The Learning Cornerstone - 245 Whitley Rd

My elder daughter was among the first batch of students in this centre and she was in primary 5 at that time. Science was her weakest subject before she joined the centre. She enjoyed the lessons there and Mr Lim explained all the concepts really well and my daughter become more confident in the subject. She went on to do very well in PSLE. But above all, I think Mr Lim has instilled in the students the appreciation for science and he genuinely cares about the students and their well-being. My daughter did equally well in secondary science without tuition and is passionate about the subject. Years later, I enrolled her younger sister in the same centre and again, I can see my younger one loving the subject and she is strong in the subject because of that. I am really grateful to Mr Lim.

The following are my opinion of this agency. They are written for the purposes of giving a fair review, after experiencing its service for a period of more than 1 year. My child lost interest in Science after enrolling at this agency. When my child first started, he asked questions to clarify his doubts. At first the tutor responded to his questions. Gradually the answers became perfunctory, the tutor forgot to follow-up with my child, or simply responded with what my child thought were sarcastic comments. This sent the signal to my child that the tutor was not interested in answering his questions. Gradually he withdrew and learnt not to speak up anymore. When I found out about this, I had to do damage control and pull him out immediately. I realised too late that so much harm had been done over the past year that my child was attending classes at this agency. Despite my child doing terribly for exams over the period that he was at this agency, the tutor never once asked to see his exam paper. He never bothered to ask me or my child for any paper (mid year, end year or term assessment). I feel the tutor is not at all interested in analysing exam scripts to understand his students' areas of weaknesses, helping them realise their mistakes or improve.

My daughter started Science with the centre when she was in P5 with no science tuition from P1-P4. The tutor paced it in a way to cover the syllabus in prep for PSLE rather than the periodic assessment milestones in school. Hence, it took me a while to come to terms that my daughter would not get at least strong A until prelim. Every now and then, the tutor was willing to analyze my daughter’s paper on what could be improved. The tutor would reinforce concepts and would give different applicable examples which were important to ensure that the students were able to apply concepts from multiple topics converged into 1 specific OEQ, and tackle tricky MCQs. Her 1st school assessment in Jul right after the circuit breaker was a borderline A/B. The tutor tried to support further by providing additional online coaching to students who required help in OEQs. She improved for Prelim. Come PSLE, my daughter felt that the paper was difficult but she recalled some of the concepts and questions that were deliberated thoroughly in class. She and some of her tuition mates did extremely well in the end. I’ve learnt that marking/grading is important but letting the child build resilience and tenacity as part of the learning journey are important as well. Like what the tutor had told me before, we should not let the students be afraid to make mistakes during learning. Thank you, Mr Lim

Thank you Mr Lim! My daughter did very well for the 2021 PSLE Science Exam and we owe it to you even though you never stress on grades. We were confident to leave her science education entirely in your good hands the past few years as we have always been impressed with your technique to build her interest in science first and culminating with the 'PSLE strategy' deployed during the final preparation; the outcome was my daughter being totally calm before the science exam (very rare) and was quietly confident. Under your guidance, we saw her interest in science grow, results improve naturally and she peaked at the most crucial time. Her ability to converse her ideas (especially on science topics) confidently was what contributed to her successful interviews during the DSA process. So, a big THANK YOU to you and your team and we hope to find dedicated educators like yourself, to help her through her next educational journey in secondary school. Wishing you a great year ahead and a fruitful journey of helping other children love science even more. Cheers!