UNDERSTANDING HEAT AND HOW TO ACE SCIENCE TEST – HEAT

What is this topic:

Ans: Heat Expansion

Explain how this happens:

In the day, it is hotter, the surrounding temperature is higher. Since metal is a good conductor of heat, the heat will cause the metal tracks to expand. The gaps are constructed to allow for expansion during the day to prevent buckling of the tracks and causing the train to derail.

Different Materials Used for Different Parts of Cooking Pot

What is this topic:

Ans: Heat Conductors

Explain how this happens:

For cooking pot, heat is required to be conducted from the flame to the base of the pot fast in order to cook the contents in the pot, thus using material like iron, copper etc which are good conductors of heat is preferred. 

As for the handle, since our hands will touch it often and in order not to scald our hands, using material like plastic or wood will be ideal as these materials are bad conductors of heat / insulators and they will conduct heat slower from the pot to the handle and our hand will not be scalded.

What is this topic:

Ans: Heat Travels from Hotter Place to a Colder Place

Explain how this happens:

Iron rod is a good conductor of heat. As the candle is heating the iron rod at one side, the heat will travel along the iron rod from a hotter place to a colder place. Since Thumbtacks  P is nearer to the candle, the wax at P will melt first causing Thumbtacks P to drop first.

Understanding Condensation And How to Ace Science Test – Condensation

Water Droplets On the Outer Surface of Cold Bottle

What is this process:

Ans: Condensation

Explain how this happens:

The warmer water vapour in the surrounding air touches the cooler outer surface of the cold bottle and loses heat to condense into water droplets.

Water Droplets on the underside of the Lid

What is this process:

Ans: Condensation

Explain how this happens:

The warmer water vapour/ steam from the hot content in the pot touches the cooler underside surface of the pot lid and loses heat to condense into water droplets.

Water droplets found on the outer surface of the car window

What is this process:

Ans: Condensation

Explain how this happens:

The warmer water vapour in the surrounding air touches the cooler outer surface of the car window and loses heat to condense into water droplets.

Mist formed Above Pot During Cooking

What is this process:

Ans: Condensation

Explain how this happens:

The warmer water vapour/ steam from the hot content in the pot touches the cooler surrounding air and loses heat to condense into tiny water droplets called mist.

Cloud forming in the Sky

What is this process:

Ans: Condensation

Explain how this happens:

The warmer water vapour rises and touches the cooler surrounding air in the sky and loses heat to condense into tiny water droplets called cloud.

8 Tips to Ace That Oral Test

How many of you would like to score high in Oral Test? I bet all of you would, isn’t it?

Attaining outstanding results from the biannual oral examinations is possible if you learn and stick to the following constructive tips:

1) Smile and Greet the Examiner

Be polite. Give your Examiner the most brilliant smile and greet him/her. By doing so, you are highly likely to secure an impressive first impression. You may practice this at home by checking your smile in the mirror, do this a few times and you will improve and who knows you can master the ‘smile with your eyes’ look and stand out among your classmates and leave an everlasting impression on your examiner.

2) Sit Up Straight 

After greeting the examiner, you will be asked to take a seat. Now sit up straight, do not slouch, you do not want to appear to your examiner that there is no energy flowing in you nor do you want to give your examiner an impression that you are bored or unmotivated. Next, do not sit or rock your chair on two legs because you do not want to look like a fool should you lose your balance and fall.

3) Read Aloud in a Lively Tone

When reading the passage, read aloud so that your examiner does not have to strain his/her ears to ear your mumbling. Do not read in a mono-tone and should you do this,you can easily drive your examiner to boredom within seconds, so READ IN A LIVELY TONE! It will be better if you can have the appropriate expressions on your face which can definitely engage your examiner to enjoy listening to your reading and grant you with high scores.

