OUR TUTORS
MATHEMATICS
MR SWAMINATHAN VENKATARAMAN
“Once I understand their mind, I will go with their mind.”
Qualifications: University of Madras Master of Education (Math), NIE Post-Graduate Diploma in Teaching
Experience: Over 35 years of teaching experience, former HOD in MOE schools
Mr. Venkataraman keeps up with times by tapping on the usage of technology in his lessons using videos and mathematical software to keep students engaged. To Mr. Venkataraman, having a strong foundation is crucial. Thus, he concentrates on keeping students involved so that they would be able to solve problems with ease. Mr. Venkataraman also prides himself in his student-centered approach where lessons are crafted according to students’ calibre, needs and wants.
MR CHUA LI QUN SHAWN
“There are many ways to solve a problem.”
Qualifications: NUS Mathematics
Experience: 2 years of teaching experience
Mr. Shawn believes that many students find Mathematics distasteful due to misunderstanding of the basic concepts behind the topics and the lack of strategies known to them. Hence. Mr. Shawn seeks to introduce different methods for the same problem to allow them to explore and discover the approach best suited for themselves. He starts off with understanding the problems that each individual students faces in each topic and then catering directly to their needs to ensure that they perform in the most efficient way possible.
MR THAM CHEE HSIANG
Thinking is a highly-valued process in Mr. Tham’s classes. Students are encouraged to ponder over challenging questions to push themselves beyond their boundaries and attain a better edge over others during examinations. Realising concepts follows the thinking process where Mr. Tham ensures that students undergo ample practice engaged in tiers, with students starting from the very basics and eventually taking on tougher questions over time.
Discussions are also a vital part during lessons as Mr. Tham believes that interaction and sharing of differing ideas within a classroom would enhance the way students learn. With an approachable and friendly disposition, Mr. Tham hopes to quell and obstacles students may face in Mathematics.
MR SAMDISH SURI
Qualifications: NUS Electrical Engineering
Experience: 4 years of teaching experience
Mr. Samdish sticks closely to the syllabus outline of his students’ schools so that his students would be able to reap benefits from both his classes and in school. Understanding that questions and standards across schools can vary, Mr. Samdish also provides ample practice in his classes so that students are able to take on any challenge they may face.
MR TAN SONG KAI
“Failure is the mother of success.”
Qualifications: NUS Chemical Engineering
Experience: 2 years of teaching experience
Understanding students is a key goal in Mr. Tan’s classes as Mr. Tan is aware that students may face obstacles when attempting to articulate or express their ideas and opnions. Hence, Mr. Tan makes it a point in his lessons to interact with students personally so as to be able to better identify issues they may face in Mathematics.
Mr. Tan also focuses on answering techniques and application skills, both of which are drilled with sufficient and adequate practice.
His passion for Mathematics is driven by his liking for challenges, from logic puzzles and competitive Math questions to sports. Similarly, in face of obstacles in school papers and questions, Mr. Tan believes that with perseverance and the right attitude, it will pay off.
MR CHRISTOPHER SIM
Qualifications: NIE BSc in Education (Hons)
Experience: 7 years of teaching experience, former school teacher
While Mathematics is a subject that requires constant practice, Mr. Sim is not an advocate for learning through repetition. Instead, he is a strong believer for the need for constant stimulus, thinking and consolidation. Hence, Mr. Sim gets his students to engage in prior knowledge and practice adequate application. Learning occurs for both the student and tutor in Mr. Sim’s opinion, where he encourages communication and welcomes feedback with open arms.
Fun-loving and jovial, Mr. Sim also hopes to pursue other careers for exposure as well as teaching overseas to further enrich himself.
MR LLOYD GOH
Qualifications: NUS Physics
Experience: 3 years of teaching experience
Mr. Lloyd Goh is sensitive to the wants and more importantly the needs of his students and tailors his lessons closely to them. Adopting a stage-based approach, Mr. Llyod shines light on the major conceptual problems and mistakes that students often face and make, and subsequently going into the strategies and heuristics involved before consolidating with examples. Apart from practice, Mr. Lloyd also advocates for discussions and interaction in his classes for holistic learning.
MR TIMOTHY GAN
“Excellent grades are not hard to achieve.”
Qualifications: Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering(Hons) at NUS
Experience: Current school teacher
Albert Einstein’s quote “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” is the bedrock of Timothy’s teaching strategy. He strongly believes that keeping explanation simple, and to involve layman terms during lessons is the most effective method to relate to his students and then to reaffirm his student’s basic mathematics knowledge. Also, Timothy will inject jokes at appropriate moments during lessons to make lessons interesting and thereby build up a good rapport with his students so that he can better attract their attention.
Through his numerous years of teaching experience, Timothy feels that the poor understanding of concepts and presence of other school commitments are two key factors that have severely hindered students from having constant practice with Mathematics questions. This acute lack of practice is usually a student’s main obstacle to obtaining better grades for Math. Everyone can excel in Mathematics, and excellent grades are not hard to achieve. What a student needs is perserverance, proper guidance and practice to succeed. Hence, he uses his lessons to first shore up his student’s foundations and conceptual understanding before moving on to more rigourous practice questions.
Timothy groups his tutorial questions accordingly to their level of difficulty so that both weak and stronger students are able to pace themselves within a same class. This arrangement provides Timothy sufficient leeway for him to tackle his student’s weaknessess individually. Group tuition provides a competitive element towards learning, which is a great motivating factor for students to strive harder and learn from one another how to avoid making common errors. Timothy believes that this provides for a much more conducive environment for learning as compared to a one to one tuition.
An avid lover of both music and basketball, Timothy welcomes students to have a leisure chat and trade pointers with him in these two categories outside of Mathematics.
MDM TAN S.S.
“Once I understand their mind, I will go with their mind.”
Qualifications: Bachelor of Science (Mathematics), National University of Singapore
Experience: More than 30 years of teaching experience, Current JC lecturer
Mdm Tan teaches students the main Mathematical concepts along with examples to illustrate the key focus points and things to take note of. She will relate real-life examples in problem solving to help students understand the beauty and practicality of Mathematics. This will be followed up with similar questions to strengthen the students’ initial understanding. She also strongly encourages students to take the initiative to ask questions during lessons in order to grasp a more concrete knowledge of what has been taught. Mdm Tan incorporates IT during lessons, if possible, to make lessons more interesting for students too.
Mdm Tan provides questions with varying levels of difficulty to better match students with their abilities and knowledge. Thus, weaker students will be given extra practice questions to firm up their foundations, whereas the stronger students will be provided with questions that require higher order of thinking. Eventually, the aim of the lessons will be to minimise the gap between these two groups of students and prepare the students in a holistic manner to tackle the eventual ‘A’ level examinations at the end of the course.
She believes that as a teacher, she should first instil the right mindset in students – that is to say, teachers are there to assist them in their learning process. Students should possess the ownership of their learning and take responsibility in doing their work, rather than just waiting for the teachers to spoon-feed answering method and techniques because they need to learn how to adapt to the ever-changing questions that they will be exposed to.
Previous students found that the pace at which Mdm Tan proceeds, coupled with her unique teaching method and explanations, were the few aspects that helped them tremendously in their preparation for the A levels examinations.