2012 has started and time surely moves swiftly as we move into the first weekend of the new year. How was your 2011? Has it been a great year where you have managed to fulfill all your 2011 resolution? Or has it been another year of more ‘it could have been’ and ‘if only.’ I certainly hope it was not the latter.

How about your results in your study? Did you get your desired results? I certainly hope so too. If you have not, fret not. It is not the end of the world. You might have lost a battle but you have not lost the war; just ensure that you do it better, not just any better but your very best. Give it all you have gotten and left no room for ‘it could have been’ and ‘if only.’ Life is too short for these.

One thing about study and in most things in life is that we can ‘think’ our way to good results or to get whatever we want morally. Bullshit! Yes, you are right in way, especially if we are talking about wishful thinking. Anyone can wishfully think himself/herself to good result and I can tell you right now that it will not happen. However, not everyone is willing to think to good result.

Thus, everyone can think to good result but not everyone is willing to do that. Most are just wishful thinking. You may ask me, “What do you mean by thinking to good result? Isn’t it the same as wishful thinking?” What I would like to clarify is that while you are thinking about getting good result, you are also thinking about how to get the good result and that will make all the differences.

And it is not enough to be thinking about getting good result. We will still have to take the final step – the very key step to getting there and that is to take massive action. Nothing will come through without massive action and this is the very different between thinking and wishful thinking. Without massive action, just thinking alone is just like wishful thinking.

What I can say is that there are more uses for trigonometry that we would know; “The techniques in trigonometry are used for finding relevance in navigation particularly satellite systems and astronomy, naval and aviation industries, oceanography, land surveying, and in cartography (creation of maps),” according to this article. And yet from another website, trigonometry was mentioned to be used in the measuring of heights of buildings, surveying or maybe stock market or business cycles.

In one of the examples in the above website, it was used to construct a 3 dimensional 5 pointed star. In another example from the above website, trigonometry was used to help a frustrated homeowner to correctly calculate the area of her lot.

In fact, trigonometry is also used in digital imaging in medicine. Quoting from the first article,

“The next time you go in for an advanced scanning procedure, be sure to check out how the sine and cosine functions you learn at school find a practical application is medical techniques such as CAT and MRI scanning, in detecting tumors and even in laser treatments. Whoever said studying math has only an academic value! Need other reasons to know how formulae in trigonometry make life easier for you?“

After knowing some of the uses of trigonometry, let us get back to the topic in your Form 3 Math. What do you need to know? Basically, there are 3 key points you need to know in this chapter to master it:

Tangent, Sine & Cosine: Only when we have a right-angled triangle in discussion, then we talk about these three trigonometry function. You have to remember the information relating to the picture above. Many students are confused with which is opposite and which is adjacent. Before deciding which is which, we have to fix which angle is in discussion. Once we fix the angle, as its name implies, the ‘opposite’ is opposite the angle in discussion and ‘Adjacent’ is on the same side of the angle. As for the hypotenuse, it is always the longer side. You can use mnemonic to remember the three different ratios for Tangent, Sine and Cosine. One of them, which I learned in secondary school many years back, is ‘TOA,’ ‘CAH,’ and ‘SOH,’ which mean big foot in Hokkien.

When you enter the exam hall, what is in your mind? What results do you expect you will get in this subject?

Some of you might think: “If I pass the exam, I’m happy already.”

Some might say: “Well, I just want to sustain my previous result. As long as I don’t fail.”

Or, “It will be great if I get an A2, but I think I am not going to make it.”

Or even “I have no idea. Depends on my fate.”

Guess what will a smart student think before he enters the exam hall?

“I WANT TO Get my A1, no matter how tough it is, no matter what it takes from me. I deserved to have my A1!”

In order to get an A1, the first criteria is how confident are you when you enter the exam hall. You must entertain the possibility to get an A1. Only in the right state you can have a calm mind to read the questions carefully and understand what the questions want.

Some students have the habit of asking friends around him what they have revised before entering the exam hall. Will that help you? Definitely no. Reason is when you ask around usually you will find that your friends have studied certain topics but you didn’t. Then you will start to panic. You will start to blame yourself why you forgot to study that topic. You will start to worry if the paper will come out the topic you can’t answer it. Everything becomes wrong. Your mind started to defocus. When you are in the exam hall you can’t read the questions properly. Not careful mistakes started to appear in your answer sheet.

Is that familar to you? It does not help you at all. It will only drive away your focus. You will focus on the place that you don’t want. Based on Law of Attraction, you are sending the negative energy to the universe and attract things that you don’t want. High chance it will happen in front of you.

Therefore, at least 30 minutes before the exam, you should start to prepare your mind to be in the right state for the exam. Tell yourself you are well-prepared for the exam. It does not matter how other people prepare for the exam. Walk into the exam confidently. You are thinking big. As what Anthony Robbin says, your state change your physiology. Your physiology change your energy. And your energy change your results!

