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Chinese Exam Mistakes All Singaporean Students Make

Students tend to make a lot of mistakes when preparing for their exams. Regardless of what exam it is, these mistakes are repeated by different students. As a tutor, you will notice this. It would be a good idea to guide them on how to avoid these mistakes.

Kids in Singapore know to prepare well for their exams. In a bid to do this they do some things that are more detrimental than helpful. They might have the idea that the Chinese language exam will be difficult leading to your kids developing certain bad habits.

For instance, they cultivate poor study habits. This and several other habits can affect their Chinese exam performance. As a tutor and parents in Singapore, you need to address these issues. Look at these mistakes. If your kids are doing any of these, help them. Let them know it is wrong, and teach them better ways to study and pass their Chinese exams.

Memorizing Words in the Textbook

A very common mistake students make is memorizing their textbooks. It is not a bad idea to study the textbook for exams. In class, during tuition, the textbooks are used for instruction. However, memorizing it for the exams isn’t helpful.

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The Chinese exam format isn’t the same as what is in the textbooks. Your kids should understand this. The textbooks are more of an instruction manual. It would be more useful for the students to study past Chinese exam questions and how to answer them. They can refer to the textbooks to make sure they are getting their answers right.

The aim of studying past questions is not that they will be the same questions in the next exam. Studying the past questions gives you an idea of what to expect in the next Chinese exam. This gives your kids a better chance at passing the exam.

Cramming the entire textbook is a terrible idea.

Memorizing Exam Essays

Apart from memorizing textbooks, this is another bad habit for students prepping for the Chinese exam. Memorizing entire essays from past exams is a bad idea. There is no chance of those same questions appearing on the next exam. None at all.

The examiners always take note of what questions they have asked. They make sure that those same questions do not reappear in the next Chinese paper. Apart from that, the examiners in Singapore also use books for reference when setting the questions and scoring your answers. They will recognize memorized and copied essays when they see it. And that would mean you have failed the exam.

Instead of memorizing entire essays, you can show your kids something else to study. Your children can study Chinese words and phrases that are most likely to show up in the exam. This will make their chances of passing better.

Not Learning from Past Mistakes

It doesn’t help when you keep making mistakes without learning from them. During tuition lessons, you can tutor your students in reviewing their mistakes. When they get an answer wrong, they should be able to know what they did wrong. They should also be able to figure out what the right thing is. Next time, they will not repeat that mistake.

Getting a tutor in Singapore to provide Chinese tuition for your kid isn’t difficult. A tutor can point out these mistakes and show your kid the right thing to do. These mistakes can be anything, including:

Answering questions incompletely
Mixing up the Chinese characters for different words that look alike
Using the wrong phrases
Using quotes incorrectly

Misreading of Composition Questions

Apart from poor study habits, students can make mistakes during the exam. An example of an exam mistake is misreading the composition questions. This is quite typical in the Chinese language exam. A student can read the question and misinterpret it. This will make his/her answer to that question completely wrong. Passing the exam will be a challenge when this happens.

The major cause for this is exam jitters. Nervousness can make your kids misread questions. Another cause is over-confidence. Being overly confident will also make a student breeze through the questions and give incorrect answers. While this can happen to anybody, it would be a good idea to tutor your kids to avoid this mistake.

Using past exam questions, prepare your kids for the exam. Tutor them in maintaining calm. Even though it is a timed exam, there is enough time for them to read the questions, understand, and answer well.

Writing too Little in the Essay

This is actually a mistake that most students make. They write too little in the essay. Even though their answers are correct, because they are bare-bones, they get little marks. It is necessary to flesh out your answers in the Chinese essay. However, writing lengthy answers doesn’t mean that you should stuff your answers with meaningless words.

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Chinese tuition will help your kid learn how to answer Chinese comprehension questions. Most of the time, students have no idea what to write. Tuition will help prepare them well for the essay.

Bad Time Management

Another mistake students make is failing to manage their time properly. The Chinese exam is timed, and as such you need to manage your time well. If reading the passages and writing the Chinese characters are time-consuming for you, you may have a problem with the time.

With practice, however, your kid can become better at managing their time during the exam. Using past Chinese papers, they can practice how to read Chinese comprehensions. They will be timed as they write Chinese words and phrases. Time management will be more effective with practice.

All of this just proves that Chines tuition is necessary for students taking Chinese in Singapore. A tutor will take them through the language subject. The students will learn how to prepare well for the exam. Your child will be more confident in their ability to answer Chinese questions and score high marks. To avoid making these mistakes in the exam, provide proper Chinese tuition for them.

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Rum Tan

Rum Tan is the founder of SmileTutor and he believes that every child deserves a smile. Motivated by this belief and passion, he works hard day & night with his team to maintain the most trustworthy source of home tutors in Singapore. In his free time, he writes articles hoping to educate, enlighten, and empower parents, students, and tutors. You may try out his free home tutoring services via smiletutor.sg or by calling 6266 4475 directly today.