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.

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!

Music by Pasquale Catalano “Cuore Di Sabbia” and Images by Monica Sheehan

As from the video:

1. Be Happy – People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be. – Abraham Lincoln

2. Show up

3. Follow your heart – There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart … pursue those. – Author Unknown

4. Find a new perspective

5. Have a sense of wonder – There are two ways to live your life – one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle. – Albert Einstein

6. Find people you love … and I would say loving all the people around us regardless of whether we know them in person or not.

7. Set Goals – Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives. – Viktor E. Frankl

8. Help others – If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them. – Dalai Lama

9. Dance – Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass … It’s about learning to dance in the rain. – Vivian Greene

10. Pamper yourself …

11. Face your fears … – Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

12. Go to a museum

13. Exercise – It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. – Mahatma Gandhi. Besides exercising, we do have to focus on eating healthy too; most health issues are directly related to the food we are putting in our mouths.

14. Limit Television

15. Get in touch with Nature

16. Lighten up

17. Get a good night’s sleep

18. Read books

19. Buy yourself flowers

20. Don’t compare yourself with others – Each of us is unique and special in our own way; do not seek to be like others and do not afraid to be different.

21. Don’t beat yourself up – Loving others start from first learning to love ourselves.

22. Be open to new ideas

23. Don’t focus on negative thought

24. … Focus on creating what you desire

25. Make time just to have fun

26. Keep the romance in your life

27. Make a Gratitude list

28. Love Your Mother Earth

29. Want what you have – Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get. – Ingrid Bergman

If life is like a book we received at birth, how are we writing each chapter? Our parents had already helped to write the introductions for us and now it is up to us to complete the rest of the chapters in the book.

Is the book going to be one that grabs the readers’ attention and keeps them going from one chapter to another? Or is it going to be one the readers will put down after reading the first chapter and know exactly what they can expect in the following chapters or even the conclusion?

Whatever it is, it is up to us what we want to write in the book. And since we are stuck with the writing, why not make it an exciting one – starting from today! We cannot erase what had already be written, but we sure can start writing the most exciting and colourful story from today.

How our stories will turn out depend on the choices we are making each day. From a past training I went to previously, the trainer was telling us not to look at the current status in our lives and decide that are how we would be in the future. He stated that our current status in life are the reflection of the choices we had made in the past. So if we are unhappy about our current status in life, we have to start making different choices now.

Just as what Albert Einstein said, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If we change our choices, we can hope to create a new future.

Life has always been about making choices. Even if we refuse to make any choice, it is still a choice we made in not making any choice. There are times we may feel that we are not in control of how some situations are turning out and yes we cannot always control what goes on outside. But we do have the power to control what goes on inside us. Tap on that power inside us to make the choice.

And yet, it is exciting to get out of bed. I would love a cup of hot chocolate to start the rainy day, watching the raindrops falling from the sky, the ripples they create when they fall into a pool of water, the sound of the raindrops beating against the window and last but not least, the freshness and sweetness in the air.

For me, it has been the most exciting 4 months and with a lot of changes. What I observed or experienced was a challenge would follow every change. At first the challenge would appear insurmountable and that is because we do not have the capability yet to overcome it. Or rather, what I will say is, “We thought we do not have the capability to overcome it.” However, the truth of the matter is, “We will not be given a challenge too big for us!” This is what I believe and this is what I use to remind myself constantly.

Just as we might continue to focus on the challenge and some will view it as problem; we must remind ourselves to focus on finding the solution. We may not have direct control to the challenge, but we always have the Power to choose what we want to focus on. Use that Power which is given to you and which cost you nothing. Because frankly speaking, if we do not use that Power given to us, someone else would be using the Power given to him/her to choose for us. Just as the quotation from the movie The Astronaut Farmer, “You better know what you want to do before somebody know it for you.” So we better start using that Power given to us before somebody use his/hers on us.

And finally after we overcome the challenge, we grow. With every challenge, there is a great potential for us to grow and to become a better person. Not only that, we are automatically ready for bigger changes and challenges in life. This simple reason of growth makes change ever exciting for me!

What we really must do is Embracing Changes and Challenges and this journey call life will surely be an exciting and memorable one!

This is very applicable to our daily life; we can always question ourselves, “Are we giving our best shot?” This is especially true when things are not going the way that we wanted to. Another great point from the short clip is

“Your attitude is the aroma of your heart. If your attitude stinks, it means your heart’s not right.“

Wishing all of you a POWER weekend!