True enough, my strong belief in studying hard translated directly into the good grades I had for Math, A Math, Physics and Chemistry in my O-Level examination. In fact in my A Math papers, for the first time in my life, I managed to finish it with ample time to spare to check through my papers. Even before the result was out for my A Math, I was already confident that I had gotten an ‘A’ for it.

As for my languages and humanity subject, the doubts and beliefs I had about myself translated to my not so impressive grades for both subjects. Even during my A-Level examination, I aced in my C Math and either Chemistry or Physics. As for my Further Mathematics, I only got a ‘C.’ It didn’t come as a surprise because I had not worked very hard for it and in fact I didn’t practice enough. Looking back at the efforts I put in the O-Level and A-Level exams, it is even clearer now the strong relationship between my belief in hardwork and results.

That is why in my email to the parents, I wrote, “The best gift we could give to them is the gift to first believe in their own abilities and then to take action.” It is not enough to just believe in their own abilities. The change in their results will come from the follow through action that they will be taking.

Advo’s Turbocharge! Workshop is a workshop specially engineered for children between the age of 13-17 to help the youths discover more about themselves through a journey of self reflection and exploration. One of the top training programs for kids in Singapore, this highly interactive workshop will help to open the minds of children to see themselves bigger than who they are now. Through the workshop, your children will create new empowering mindsets and beliefs about themselves. With these new empowering mindsets and beliefs about themselves, they will go on to achieve academic excellence and successes in life.

As the saying goes, “Change your mind, change your world!” When we focus on the root of the issue, we not only nib the issue at its root, we also create a long-lasting solution. The good grades will follow.

I do hope that after reading this post, you will put the date in BLOCK LETTER on a piece of paper where you can see it everyday and make your study plan. I remember asking a student previously if he knows how many topics there are altogether which he needs to prepare for PMR Math. He had no idea and most students would tell you they do not know too. There are altogether 29 Chapters from Form 1 to Form 3 and each of this chapter will appear either in Paper 1 or Paper 2. Some topics like Statistics, Graphs of Functions and Loci in Two Dimensions have been appearing in both Paper 1 and Paper 2 so far.

In fact, Topics like Statistics, Graphs of Functions and Loci in Two Dimensions are pretty easy to score especially if either your English or BM is good. However, in Math, you can make up for the poor understanding in language by practicing; the more you practice, the more you’ll see a pattern of how the questions are asked. All you need to do is to be extra careful when you are reading the questions. Are you aware of all these? And do you know that there are only 4 Loci in the Form 2 topic of Loci in Two Dimensions. All you need to know and remember are the different ways of how to describe each of the locus.

Thus, preparing for your PMR Math involves knowing little details like these, which will make it easier for you to study. What you would still need to do, especially in Math, is still to put what you know into practice. Getting an ‘A’ in Math could be this simple.

If you didn’t do well for your mid-year Math exam, you do not really need tuition. All you need to do is to find out which topics you are not doing well, clarify all the doubts with your friends or teachers, then put the new understandings into practice.

With proper planning, you can easily breeze through PMR and SPM.

In this coming holiday, Advo will be running a special Power Revision Workshops (PR) for PMR’s Math and Science and for SPM’s A Math and Physics. PR is a 6 days workshop, totaled 48 hours in all. Each session will be from 9.00am – 5.00pm.

The objective of the workshop is to cover all topics for PMR Math and Science from Form 1 to Form 3 and SPM A Math and Physics from Form 4 to Form 5 by June; meaning the students would be readied to take their PMR Math and Science and SPM A Math and Physics examination after the 6 days workshops. One thing which we notice in students today is that they lack practice and practice is key to subjects like Math and Science. With enough practice, I strongly believe that most students will be able to get much better grades if not ‘A.’

Through our coaching experience, most students have the ability to do much well in their study but either they are too lazy to practice or they have been ‘conditioned’ in such a way from school that they are bad in Math and Science. The latter is more detrimental to students as it requires a full shift in perspective.

Thus, after the PR in June, the second objective is to get the students to start practicing past year question papers as well as trial exam papers. Through practicing the papers, they would surely gain a lot more confident and start seeing Math and Science as fun and easy subjects. And most importantly, to see that they are actually good in Math and Science.

In addition to the above, when students have already mastered Math and Science, they can put in more time for their other subjects. With more time on the other subject and making use of the strategies we would be sharing with them in the workshop, I strongly believe that their results will be outstanding!

However, there are limited seats available for the workshop; we are only taking a maximum of 10 students for each subject and there is a strict selection process. We will only choose students who are 100% committed to making a different in their own results because we will be 100% committed to help them achieve the results that they truly deserve!

For an appointment for our evaluation process for your child, you can contact us now at: 016 7739363.

Kong Yew Kiin
CEO, Advocators Education
(Dream Builder)

Parenting Talk: How to Help Your Child to Excel Academically and in Life?

Date     : 2 May 2011
Time    : 7.00pm – 9.00pm (Registration starts at 6.45pm)
Venue   : No. 13A-1 Jalan J-Avenue 43200 Cheras Selangor (behind Jaya Jusco Cheras Selatan)

About the Speaker

Yew Kiin is a highly sought after Top Singapore Math Strategist and one of the invited Key Speakers for the upcoming 2011 Singapore Education Summit at the Marina Mandarin Hotel on 21, 22 May 2011.

