2011 GCE A Level H2 Physics Results
Interview with the tutor
92% A and B for The Physics Cafe Tuition Class of 2011
Note: The statistical studies include tuition students who join The Physics Cafe Tuition Programme for at least 6 months before the A Level Exam and students who have not missed any school holiday lessons.
2011 GCE A-Level H2 Physics ResultsIs The Physics Cafe satisfied with the 2011 JC H2 Physics results of the tuition students?
Yes, because we have helped 9 out of 10 tuition students get an A or B in the examinations. We are taking in students from all the JCs in Singapore. 92 percent A/B is almost on par to results from Singapore Top IP schools like RI(JC), HCI, VJC and NJC. We will like to state that the school teachers and the students themselves have an important role to play in this achievement too. This grade will play a significant role in helping them choose the course and university they want!
What target is The Physics Cafe setting for the tuition students in the 2012 GCE A-Level Examination?
There are 2 components in our target.
- To help at least 9 out of 10 tuition students score an A or B.
- To help at least 7 out of 10 tuition students score an A.
We are confident to achieve the first component, while working hard to improve and maintain the second component. We teach by letting the students see and feel the logic behind the physics concepts in our Physics Classes. We train by adopting the Logical Problem Solving (LPS), so that nothing can go ‘too wrong’ in the exam. Achieving A or B is not a problem. To score an A in H2 Physics, it depends on what happen on the actual day and how the student is responding to ‘unexpected’ questions at that time. We are finalising on the ‘Expect the Unexpected’ package which will be released to the students before the school preliminary exam in September.
What is the national average for distinction in A-level H2 Physics?
Every year, the national average for distinction in Physics is about 30-35%. This translates to 3 out of 10 students getting the A. Assuming that all candidates pass the paper (which is not the case), we will still have a group of candidates getting the B, C, D and E. Note that 9 out of 10 students achieved 3 H2 passes in 2011.
In comparison, The Physics Cafe have 7 out of 10 students (~70%) achieving the A in 2011 which is an excellent performance. This is on par to the stellar performance for the Top IP schools. For example, about 7 out of 10 students achieve an A from RI(JC) and HCI and about 6 out of 10 students in VJC score an A in Physics.
Among the students who scored A/B in The Physics Cafe, 26 out of 28 from Raffles Institution (RIJC), 11 out of 12 HCI, 7 out of 7 River Valley High School (RVHS) and 7 out of 8 NJC students scored an A for the physics paper. We are blessed to achieve this almost perfect score!
Not forgetting that there are many students from the non-IP schools who are also very capable and performing equally well as their counterparts in the IP schools. 8 out of 8 NYJC students and 7 out of 7 AJC students in The Physics Café scored an A for Physics.
Congratulations to The Physics Cafe Tuition Class of 2011, as we look forward to another exciting journey with the class of 2012. With the support from the school teachers, parents and students, we are confident of achieving our target again.
Chef
Interview with the tutor
Tell me more about yourself
I graduated from National University of Singapore (Faculty of Engineering) with good Honours. Academic achievements include Top Student (‘O’ Level) and Dean’s List Recipient(Top 5%). I decided to switch from engineering to teaching as I am a strong advocator of building a strong foundation in education. I believe that education can make a difference and I want to make this positive difference to my students. I have been teaching Physics in Raffles Junior College (now Raffles Institution) in Singapore for about 6 years. In June 2010, I left RJC to devote my time to The Physics Cafe.
What is your motivation behind teaching?
Teaching Physics is more challenging than studying the subject itself. It’s not easy to be a good Physics teacher. Physics is an abstract subject which requires understanding and application.
In my lesson, my goal is not so much as to cover a lot and to make the students chew on a lot of equations. But my goal is to uncover several basic things that they will remember for the rest of their life. Even if they never need physics anymore, I want them to see the beauty of physics. I want them to love physics.
Have your students performed well in the past examinations?
I developed a new strategy of studying and scoring in college examinations that I did not know of when I was in college. In my lessons, I teach this strategy, the Logical Problem Solving Strategy, to my students. With this strategy, 8 out of 10 of my students (JC and tuition) scored a well deserving A for their examination. 96% of the students scored either an A or B in the 2008 GCE A-level Examinations. 100% of the IB students scored the maximum of grade 7 in the final year examinations.
In the 2009 GCE A-level Examinations,
- 95% of my RJC students scored A.
- 31 out of 44 non-RJC students (average of 70%) scored A as compared to national average of 30-40%.
- 100% of the IB students scored the maximum of grade 7 in the final year examinations.
Results of 2010 GCE A level will be released in March 2011.
Can you share your style of teaching and how can you help the students?
Many students complained that their teachers were lousy, and that the lecture notes lacked details. Ironically, there were also others that complained about the notes being too comprehensive. There were many complaints about the exam papers being too difficult and others about it being too easy. Some students felt like they tried too hard to solve a simple question.
