Testimonials

Marcus Tan Chun Hon attended Specialist Tutoring for 1.5 years at DAS Rex house learning centre. Marcus was a Secondary Three student at St. Andrews Secondary School (Express Stream). He was referred to Specialist Tutoring as he had weak sentence-writing, lack of understanding in phonological decoding, passage-reading fluency and reading comprehension.

Marcus is a well-mannered boy who showed good levels of attention and perseverance throughout the sessions I had with him. He was able to relay his ideas in a fluent and coherent manner. My sessions with him included spelling drills, oral conversations based on selected topics, essay writing (narrative and expositive) and reading comprehension passages. Passages for reading comprehension were carefully selected for his ability. He always left my session with a simple task to finish before he attends the next session, mainly topics that would be covered in the next reading comprehension task. We usually commence the sessions with conversational topics relating to the reading comprehension passage. Marcus enjoys researching and reading on the topics given as it enhances his general knowledge. At times, we also covered study skill concepts as he had challenges on time management, organisation and note-taking.

However, he would come for my sessions displaying some stress with school work and expectations. He would get angry with himself if he does not attain his own academic targets that he has set for himself. Over time, we had lots of positive discussions on how we can manage emotions in a much effective manner. Marcus gradually improved in Secondary 4. He started to answer questions pertaining to reading comprehension passages he read independently and most importantly with greater confidence. Marcus started developing better spelling skills and made lesser spelling errors in his writing tasks. It is highly commendable that Marcus attained good conversational skills within the period he was with me.

We always had great discussions on positive learning and how one can achieve by being positive. Marcus texted me when he was in the school hall when he was about to receive his “O level results”.

We had funny moments of laughter wondering how he had actually scored as he mentioned he was having a “heart attack”. Marcus did extremely well for his O levels by achieving 7 points.

I remember Marcus texting me “I worked so hard for this and it was really hard”.

Marcus is a self-motivated teenager who set out goals for himself. The road to success comes through hard work, determination and sacrifice. I am truly proud of Marcus.

Find out more about his Senior Educational Therapist and Specialist Tutor, Bhavani here