In 2009 Ministry Of Education introduced a set of “Refined Promotion Criteria” to better prepare Normal Academic (NA) students for higher learning in Polytechnics. Under the criteria, NA students can progress to Sec-5NA only if they score less than 19 point for English, Math and Best 3 subjects (also known as the EMB3 score). Not only is math made mandatory for promotional consideration at Sec-4NA, NA math standard is also raised substantially, throughout Sec-1NA to Sec-3NA.
Higher NA Math Standard
Effectively NA math is made harder after 2009, making NA math standard closer to Express stream. Some reputable schools even teach Express Math to their NA student at Secondary 1, with the aim to prepare them for transfer promotion into Sec-2 Express in the following year. These reputable schools are known to have good NA system in place to transfer promote high percentage of their Sec-1NA students into Sec-2 Express.
However, not every school is equipped with the essential teaching resources to handle the higher standard NA math. Since 2009, several schools have been reporting higher NA math failure rates, from Sec-1NA to Sec-3NA. To push more NA students up next level at yearend, these schools allow students who fail math to sit for math re-test, using the same yearend exams paper with only slight modification.
NA Students With Strong Math Skill
NA students are generally weak in some but not all subjects. For those who are good in math, as long as their math maintains good academic performance in Secondary 1 and 2, they would be allowed to opt for double math (Elementary Math and Additional Math) at Secondary 3 and 4.
With the new promotion criteria, NA students who are strong in math can now take advantage of the emphasis on EMB3 to aim for transfer promotion into Sec-2 Express. Though every school set their transfer promotion requirements differently, the most common qualifying subjects are still English and Math. One who excels in English and Math would always stand better chance for transfer promotion to Sec-2 Express.
NA Students Who Are Weak In Math
Many students who are weak in math have their math fear since primary school. While some students allow math phobia to dominate the whole of their secondary education, most students would want to put in serious effort to overcome their math phobia. With the new EMB3 promotion criteria, students who are weak in math will have to overcome their math fear as early as possible so as to meet the academic requirements at Sec-4N.
As math in Secondary is very different from math in Primary, the best year to overcome math fear is actually Secondary 1. The biggest contrast between Secondary 1 math and Primary math is the absence of complicated model-math. There is also much less “word problems” which test primary students more on English than Math. Secondary 1 textbook introduces math concepts systematically, with plain mathematical logic and clear explanations. Exercises in math workbook use concise English which is easy to interpret. All word problems can be easily solved by algebra, a far cry from drawing messy bar-models in primary math.
Overcoming Math fear In Secondary 1
Most students had their math fear when they were taught fraction in Primary 4. As fraction is only a small topic in Secondary 1, it is important for a student to re-learn fraction as much as possible when it is briefly re-taught in Secondary 1.
The first step towards overcoming math fear is for a student to take serious effort to clear all their doubts on fraction. Unfortunately, many Sec-1NA students are not aware of the importance of fraction and allow their confusion to aggregate further when they progress into algebra fraction.
Math Tutor For Normal Academic Students
With suitable math help, Sec-1NA students are able to excel in Math with amazing achievements. The most effective math help is to engage a professional NA math tutor. A good math tutor is able to help student overcome math fear and change their attitude towards learning math. Once the learning attitude towards math is corrected, typically within 2 to 4 months, the student will soon become a highly motivated math student.
Unfortunately many NA students allow math fear to haunt them throughout their secondary school. Some students eventually seek serious help when they enter into Secondary 3 or 4, only to realize that there are too many wrong concepts to unlearn. In contrast, a NA student having good math tutor in Secondary 1 may not need any more math help in later part of his secondary education.