Combined Humanities: Social Studies and Elective Geography

Its a RISK
I only took one humanities. I would call it risky, but it was the right decision. Why risky? Because humanities is definitely tabulated into your L1R5, so you cant risk it being screwed up. Most of my classmates with eight points this year had B3 for humanities and A1 for english (I had mine the other way around)

How I coped with humanities?
Quite badly, to be frank. Sec 3 MYE: 59,  Sec 3 FYE: 59 ,  Sec 4 MYE: 60, Sec 4 Prelims: 72. You see the jump? No, the papers didnt get easier, in fact, it just becomes tougher due to more topics tested. The answer to the jump: tuition. Yes, tuition after tuition, my life is filled with tuition, but i didnt mind. Thank god, I met a tutor that saved my L1R5 --> Mr Daniel Xia from Aspire Hub (more about tuition below)

Study Tips for Social Studies
1. Source based questions (SBQ): you need to learn the skills to answer the questions. I couldnt pick it up from my teacher in school and so i failed miserably each time. 8/25 was my lowest record.
2. SBQ: Follow the structure your schools gives you. Each school does it differently for different types of question. If you're going to defy your school, they have all the rights to mark you down in school exams.
3. Read the TOPIC given. It in BOLD for a reason. Many people skip it, but seriously it like reading a book without reading its title. What you trying to do, decipher the topic/title? It gives you an idea of what you are reading so you wont be lost. Underline the sentence in the source that answers to the topic. Write notes on the paper, it is YOUR PAPER. Notes as in what you can interpret. Just short sentences/ words so that you wont forget. NO IT IS NOT A WASTE OF TIME TO DO THIS. Isnt it better than reading all the sources to find that one evidence? Tested and proven to be useful. Trust me on this. This is an advice only given by my teacher. It is the best advice i can ever offer to you. 
4. Hmm, what my teacher told us to do, read comics. Sounds suspicious but thats where you get to enjoy sarcasm. I didnt follow and so here's what happened in olevels. (not exact same qns, poor memory)
               The SBQ topic was cod war, cartoon shows a fishing boat in the sea with people
               from two countries. "Look! There are shells in this fishing net!"
               What I interpreted as: Shells= Seashells.
               What the cartoonist meant: Shells= Bomb shells.
               And that was five marks being bombed away :"(
5. Structured Essay Questions (SEQ): New syllabus starts in the 2014 olevel batch. It used to have the same weightage as SBQ, so we really had to memorise a lot.
6. SEQ: Memorising from the textbook is ONLY memorising evidence. Evidence is only used to support a stand and not answer a question. This is what many students fail to see. You must make a link using the evidence to answer their questions by EXPLAINING. Thats why it is the PEEL structure. Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link.
7. SEQ: If you cant think of the explanation, look for model essays. For else go for the tuition i recommend. He provides essays with explanations. Sad thing is that you will have to not only memorise the evidence, you would also need to memorise the explanation because you cant think of it yourself.
8. SEQ: Personally, I find that writing notes for SS is a CHORE because there is just SO MUCH to write. So, I first mindmap out the topic, at least i know which part i covered and how much more i need to cover.
9. WRITE YOUR OWN NOTES. You can refer to other people's notes but write your own. Even top students in my school for ss does that. So all the more everyone should do it.

Study Tips for Elective Geography
1. Many teachers teach geography in such a way that you will have to memorise a lot. Although memorising is inevitable in humanities, but it really isnt all about just memorising. Understanding is key. Thank god for my sec 4 teacher that taught us this^^ He is another great teacher, Mr Tan, but he teaches in school only:)
2. Write your own notes. Use all the resources you have, powerpoint slides, textbook, mark scheme, guide books. Compile the best of the best into your notes.
3. Understand how each formation is formed. How the river is eroded. Visualise, or else use youtube.
4. Write notes on the paper. Dont leave it clean. It not suppose to look the same way it is given to you. Another advice from my teacher. DONT START CHIONGING THE QUESTIONS WHEN YOU GET THE PAPER. Again, mistake by loads of students. Plan your answers, look at the question and write key words, look at the lrq and write key points, look at the commanding word (explain is not the same is describe) Planning time = 5 mins. Scan through all the questions and plan finish first. Then start doing the questions. Tested and proven it is faster. I managed to complete 10 minutes before time during prelims (by then you will be will trained to do everything really fast and legibly) 

HOW TO MEMORISE
My way of doing it, by visualising. I read my notes then I try to picture the scene in my head. Then during the exam, I will be able to remember it quite easily. Just try, it might work for you too!