I believe that most of us have read the words below in one way or another; either you have read it through an email from your friends or you may have read from somewhere else. However, how many of us have actually stopped, really thought and taken a moment to reflect on what were shared in these words. These words were attributed to Erma Bombeck who achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described suburban home life humorously from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. Bombeck also published 15 books, most of which became best-sellers.

Lets take a moment to imagine our life is already at its end but we are given another chance to have our life to live over again starting today. How would we live it differently?

If I had my Life to Live Over by Erma Bombeck

If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the ‘good’ living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television – and more while watching life.
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren’t there for the day.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn’t show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I’d have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, “Later. Now go get washed up for dinner.”

There would have been more “I love you’s”.. More “I’m sorrys” …

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute… look at it and really see it … live it…and never give it back.

Advo Malaysia Education experienced the first blackout this morning; it was around 8+ when it happened. Little did I know that it was a blessing in disguise.

It slowly dawned upon me that it could just be a power trip. The next thing which came to my mind was, “Where’s the main power switch box?” To that, I said to myself, “I don’t remember seeing one around in the office and I didn’t bother to look around; not a very wise move. I went searching for the main power switch box to check if there was a power trip.

Couldn’t find it, I decided to lock the door and went for my breakfast. So you see, a ‘blackout’ in the morning isn’t such a bad thing. At least it was a good reason to go for breakfast.

After the breakfast, I decided to take plan B and head to my associate’s place to do some works. I packed my things and headed to the ground floor to wait for my associate to pick me up. While waiting, my neighbour turned up for work and I walked over to her to check if her office was experiencing a blackout too. To my surprise, her office turned out to be fine. Then I realised the problem could really be due to my office and not the whole building; businesses are going on as usual everywhere else.

Heading back to my office and more determine as ever to find the main power switch box and to my surprise, I suddenly remembered seeing it in one of the rooms. Thus I went straight into the room and guess what? Nothing to be surprised, the main power switch box was right there all along. Upon checking, I saw one of the switches tripped. I turned it ‘on.’

Since there was a power trip, then there must be something wrong with the power circuit in the office. I switched off the office light switch and the other power switch to the printers when the ‘blackout’ happened. After restoring the tripped switch in the main power switch box, the immediate thought was to restore light to the reception area and office too.

I turned on the switch to the office light and immediately there was a power trip again. Light bulb flashing in my head! So that was the culprit! For confirmation, I switched on the light for the staircase leading to the ground floor and there wasn’t any problem. Then I walked into the office and turned on the switch for the printers; the printers jumped to live. Jackpot!

In retrospect, I have learnt that even in times like this, we could choose to focus on the blessings that came with it.

Blessing 1: The ‘blackout’ could have happened at night and I would have been in total darkness.

Blessing 2, At least I know now the location of the main power switch box and this is where I’ll be heading straight first when there is another ‘blackout’ in the future.

Blessing 3: A few days back the lighting in the office burned and we thought it was the usual end of life for the fluorescent light and the starters. We didn’t think there was something wrong with the connection in the bracket or the circuit for the fluorescent light. We are getting it check out now.

How many of us had been through similar situation like this? How did you handle it? Were you as upset and disturbed too? I believe that most of us had been through similar situation at one point or another. As much as we do not want to, there will be times when the words of others will make us doubt ourselves; doubting if we can really achieve what we set in our mind to achieve, doubting if we are good enough, and to the extend of believing in what the others are saying.

The night when she was relating her experience with me, she asked me to share my feeling about the incidence she had that day. I told her, “I have just one thing to share with her.” I heard Abraham Lincoln speaking to me and I shared one of his many quotations with her. “I am not bothered by what others say about me as long as I know they do not speak the truth of me.”

Such simple truth and yet it could be hard to grasp at time. I have shared this quotation with family and friends who were caught in similar situation like the girl countless times. Every time I shared it, it also served as a gentle reminder to myself. We cannot always control what others are saying but we can always control or rather choose how we want to feel or react to what others are saying. They have the right to speak their mind but we have every reason to guard our mind against any negativity. The mind is our single most valuable asset. Empowering ourselves, especially our mind is very important.

You may ask me, “What if they are speaking the truth of me?” I would be glad if others point out my ‘blind spots.’ It would give me an opportunity to reflect upon them and to change if there is a need to. This gives us a chance to improve ourselves and to be a better being.