Secret Confessions of a Private Tutor

Just like the title has implied, I have some confessions to make.

I started giving tuition since my A levels, 2008. But I started coaching my juniors on Maths with my previous math teacher just after I graduated from secondary school. But after A levels, I officially started my 'business', and never stopped ever since.

So I could say I got quite a wealth of experience. Not a lot, but desirable.

I had a few kids in Woodlands when I used to stay there, but because my dad wanted to move, I dropped all of them and moved over. At Pasir Ris, I finally got this Sec 3 female student who lives near my house. I had her for almost 1 year 4 months now. Time flies. I taught her from Sec 3 till now. And now, she's heading towards her O levels.

Only lately, I got two more students because I need to increase my 'income' and also to live a better last uni year. It's April now, and many of them are going to take their mid year examinations, like them, I am also very concerned.

The first tutee I got at Pasir Ris has been pleasant to teach. She is a darling, but sometimes can be a bit lazy. She did well for her Sec 3 mid year exams, but unfortunately fall way below our expectations at the end of the year. Almost every single one of her subjects failed. Horror! She might be highly distracted by her school activities and partly, i didn't keep an close eye on her enough (due to my demanding internship).

Nonetheless, it is not about pursuing the faults, but making sure that she rises up to her original standards again. The start of this year has been a tough one. I tried very hard to be very observant of her. Her restlessness, laziness, distracted-ness, all I could tell at a glance. Also, trying to pinpoint all the deepest causes of her carelessness and mistakes.

The common tests that had just passed. She did rather well - mostly a 70 percentile. And during our last lesson together, she told me that she wanted to not just pass her papers, but to go beyond that. I am so glad when I heard of such determination coming out of her. She used to fail every single maths and science papers she took, and now that she has passed them, she told me that she wanted to ACE them!

Her determination spurred me on too. I wanted to help her get to her goals. I really want to. Earlier, I asked her to do every single questions on the TYS and guess what? She really started on it and also handed me a pile of them for marking. A lot to mark, a lot of work, yes, but I am really happy marking them, writing notes for her to take caution of. I am a happy tutor.

For the next few weeks, I am going to try my best to help her and motivate her, so that she will do well in her mid-year. If you also happened to be a tutor, share your tips with me too! :D

On a side note, pressure as a tutor can never be neglected. It is so stressed when all eyes are on you and you have to deliver the results. But seriously, for all the effort that I have put in, if your daughter still can get the results you want, you can just shoot me.

A lot of stuff in sciences have to be memorised and understood. I have helped you understood, and now its your turn to memorise. If you can't memorise everything, you can't blame me. I went as far as coming out with acronyms to help you memorise and testing you if you remembered. Seriously. I tried.

It's sad but hey, it's life.

Sometimes, I do self checks. I reflect on my own performance and find places where I can improve on. In fact, during the sessions, I am also learning, learning how to teach you better, how to better my explanation skills, every second, every minute, I learn.

So student, let's do our best and get this exams out of our way. You happy, I happy.

We help each other yea?

Bright and Shine! ^^

Its Sunday and 8.34am and I am awake! Amazing it is.

I woke up real early yesterday and didn't take afternoon nap at all. So I decided to go to bed early to rest. Yesterday was a cool day, so I guess today will be the same?

I realised that i didn't do much these few days, perhaps it's because i did too much for the past few days. I took a rest, yes, i deserve it. Let's not be guilty Irene. You need a rest. Real work shall start today? Maybe.

I feel so proud of myself now, my room is clean and the air is fresh. Ready for the final exams battle! It was in such a mess due to my negligence previously. :)

So an update on my To-Dos: editing and revision. I always like to write down to-dos somewhere (on multiple places in fact) for my own reference and tracking, just a habit of mine. Ignore this paragraph if you are not interested.


Yay! A lil update on my past activities. Went MFW for Nat's debut, and the trip was awesome despite being so shagged after all the work. :)







So yea! That's about it. Really looking forward to the next few weeks. It's going to be interesting.

I am back!

It's been a while really. The last post was written a day after my 19th birthday, 2 years ago!

For the past few years, i have been busy with being active on social media, internship and other useless stuff. Recently, one of my modules require my group to do up a blog post for our articles, so I went back to check up my blogspot account and saw my blog.

When i was reading through my past posts, I laughed at my childishness, ignorance and emo-ness. I WAS so YOUNG, then. But its interesting.

Look at my blog design. So passe! Haha! I changed the background and header to a much simpler one for the moment. Still wondering what design I want to adopt for the new me. :)

Hence, I decided to write something. I have a lot to say, a lot to feel, but just didn't know where to express properly. Ranting on twitter is effortless yes, but ain't effective in relieving myself.

So here I am, back. But should I continue blogging?