistry chapters are often related, and students are required to link several concepts across different topics to answer questions. For instance, Acids, Bases and Salts is often tested together with Metals and Qualitative Analysis. Unfortunately, most students do not possess the required level of mastery and many fall back to the conventional route of trying to memorise content. This often results in misconceptions that snowball into other chapters, affecting the student’s ability to grasp the full concept and thus unable to effectively apply into examination questions. The key foundational topics that every student should master include the following:
CONSISTENT PRACTICE AND EXPOSURE TO APPLICATION QUESTIONS
Most students spend too much time studying and too little time practicing. While remembering contents and facts are crucial, the ability to analyse questions and a proper thought process are what gets students the grades. However, when faced with overwhelming amount of content, students prioritise their time in trying to remember facts, and end up with insufficient time to acquire skills and techniques to tackle exam-grade questions.
CONSTANT REVIEW AND FEEDBACK FROM TEACHERS / TUTORS
Doing well in Chemistry requires different skill set, such as precision of keywords in explanation questions, the use of correct method for calculation questions, and proper presentation of answers. Often, students write lengthy answers but are not hitting what the examiners are looking for. As such, constant review and feedback from teachers / tutors are valuable to pin point the weakness of students and to provide guidance on how the students can improve before the next exams.
A structured and concrete approach to Ace O Level Chemistry
A critical thinking framework put together by top experienced O Level Chemistry tutors. With over 7000 students under our belt, and 97% of students improving by at least 2 grades, scoring distinction for Chemistry is a formula comprising of the right guidance from teachers and commitment from students.
Application-Based Teaching To Strengthen Concepts
Students often adopt the PUMP strategy when studying:
However, this process requires a long period of time in order for it to be successful. Here at Making Sense, tutors blend teaching with application, not only teaching students syllabus content but also explaining how examiners set questions. By breaking down this complex concept, students are trained to better analyse question types and develop a proper thought process. Adopting this teaching method allows students to better understand concepts and be able to produce concise answers suited to the requirements of different question types.
Comprehensive Chemistry Resources
We strive to develop top-quality teaching materials that are perhaps more comprehensive than the top schools. Every year, we invest a huge amount of time into reviewing and enhancing our materials. Questions selected are hand-picked from various schools all around Singapore, exposing our students to different question types with varying levels of difficulty. Materials provided include:
Most students can easily score an ‘A’ in their O Level Chemistry examinations just using our materials.
Exposure To Higher-Order Thinking O-Level Chemistry Questions
By exposing our students to higher-order thinking questions, our tutors are able to engage in multiple brainstorming sessions, hold intense discussions and review tons of examination scripts to scout for the latest trends to popular questions. Resources that are designed for IP schools are also brought forward to our O Level students, giving them a more in-depth understanding of the chemistry concepts taught in class.With the strong belief of “The more students get stuck in our tuition class, the less they will get stuck in exams”, we believe that exposing our students to challenging questions in class will allow them to improve in a short period of time and be able to answer future examination with ease.
Key Focus On Exam Skills And Answering Technique
In every chapter, there is always a fixed set of standard questions that are commonly tested. No matter how hardworking a student may be, if keywords are not present in the answer, the possibility of scoring Distinction is lowered significantly. At Making Sense, our tutors coach our students to adopt a step-by-step analysis of different question types, helping them to develop a proper thought process before answering. This will also allow students to identify keywords and common mistakes made during examination. With 80% of curriculum time spent on higher-order thinking questions, students are trained to apply concepts in unfamiliar contexts. This will also stretch their thinking as they are more flexible in application and reinforces their understanding of concepts.
Have The Peace of Mind. You Are Working With The Best in The Industry
As featured in Channel NewsAsia and The Straits Times, thousands of O Level and IP Chemistry students have secured their Distinction with us. Making Sense is habitually associated as the nation’s leading O Level and IP Chemistry tuition specialist. With lessons ranging from Sec 3 to JC 2, parents and students alike are confident that we have everything well-planned for them. Our teaching methodology has proven to be successful as supported by our high Distinction rates.
With more than 7 years of tutoring experience under his belt, Mr. Leong has much to share with his students. Understanding that many students may not use Chemistry in their future, he constantly ponders about how he can value add to his students as a partner in education. As the saying goes “give a man a fish, you will feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you will feed him for a lifetime”. One of Mr. Leong’s guiding teaching principles is to teach students how to learn. Undoubtedly, learning is now a necessary life skill. Not just only knowledge, Mr. Leong aims to demonstrate how the vital skillsets in Chemistry (such as comparison, inference, critical thinking, problem solving, analysis) can be applied to their future education, training students to be independent lifelong learners.
Mr. Leong’s lessons are often touted by students to be fast paced yet clear and concise. From the likes of common careless mistakes students make (so you will not make them) to tips and tricks up his sleeves to maximise score in exams, students will always exit the classroom feeling that they have absorbed knowledge that they did not pick up in school. Why not give yourself (or your child) a chance to experience a different kind of learning today?
