WRITTEN TESTIMONIALS

Before joining Good School Kovan, I did not know how to study effectively for the subject even days before the upcoming test or examination apart from just flipping through old assignments and learning from my previous mistakes. I also didn’t manage to practice more for my essay writing even though it was one of my weaker components as the teachers in my school focused more on the other components. In a nutshell, English was a pretty ambiguous subject to me that i did not know how to study and improve in simply by just reading up more. I joined Good School in Sec 1, where my grades stayed stagnant at the B3 to B4 range.

For Secondary English, the tutors focus a lot on us having the fundamentals and learning all the formulas we will need in order to answer the questions directly and accurately. We also learnt all the various ways like FAT, level 1 to 3 descriptive writing and how to come up with our own similes and metaphors so that we are able to write much more interesting and persuading essays. They also zoom in on every tiny detail by breaking down the question so that we are able to produce essays that thoroughly answer the question while standing out from the rest as well. What sets Mr Tan's English lessons apart from the ordinary English teachers in school is that in his lessons, we do not just get extra practice for us to drill our answering and writing techniques, but we are also taught various methods to attempt each and every segment tested within the English syllabus. For example, in the lessons which are essay-focused, we aren’t only exposed to a wide range of vocabulary for us to use in our own writing, but we are also taught formulas to structure a good introduction, non-repetitive PEEL paragraphs, as well as convincing conclusions (for the expository essays).

Mr Tan provides us very specific advice regarding areas we are weaker at and what we can do to improve in it. There are also many more opportunities provided for us to practice our oracy, writing and answering skills beyond classes, which really helped me a lot especially when it was nearing the o level examinations and we could no longer submit any more assignments and essays to our school teachers to mark. This helped ensure that i was always putting my skills to a test and also greatly boosted my confidence for the subject after so much practice. Moreover, his lessons were never dry, and for some of us who don’t frequently catch up with current affairs or the news, he would always spare a portion of the session going through the latest news with us, and even creating opportunities for discussion where we would get to practice our oracy skills frequently as well, thus killing 2 birds with one stone.

The class size is kept small and comfortable and this ensures that we are able to get all the help that we need from the tutors as it is easier to approach them if we had any doubts. This also means that each of us gets a chance at being called to answer a question and also practice our oral skills every lesson as well. The tutors ensure that each of us is looked after and no one gets left behind as we were able to whatsapp them after class whenever we needed help, where we would then get a very detailed response as to how to solve our inquiries.

I had a 2-grade improvement (from B4 to A2 in secondary 1) and managed to maintain an A2 for my O level English. I would recommend because Good School English tutors are one of kind, and those that need help, especially extra attention, will definitely stand to gain since the tutors are extremely detailed in coaching us. Attending English lessons at the centre also allowed me to study more effectively and easily since there were formulas i could always turn to, which also allowed me to save time during the examinations thinking about how i should phrase an answer, or how i could start off my essay.