4) Pronounce and Emphasize lightly words ending with ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘s’, ‘k’

Oral exam is test on your pronunciation thus it is important to pronounce clearly each and every word and by doing so, you are required to emphasize the ending of every words. For instance, students tend to read the word ‘baskets’ without the ‘s’ and the word ‘appeared’ without the ‘ed’. Practice reading aloud whenever you chance upon any passages. With practices, you will soon master pronouncing every single word and it will come out from your mouth automatically.

5) Slight Pause at Every Comma and Full Stop

The purpose of commas and full stops is to break up sentences. Likewise, when we read, we need to give a slight pause for every comma and full stop, otherwise, it would be rather difficult to understand the passage should you read the passage without any pauses.

6) Different Tone for Dialogues

When there is dialogues in the oral passage, give a different tone from the normal tone you read the passage.

For example, <The old man said feebly “Can you give me some food, I’ve not eaten for three days“> Portray the tone of an old man by reading the dialogue in a slow, weak and low tone

Another example, <The lady complained loudly “Your service is very lousy!“> This time round the tone for this dialogue should be in high, slightly louder and in a frustrated tone.

Should you be able to read in the appropriate tones for different dialogues, the examiner will find your oral reading entertaining.

7) Attempt to Pronounce Difficult Words

If you chance upon words that you do not know how to pronounce, break the word up and try to pronounce with confident. Do NOT Pause at the word and wait for the examiner to help you! Sometimes, the examiner does not even realize that you have difficulty reading that word because their concentration span decreases after listening repeatedly to so many students reading the same passage over and over again.

8) Thank the Examiner

Lastly, towards the end of the oral examination and before you stand up to leave, remember to thank the examiner. Once again, be polite, smile brightly. Leave the examiner your best everlasting impression.

By adhering to the above 8 tips, you are not far from attaining high score for your oral exam. Best of Luck! 🙂

Tips for Students Without Tuition

Majority of the students in Singapore have extra classes after school either in a tuition center or with a private tutor, while the rest do not. I have specially prepared the following tips for parents of students without tuition or the students themselves to help them to better conduct their self study which could eventually improve their grades.

Pay attention in school

I know there are times that students might just day dream in class and lose their focus in what the teachers are teaching, however, what the teacher taught in class are the most basic and essential information. Students need to understand these basics in order to answer to the most simple question. The more the students pay attention in class, the more they are able to follow through the syllabus and the more they can handle other challenging questions. Vice versa, they more they day dream in class, the higher the chance of them not able to catch up with the syllabus (this is especially true for the subject Mathematics) and they more they are going to be lagged behind in class.

Go through the school textbook and activity workbook/ worksheet

School textbooks have the most basic and essential information, by going through them thoroughly, noting on the keypoints and totally digesting every information and having the ability to answer all questions in the workbook, students have half their battle won.

Invest in topical assessment books that follows the syllabus

Doing questions in topical assessment books can test the students’understanding of each and every topic, as well as allowing them to practice more questions which are out of the school activity workbook.

Invest in top school exam papers

These school exam papers usually contain CA1, SA1, CA2, SA2 papers. Practice them accordingly to what is relevant. Always buy the most up to date test papers (last year exam papers) to ensure it is according to the most up to date syllabus, other wise practicing on out-of-date syllabus might not be as effective. Always treat every paper like a real examination, give time limit. By doing so, not just students can practice on more questions, they can also practice on their time management as well as to be more familiar with exam the format and thus, be more confident during examination.

Learn from mistakes

Practicing on assessment books or exam papers will not be effective if students do not make an attempt to find out why they got the questions answered wrongly or why they lost the marks. It is only upon that they learnt where their mistakes are, will they have better understanding of the topics, which will then improve on their grades.

The above pointers may seem general, however to really adhere to them and practice them in the long run is not that easy. Thus should the above pointers be diligently and constantly practiced, students do have high chance to do well for the exam, independently, and this could in turn help the parents to save money spent on tuition centers and private tuition.

Should you have any comment to the above article, I sincerely welcome your feedback and thoughts. 🙂