H2 chemistry is by far – the heaviest content subject at the H2 level and its way more than just memorising and regurgitating (this isn’t bio; sorry bio students🤕)I want my students to love chemistry as much as I do – not study chemistry for the sake of good grades but study chemistry for the love of it.
When I teach, I’m bursting full of enthusiasm and passion for chemistry; my students see it and they absolutely adore it, in fact, most of them look forward to tuition! My classes are unlike any other you will ever experience outside of making sense, we keep things chill when possible, and serious when the going gets tough.
Topping it all off, I’m approachable! And my students love to stay back to ask questions and we often have small talk sessions about life 😉 let’s destroy chemistry together! Shall we? 🤓
It may come as a surprise to you but Chemistry at GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels is a content subject and there is really a lot of information to absorb. Students often struggle to take in all these information.
The secret to doing well in Chemistry? Hard work and understanding! Through my many years of teaching experience, I have developed a teaching methodology that emphasises these two key factors and the students I taught have all benefitted greatly from such a style of teaching.
On a personal level, my students would all agree that I am a dedicated and patient tutor who goes the extra mile to ensure each one of them completes the learning journey together, no matter how tough it is!
So look no further and join us at Making Sense to see Chemistry in a different light!
“Chemistry is tough, but YOU are tougher!”
Hamza Yuksel is an all-around Chemistry tutor and lecturer with 12 years of teaching experience. A former lecturer at PSB Academy and Furen International School, Hamza is capable of answering the needs of students from a spectrum of abilities. He holds a M.Sc in Medicinal Chemistry and B.Sc degree in Chemistry from NUS. He is also an avid Chemistry Olympiad enthusiast and he has trained students at Dunman High School, Catholic JC and Anderson-Serangoon JC. Students enjoy his personal touch and his dedication to go the extra mile for students.
Many students have their own unique way of processing knowledge. Equipped with a multitude of approaches, Mr. See ensures that every student will discover their most effective learning process. He is a strong believer in bringing insightful demonstrations and simulations that spice up lessons as many of us learn better with visual aids.
Mr. See believes that developing interest is the key to mastering the subject. He is focused on equipping students with solid concepts and explanations, topped with effective answering techniques to deal with the wide range of questions in exams.
Under the guidance of Mr. See, many students achieved academic distinctions and moved on to pursue great academic results beyond ‘O’ Levels.
Favorite Phrase: “Do not just learn how to get it right, learn how to never get it wrong.”
Miss Huang enjoys creating mnemonics, analogies and doing active recall learning to help students understand and memorize concepts.
She understands that students have it rough, there’s schoolwork, revision of multiple subjects while trying to take care of their own mental well-being at the same time. It is extremely overwhelming, and students tend to run out of steam in this long, arduous journey. Hence, Miss Huang always tries to keep the lessons engaging and contents digestible while ensuring that it is challenging enough for the students.
Students enjoy Miss Huang’s teaching as well as her sunshine personality. She is willing to go the extra mile just to give students the support that they require.
Miss Huang enjoys a particular quote from Dawson Trotman “The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started”!
We are here to extend our helping hand, so get started today with the amazing team at Making Sense and trust us, you will never look back!
With a passion for guiding students, Miss Ana places great emphasis on teaching students how to love Chemistry and Biology. Understanding the difficulties weaker students face, she strives to dissect concepts into bite-sized pieces to provide a beginning for learning to blossom. Being patient and thorough with explanations, she aims to push students to their maximum potential. Miss Ana is friendly and approachable, making it easy for students to raise questions for tailored explanations to satisfy their curiosity and enhance learning.
Armed with 13 years of teaching experience at 3 MOE secondary schools and as a former head of department, Mr Tang has rich experience in interacting, guiding and mentoring young minds. His students achieved high distinction rates in GCE O & N levels and improved beyond their expected grades based on their PSLE results. Mr Tang has also adopted leadership positions in Info-Communication & Technology, thus he is adept at harnessing technology to facilitate teaching and learning in the classroom and more importantly, this makes learning more engaging in his lessons.
While Mr Tang agrees that Chemistry is a subject with many abstract concepts which many students have difficulty grasping, he feels that learning Chemistry can be easy if students are able to understand concepts fundamentally. He makes learning Chemistry fun and easy by using daily applications in life and drawing simple analogies in his lessons. By making learning Chemistry fun, he effectively removes the inertia and fear in learning the subject. Mr Tang also believes that having strong rapport and communication with the students is a key approach to building motivation and interest in the subject. A good teacher is one who understands his students well and can help students cope with their learning needs and difficulties. Mr Tang enjoys the interaction with his students and inspires students to learn beyond their academic subjects.
Joining Making Sense is easily one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I was blown away in that one lesson by the ease in which you helped us to realise concepts, link topics together and remember things. I think it’s safe to say that if you lectured in a school, no one would be skipping lectures ever again.
The teaching approach here focuses on higher-level thinking by challenging us with application questions which helped me to improve my results. Within a term, I was able to improve from failing to topping the class!