Study methods (how I studied for Os!)

Hi future O level students, I’m a student who just finished Os last year and I’m here to share with you my study methods for the subjects that I took. I hope this can help students who are struggling/do not know how to study!

So I studied about 7 hours (minimum) to 10 hours (maximum) per day. 7 hours on days which I had late dismissal and 10 hours when I’m dismissed early (for example Friday because I’ll usually get dismissed at 12:30pm+weekends because I have more free time) Time I wld spend studying: Dismissal - 6pm 8/9pm-11pm/12pm Ofc, you don’t have to study as much as me. I agree I was a student who worked hard but not really smart so um hehe I lowkey had no life spending so much time studying.

Study methods/how I studied my subjects!

English (A2 for olvl) I wasn’t rlly good at english and getting an A2 for olvl was a miracle. So! If you’re already using an effective study method, pls stick to it! -Make a list of vocabulary words and make sure you memorise the spelling+meaning so you can use for your paper 1. You may also see those words popping out in your comprehension passages.(although that didn’t happen for me 😭) -Get used to all kinds of situational writing/continuous writing like speech+article for situational and personal recount+argumentative+discursive essays even though you’re ‘very sure’ that you’re not going to write some of them during exam. (During olvl last year, it was my second time writing argumentative essay and I didn’t really revise cuz I was so sure that I was gonna write personal recount 😭, I’m not sure if it worked out tho but DONT BE LIKE ME☺️☺️) Also, try your best to write extra essays for your teacher to mark, because practice makes perfect:)). -grind editing!! Please use editing to score! Getting the 10 marks from editing is way easier than doing super well for your essays but never do well for editing. So practice more:P -for paper 2, grind tys. Try your best to finish all the practices because they would help. Please memorise the question types and the format you need to use when answering some of the questions too.

Chinese (A1 for olvl) -memorise all your 词语pls 😭 词语替换is very important!! -grind tys too, especially comprehension. -make sure that u don’t 跑题for作文because once you make that mistake, you might fail your 作文. If you prefer, you may plan your story before writing.

A math (A1 for olvl) -I wld read the examples/do the ‘try it yourself’ questions in the textbook for each part before I start doing practices. (for example, I would read examples and do the qns in the textbook for chapter 1.1 before doing other practices) This was useful for me because it allowed me to better understand content knowledge and qn phrasing before doing my extra practices. -I rlly liked the textbook exercises so I basically just finished the whole textbook HAHAHAHAH but if you have assessment books and prefer using them, feel free to do so. (Um I have the math mentor assessment book but didn’t even use it LOL) -before olvl, GRIND TYS. Tys for math is very important because u can see how olvl questions are being phrased. (usually not much diff compared to tb qns tho) but ya! Practice more😇 -also! For e math and a math, make sure you don’t make too many careless mistakes because moderation is going to be badddd. Just be very careful during every exam you take so you can train yourself to be careful 👀.

E math (A1 for olvl) -ok I did what I did for amath..HAHAHA read textbook+do textbook exercises+grind tys but because e math qns can change so much (unlike amath qns which usually have somewhat the same phrasing), you can do more practice qns from your assessment books if you know that you’re not very strong at that particular chapter/part. For maths, really just practice and practice and I’m sure you’ll improve.

Chem (A1 for olvl) -my teacher provided us with digital notes for each chapter so I would read/memorise content before doing practices. (I do agree that memorising isn’t the most important for sciences but there’s no point doing your worksheets while referring to the notes because you’ll just be copying. You also have to expose yourself to more types of qns to score well) -do chapter worksheet+ topical tys (these were usually my homework) and also assessment books. For assessment book, I recommend the glm one because it was very useful for me and helped me to understand content better. -you can also create a list of common mistakes and look at them before exams to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes. -for sec4 year, rlly just grind Tys. Before olvl starts, focus on doing all the paper 2 first and save the paper 1. This is because you can do the paper 1 during the few days break (I think I had abt 9 days) before mcq papers.

Phys (A1 for olvl) -did the same thing as chem LOL.

Humans (geog/ss) (A2 for olvl) -for geog, I just memorised like siao and vomited everything out during exam. But do note that memorising isn’t the most important and you should also try to do questions. (like data based qns, which u cannot memorise. U can use OEA method which my teacher taught me-> overall trend, extremes and anomalies. -for ss, be sure that you know the formats (qualifying statement+ make sure ‘you answer the qn’ too pls! If the qn asks does source A agree w source B, u cannot change agree to the word ‘similar’💀💀) and try your best to do as many practices as you can and let your teacher mark (if he/she is free to do so ofc, my own teacher was quite busy last year LOL) -memorise content for srq (last qn) but I didn’t do it because there were too many to memorise. That’s probably why I got an A2🥲🥲🥲

Make sure you ask for consultation too! Don’t be shy because if you don’t ask, you’ll be the one losing out. I’m sure your teachers will be more than happy to help you so rlly, just ask if you need. Try your best to stay consistent too! I know it’s tough but not impossible! During hols, try your best to revise too. (e.g. June hol) If not your brain 🧠 will get rusty when school starts. Please also sleep early the night before any exam because this will allow you to think properly during exam the next day.

That’s all I have! Jiayou sec sch studentsss:))