As the CEO of Advocators Education Pte Ltd, Yew Kiin has coached and helped thousands of students achieve results both academically and in life which they truly deserve since 1999. His experience in Academic coaching as well as Lifeskills training has seen him mentoring and transforming students’ grades from F9 to A1 in their final year examinations in less than 2 months. Being a Master of Strategy Formulation and Innovation & Life Skills Trainer, he is the co-creator of the Advo^TM Success System, and is constantly innovating new strategies and tactics to solve Math problems and more importantly, to impart and duplicate this knowledge to his students, helping them “see” Math easier.

His passion in coaching has not only helped thousands of students achieved result academically but has also build a multi-million dollar company from scratch in less than 6 years. As someone who has a heart for helping people realize their dreams, he has embarked on various projects to make this a reality for individuals who have the desire but lack the know-how. As the CEO of ADVO, he leads a strong team of Academic Coaches, transforming lives and defining possibilities and at the same time bringing the smile back into LEARNING.

Why do I Want to Attend this Parenting Talk?

Reason 1: You want your child to score A in his/her exams.
Reason 2: You want to develop a closer bond with your child.
Reason 3: You want your child to be self-motivated all the time.
Reason 4: You want your child to see himself/herself bigger than who he/she is now.
Reason 5: You want to bring out your child’s passion in learning.
Reason 6: You want your child to develop into a confident person.
Reason 7: You want your child to be a BETTER student, a BETTER person.

How to Reserve Seat for the Talk?

Why is mindsetting very important? Because along the journey to your destiny you will face a lot of challenges. If you are not firm with your positive beliefs, you might fall down easily. If you are not strong with your passion, you will be hold down. If your mindset is not correct, you will tend to go to the wrong way. If you do not know where you want to go or what you are doing, you will lost in the way!

Therefore, be firm with your empowering beliefs. Be confident with your passion. Set your goals where you want to go. Even though you face challenges, you will not let it to pull you down. You know where you want to go. You will take whatever it takes to drive you to the direction that you want to go.

There are three little “brothers” inside your mind that will kill your results INSTANTLY. They are namely “complaining”, “justifying” and “blaming”. Let me introduce them one by one.

“Complaining” is the eldest brother. He always likes to give you a 1000′s of excuses that makes you feel better. When you fail the exam, he will tell you that it is not your fault. The questions are just too difficult that is out of your ability to answer. Therefore you don’t have to do anything. When you are not in the right mood to study he will tell you that let’s do something else. You are hungry, let’s go to eat. You are bored so let’s go to play. it is OK to do so as you still have months of prepartions for your O’level.

“Justifying” is the complement of “complaining”. He will further ”prove” to you what “complaining” says is true. You are suck in maths therefore it is not your fault to fail in difficult exams. Almost all students in your class fail the paper therefore it is completely fine for you to fail the paper as well. You need more fun before you can study. You need food so that you have higher energy. Usually what happen is you will spend a few hours to do all these and therefore your studying time is just wasted on doing on not important things. Studying is always not the most important thing to you as you never feel the urgency of prepartion towards your O’s.

Next is the little brother “blaming”. Blaming comes when you get something that you do not want. You blame your teachers are not good. You blame your tutors are not good. You blame you are given too little time to prepare. You blame you are given too little time to answer the questions. You even can blame your pens, your pencils or even the table and the chair that you are using not comfortable that makes you not getting your A1. Many things you can blame. Everything you blame, but never reflect back to yourself.

As what the proverb says, when you point your index finger on something, there are three fingers pointing back on you. Do not entertain these three borthers. The consequence of entertaining them are disastereous. They only have one purpose, that is to hold you back in getting your A’s by letting you to feel good and put you in your comfort zone.

Always think what you can do better. Any improvements that you can apply from your failed exams? What have you learnt from your mistakes? When similar situation are faced in the future, how can you act so that you wont repeat your mistakes?

Never compromise with your study time. Eating, playing and other not important things only do them after your study time. Study means study. There is no other reason you can skip it.

With these tips, you are 1 more step closer to the A1 category!

Chicken A La Carte is an inspiring short film by Ferdinand Dimadura, produced in 2005.

How fortunate most of us are, to have food served readily on our tables hot from the stove. And yet some of us have often taken the food for granted. We have so often reminded our young ones to be grateful for the food served to them and yet we are guilty of taking our food for granted at time.

I was once talking to a friend about not wasting food in restaurant and she shared with me a remark her friend made, “would finishing the food on the table made a difference to all the hungry people in the world?”

Her friend certainly has a point there especially when we view from her friend’s perspective. Finishing up all the food on the table would not make a difference to all the hungry people in the world and forcing all the food down would not be good for health too. What else could her friend have done? What can we have done?

Then it dawned upon me, “although it is not a good habit and bad for health to finish all the food we have ordered in the restaurant, we can order the amount of food that is within our capacities.” In other words, “do not order more than we can finish.”