Hohoho, so many study tips for humanities.
Just an offer to someone who really needs social studies notes. I am not selling it, technically I am giving it away. But I really hope that it will be given to someone who cant really afford humanities tuition (it more expensive due to fewer teachers), really cannot cope with essay questions and lack the skills in sbq. The set of notes include: my self written notes which i used to study for in olevels, SBQ skill guide from my tution, cartoon compilation from my tuition, model essays from schools, model essays from my tuition. Covers all topics. Syllabus is old, but i heard there is no changes to the topics, just weightage and textbook cover apparently... So yup! Comment below or email me at anonymousandmyjourney@gmail.com if you need them. One set, hardcopy.

Almighty TUITION, only for parents who are interested as usual (thats why i placed it at the bottom)
Teacher: Mr Daniel Xia from Aspire Hub @amk or nex
I think you can contact him through the tuition agency. If not possible then email me for his contact number

Positives
1. Every school have their own structure/style when it comes to answering questions. He will go by your school. If your school dont have one (near impossible) he can give you a general guide
2. I could really feel the improvement from the first time i entered to the last day i went to his tuition. First time going there, he gave me a cartoon, i couldnt even start. Last day when i left: he gave me a full sbq, let me handle it myself, i managed to interpret and write them out without his help at all.
3. His model essays are super duper good. But he only gives them during exam period when you have to memorise.
4. He can go through the textbook topic if you need help with it. The sad thing is that you have to write an essay with explanation after he went through it with you. It is sad because no one likes writing an essay. But it is placed under positives because it forces you to find the link yourself instead of blindly memorising. This is important because different questions may require different links although it belongs to the same topic.
5. It is again a personal coaching one to one tuition, but you can call him out if you have any questions. The class is usually quiet, only lower sec students seem to be more rowdy...
6. You can bring forward classes so long as he is in on that day. This is so that you dont need to attend tuition after the exam which makes total sense to me. Take a break, it is important.
7. He marks whatever paper i give him (prelim papers my school gave me) and he goes through them out of lesson time. Of course this is him being nice on his part. It is totally up to him whether or not to give you that extra time so dont go to him saying that you want to extend the lesson time. But yes, he can be such a nice teacher, so i was a pretty good student to him too^^

Not-so-positive
1. I require total silence when i am doing humanities, but when he starts coaching another person in the class I would definitely hear it. I hated it at first, but i just bear with the noise and soon enough i got quite used to it. So for students like me who hate noise when i am studying, this might not be too good...
2. If the class is big, you might not get enough attention. Like he will usually attend to me quite a lot, enough to let him explain the questions, interpret the source if i need help, mark the question, go through my mistakes (4-6 people in my class). There was once I attended another of his class, he only attended to me twice. Give me the paper and mark my paper (that class had around 10 people)
3. Students will love this. He has short term memory. He doesnt remember whether or not he gave you homework and so he will never chase you for them. You can still hand in though, just that you can enjoy the look of surprise when you told him you did it and want to hand it in for marking.
4. He might forget to mark your paper if you leave it with him so you have gotta chase him for it. In the end he returned most of my missing pieces a few weeks before olevels. Well, late is better than never:)


Such a long post...... I am getting more and more naggy:'( Nevermind, if you want to ask anything, just comment below or email me. I will reply you because I am nice. Hahaha just kidding, school hasnt started so I am free so feel free to keep me busy. I should be able to finish this before JC starts~ looking forward to it!