A/A* Goal in Math is More Than Hard Work
Hi Parents
In my last email, we spoke about how you can help to guide your child to set his goals right for the year by keeping it simple, creatively recorded and directed towards achieving them. As school homework starts to roll in, apply similar approach to goal setting for each subject.
Specifically in Math, achieving an A/A* is the end goal that every parent hopes to realise with the child and many think that the way towards it is through hard work, practice and drills. While these are important, they will not necessarily lead to good results (and consistently good results) because the idea of doing more for better result is only true if it is done right.
For a start, the first right effort to achieving the goals of A/A* in Math is helping your child to develop important habits in Math problem sum solving. In our last 10 years at onSponge, we have met countless students whose results improved significantly by simply fixing poor math problem sum solving habits.
First on the list of poor math problem sum solving habits -
Extracting Numbers Without Content To The Question
Generally, when working on Math, it seems natural to focus on the numbers/values, isn’t it? Now that’s where it won’t apply in problem sums because the number in itself will only be meaningful if read and understood in the context of the problem sum statement.
Known as qualitative understanding of the problem context, this requires developing the habit of thinking about the question statement instead of jumping straight to extract the numbers/values given.
Let’s look at the examples below to illustrate what we meant by qualitative understanding:

So you see, while both the above problem statements seem alike at a quick glance, they do differ hence the different mathematical interpretation as shown. For children who are not trained to think in the context of the problem statement, working with such questions tend to lead them to errors which most parents conclude as carelessness or lack of understanding of concepts.
There are more than one good habit to solving problem sums and we will be covering this at the upcoming Back-to-School parent sharing session organised jointly with our network of 10 certified tuition partner, the Oodles Learning Centres. To learn more that will help you better guide your child to a better Math score this 2018, click here for more details.

Meet you soon at the Oodles Learning Back-to-School parent sharing session!
Elsa
Co-founder onSponge
P.S Oodles Learning uses the “3 Dos To Math Language” in its curriculum and teaching approach to help our students develop one of the many core skills for them to score A/A* for Math.
Since 2012, Oodles Learning has helped thousands of students to excel in PSLE Math Exams. Currently, there are 10 centres island-wide that achieve more than 80% A/A* PSLE performers annually.
In my last email, we spoke about how you can help to guide your child to set his goals right for the year by keeping it simple, creatively recorded and directed towards achieving them. As school homework starts to roll in, apply similar approach to goal setting for each subject.
Specifically in Math, achieving an A/A* is the end goal that every parent hopes to realise with the child and many think that the way towards it is through hard work, practice and drills. While these are important, they will not necessarily lead to good results (and consistently good results) because the idea of doing more for better result is only true if it is done right.
For a start, the first right effort to achieving the goals of A/A* in Math is helping your child to develop important habits in Math problem sum solving. In our last 10 years at onSponge, we have met countless students whose results improved significantly by simply fixing poor math problem sum solving habits.
First on the list of poor math problem sum solving habits -
Extracting Numbers Without Content To The Question
Generally, when working on Math, it seems natural to focus on the numbers/values, isn’t it? Now that’s where it won’t apply in problem sums because the number in itself will only be meaningful if read and understood in the context of the problem sum statement.
Known as qualitative understanding of the problem context, this requires developing the habit of thinking about the question statement instead of jumping straight to extract the numbers/values given.
Let’s look at the examples below to illustrate what we meant by qualitative understanding:

So you see, while both the above problem statements seem alike at a quick glance, they do differ hence the different mathematical interpretation as shown. For children who are not trained to think in the context of the problem statement, working with such questions tend to lead them to errors which most parents conclude as carelessness or lack of understanding of concepts.
There are more than one good habit to solving problem sums and we will be covering this at the upcoming Back-to-School parent sharing session organised jointly with our network of 10 certified tuition partner, the Oodles Learning Centres. To learn more that will help you better guide your child to a better Math score this 2018, click here for more details.

Meet you soon at the Oodles Learning Back-to-School parent sharing session!
Elsa
Co-founder onSponge
P.S Oodles Learning uses the “3 Dos To Math Language” in its curriculum and teaching approach to help our students develop one of the many core skills for them to score A/A* for Math.
Since 2012, Oodles Learning has helped thousands of students to excel in PSLE Math Exams. Currently, there are 10 centres island-wide that achieve more than 80% A/A* PSLE performers annually.
