Difficult SPM Chemistry Paper 2?

I just came back from meeting in Mentakab.

In the meeting we were told that many students were lost while answering the Chemistry 2 paper in the exams hall last week.

The reason given was the questions in the paper were difficult and out of normal Q and A.

In fact I have seen the paper. The questions are not difficult. I dare say that it's easy. The standard has lowered than what I had expected.

I got no worry that my students will score good grades because the passing mark will be lowered by someone who hold power.

The paper needs thinking skills ,understanding and applications of knowledge.

The scenario in the schools and tuitions is to impart memorisation of knowlegde without emphasis on skills.

We are one of the unlucky students trained by them.

We don't think out of box.

So change our attitudes in study in order to get good grades in exams.

Shopping in Beijing

In Beijing we went to a shopping mall named Ya Shiu market.

The market is selling all sorts of daily necessities like clothes,shoes,mobile phones,cameras ,travelling bags and others.

All the stuff are cheap and attractive in terms of pricing and quality.

It has many stalls manned by young girls and boys.

I notice they are very well-versed in business skills to woo customers to buy.

They are fluent in different national languages like Bahasa Melaysia, Russia, Turkey ......

They are able to make communications interesting to allow customers to bargain.

I bought a mobile phone bargained from RBM850 to RMB340.

My friend bought a warm clothing bargained from RMB18000 to RMB2000

A pair of shoes bargained from RMB750 to RMB70

I am sure you will love to shop there.

tang hu lu

In Beijing I came to know about "tang hu lu" on road side hawker.

Tang hu lu is actually made from fruits.

The fruits are arranged like our satay here.

Instead of meat they use fruits like oranges, peach etc.

Then they dip the fruits into sugar syrup.

It's sweet and tasty.

It costs me about 50 cents per stick.

It's my first taste of tang hu lu.

I like it.

Teaching Method

Thank you to respond to my survey on the best method of teaching in our class.

The outcomes are

1. 80% prefer Q and A and

2. 20% prefer mind-mapping.

Freezing Cold Beijing

Just come back from Beijing tour.

It was cold and freezing. -8 degrees.

Beijing is really historical.

The snow....

The Great walls...

.................................

2009 UPSR results

The education ministry’s first Aptitude Test for Year Six students during their UPSR exams has shown that only 5.7 per cent (29,084 students) out of 509,885 pupils are skilled at problem solving and decision making, and only 34.34 per cent (175,101) in skilled thinking.
Education Director-General Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said today that this indicated that the children needed more training on problem-solving and decision-making.

We need to take this report as a lesson for us to prepare ahead for our future training in the universities.

We can't afford to lose sight of skills in problem solving and skilled thinking.

Lets discard the habits of waiting for soalan bocor during examinations.

It destroys us.

All As in exams

4 days to go for the year end school holidays.

Absenteeism is high in my school.

So no lessons are conducted.

I have more time to do preparations for my teaching next year.

I have just analysed my lower 6 students performance in my final year exams.

They have 100% passes.

They are good SPM students.

Many of them have 1A in chemistry.

Six of them from SMKSR.

Two from Mahmud

and 1 from Lipis.

So I have high expectations of them scoring good results in STPM chemistry next year.

My targeted results is all As.

I told them this morning that they need to have habits of asking and note making.

By asking we can clear all problems in study.

By making note we are doing revision.

Chinese says: wen gu zhi xin