There are things in life you may not find delightful, but the least you could do is to accept them. Regarding teachers, it is true that some are better than others. That's the way life is. Regarding the notes, different students have different preferences as to what kind of notes they hope to receive. The solution to this is to customize and write your own notes.
There are two parts to my lesson – concepts explanation and problem solving. I prefer to first go over the physics concepts and give numerical examples to support the concepts -- in a way that illustrates how to solve the problem -- and I further support the concept with live demonstration, because seeing is believing. I try to make you see through the dumb equations and admittedly my methods are sometimes somewhat different from the other teachers. I try to inspire you and at times I try to make you wonder and think. And I want to keep it this way.
The second part of my lesson is problem solving. I think that concepts explanation and problem solving are complementary. The difference between the two is that I will take 80% of the responsibility to ensure that you understand the concepts, but you must take 80% of the responsibility to master problem solving. How do you do it? You must digest the extra questions that I will be giving you. It's very important that you make homework part of your culture, that you study the solutions. Believe me, they are truly excellent solutions, not cookie-cut and dry. They give you a lot of background. If you digest those solutions, then the concepts will sink in.
How do you know if you are improving? How do you know if you are on the right track? I will test you! You will have a 30 minutes short test after every 3 to 4 topics. You will soon realise that for all the hard work you and your teachers put in, you have only 30 minutes to perform. You will learn how to perform under stress, under exam conditions. Most importantly, I will make sure you improve. When I give my test review, I will highlight the concepts. You will discover your weakness and improve. Eventually you will realise that every problem I have given you is extremely simple. Conceptually, they were not so simple. But from a math point of view, they are trivial. I have made it sound so easy, but when you are trying to do it, it’s going to be crazy. However you are not alone. The initial phase is always difficult, but the path will get smoother gradually, sooner than you can realise.
What is your motivation for setting up the Physics Café?
My main objective of setting up the Physics Café is to share a strategy which I have developed from my experience both as a student and as an educator. I have named this strategy the Logical Problem Solving Strategy or LPS in short.
Through this website, I will reveal the secret on how to solve questions the way they are set. In addition I will also share my strategy to adopt a logical approach to solving Physics questions. An overview of every chapter will be shared in this website.
I will consider myself successful if all my JC and tuition students score an A or a B in the final examination. I am confident that this is attainable if each and every one of them believes in the complement of tuition/college lessons and independent self-study. The rule of thumb is:
"For every 1 hour lesson he attends, he should spend 1 hour at home for self study."
I believe that this is reasonable since the teachers spend at least 6 hours to prepare for an hour of lecture.
Recipe
Teaching Methodology
How did you develop the recipe of Logical Problem Solving?
"I remember the visual image of every page of my notes (about 30 pages for the whole ‘A’ Level Physics syllabus. Since then, all examinations are ‘ Open-Book’ to me. Imagine me flipping pages of my summarized notes in my head! Yes! That’s what I do."
Mr Sim (Physics Tutor)
Can you guide me in writing my own notes?
The notes we are going to prepare should be organized in a way to help you at a time when you need it most and that’s during the examinations!"
Mr Sim (Physics Tutor)
How are your notes going to help a student do well in the examinations?
"... when you practise, you will be able to understand the types of questions that will be asked. ....experiment with different approaches to solve the same question... the most efficient and effective approach. That’s learning. Through the entire process, you will better understand the concepts involved. In other words, you will discover a ‘system’ to solve questions of different concepts. You will write your own notes, formulate your own ‘system’ "
Mr Sim (Physics Tutor)
Are you encouraging students to just follow a set of procedures instead of using a more intuitive approach to solve questions?
"You are not going to practise during the exam itself! In the exam, you are required to show what you have learnt and how you can apply what you have learnt. It’s obvious, the exam takes a maximum of 3 hours, but you are going to take 20 months to learn and master the content."
Mr Sim (Physics Tutor)
Does that mean that anyone who has your notes will be able to score an A in 'A' level?
"An ‘A’ grade student behaves differently. He looks at your system, understands the principle behind the system, tests the system on different questions, and fine-tunes the system to cover a wider scope of questions. He will first accept and then improve."
Mr Sim (Physics Tutor)
Assuming a student has written his own notes, will there be a possibility that there will be an unfamiliar question which he cannot answer in the examinations?
"It may be abstract but definitely not unfamiliar unless it is out of the syllabus. When this happens, it’s actually a SIGNAL for him to SKIP the question first."
Mr Sim (Physics Tutor)
I feel that the main problem for a student is the initial part, prior to writing his own notes. What if he does not even understand the concepts in the topic?
"Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." With a SYSTEM, you can now do the impossible."
Mr Sim (Physics Tutor)
Can we use LPS in other ‘A’ Level subjects besides Physics?
"To come up with a system requires time, experience and most importantly, deeper understanding of the concepts in the subject. It’s not easy, but it’s going to be useful.
Mr Sim (Physics Tutor)




