Touching Lives

Ms Chin Fui Leng taught me Cambridge A-Level Chemistry in 2007/08. She is a very experienced lecturer, and it is evidenced by her teaching methods. What I really like about her style is how she simplifies concepts, making them easier for us to understand. She does not spoon feed us with information and answers – Instead, she guides us and makes us think for ourselves. Personally, this approach of hers helped me tremendously in understanding the subject. Rather than memorising blindly, I was taught to appreciate the theories behind what I was learning. She gave us a very strong foundation in Chemistry. Due to her vast experience, she is able to identify our weaker areas, and she coaches us on them. She is a very dedicated lecturer, who was ever willing to provide us with extra tutoring, after hours and on weekends. When our exams were around the corner, she would remind us to approach her at any time at all if we had any doubts or questions. I still recall sitting down with her in the office with a couple of my friends, long after working hours, asking endless questions, all of which she patiently answered in great detail.

Ms Chin is undoubtedly an amazing lecturer, and she is a gem to the education field. As cliched as this may sound, she has played a great part in my tertiary education, and contributed to where I am today, because she helped me build a strong foundation in Chemistry which helped a lot in my University years.

Ms. Chin Fui Leng was my Chemistry teacher in my first year of A-Levels. From the very beginning, she was incredibly professional and communicated well with my classmates and I, producing a conducive and stimulating atmosphere in class. With chemistry being my favourite subject, I knew I had to work particularly hard to impress Ms. Chin and form a good teacher-student relationship. Fortunately for me, she was very friendly to us despite being stern when she teaches, and I was glad to get along with her throughout the year.

As the exam season drew closer, Ms. Chin was very approachable and encouraged us to make appointments with her to discuss any doubts we had. She was relentless in ensuring we understood the subject matter very well, and often gave up her breaks or stayed back after working hours to meet with us. I personally felt that not only was Ms. Chin very knowledgable, she also adjusted her explanations when presenting them to different students to allow maximum retention. This skill in particular is why her students often perform incredibly well in exams.

Although Ms. Chin could only teach us for a year, I am deeply grateful for the knowledge she has shared with me in and out of the classroom. I wish her all the best in her future endeavours as I am certain she will continue to excel at teaching wherever she may be.

The first lesson with her was a stressful and tense one. I remember myself sitting at the corner of the laboratory bench and praying hard so that I wouldn’t be called up to answer the name of the aplenty laboratory apparatuses listed on the paper. After teaching us for a couple of months, she became less strict than the woman she was a few months back and did occasionally crack some jokes in between lengthy lectures, which made the whole learning environment a whole lot of fun. Stern at times, fun most of the time is the best way to put it. Jokes aside, she always strived to bring out the best in each and every one of us by providing valuable personal feedbacks on exam paper and laboratory reports and pointing out our strengths and weaknesses respectively. Oh, and not forgetting the speed at which she marked our exam papers. Thanks for all the guidance and patience you had given us throughout these one and a half year. Thanks for believing in us and thanks for everything, Ms Chin! 🙂

“Coming from an SPM Science background, Economics proved to be one of the more difficult subjects for me to grasp when I started my A-Levels at Sunway College in 2003. For one, there was the switch from Malay to English, which meant most of the technical nomenclature I encountered in secondary school was immediately rendered useless. There was also the issue of the subject’s complexity, which was comparable to the rigidity of traditional Science subjects but a completely foreign world to me.

Fortunately, Ms Tan was assigned as my Economics lecturer in my 2nd year at Sunway College, just when the subject was about to become far more difficult. She was always able to tailor the subject to her students’ requirements: when things were too technical, she broke them down into digestible pieces we could understand easily; when things felt too abstract, she provided real-life examples to ensure we understood the concepts we were studying.

We were never stumped by the difficulty of the essays we had to write for our examinations. Her vast experience prepared us for the daunting A-Level papers: she taught us to connect one seemingly disparate topic with another. She drew different threads of the syllabus together and provided us with a holistic view of the subject. This gave us an edge over those who preferred rote learning, as her students were able to demonstrate a solid grasp of Economics from cover to cover, regardless of the intricacy of the question posed.

An able lecturer, Ms Tan was also someone who was able to connect with her students on a more personal level, remaining life-long friends with many of my peers. This can be attributed to her very nature: when we required help, she had no issues forgoing meals or staying back much later than her official working hours just to run through issues we had with the subject, and to ensure no loose ends in our understanding remain untied. When we stumbled into obstacles, she picked us up again with encouragement and kind words.

For these reasons, I can only conclude that I was fortunate to have crossed paths with her: who knows where I would have ended up otherwise.”

Ms Tan wasn’t just my tutor – she was my mentor, life coach, guardian and great friend. I remember crying just before my macro-econ exam, on the verge of giving up. I expected her to coddle me, spoon-feed me or grant me words of comfort but to my surprise I looked up and found her crying too! Completely in shock, I asked her – why on earth are you crying? And she replied “You are going to do so well, why don’t you see it?”.

It’s easy to tutor, but it’s another thing to move beyond the benchmark by believing and caring for your students as if they were your own!

Miss Tan is an excellent educator in delivering key concepts in the subject of Economics to her students effectively. By giving relevant and interesting examples evolved around the world, she makes sure her students to understand the fundamental concepts and hence a vivid and long-lasting impression in the students’ mind. I was in the Science stream when I took GCE A Level a few years ago. Thanks to Miss Tan’s kindness in tutoring me Economics outside the classroom, I was able to score A in the A Levels examination and this indirectly leads to my achievement of taking a minor in Technopreneurship in the National University of Singapore.

Ms Chin was very systematic in her methods of teaching. She was able to break down complicated and difficult concepts into something more readily digestible. She is dedicated and cares very much for her students, always willing to have extra classes and consultation outside the usual class times. She teaches her students to aim for precision and perfection, but doesn’t put them down if they come up short. She encourages. Ms Chin was taught me chemistry and got me from a Grade D in first semester of A Levels to an A* at the end of the course. I am nothing but thankful for her. Thanks Ms Chin!

My name is Wong Hui Mei, and I am doing the Advanced Level (A-level) under the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) board. I was Ms. Chin Fui Leng’s Chemistry student and mentee from January 2014 to June 2015.

I was very fortunate to have Ms. Chin as my lecturer during my course of study at Sunway College. She is a very experienced lecturer with a thorough understanding of the subject and the ability to deliver the knowledge and information clearly to her students. The tutorials that we had to do reinforced our understanding of Chemistry, and all these were discussed in class to make sure all the students could handle the questions.

Having said that, one of the things that struck me about Ms. Chin was that she continually encouraged us to research questions on our own, or to discuss it among ourselves to try to solve the problem. She wanted us to be less dependent on spoon-feeding, and even though it certainly was a stark change from the studying environment we had in secondary school, it very effectively taught us about self-learning – to ask and answer questions by ourselves. I scored 93% for my Advanced Subsidiary level (My Advanced Level (A2) results have not been released yet.), a testimony to her effort and skills in teaching Chemistry, as well as her outstanding track record of producing top students.

Also, Ms. Chin was my personal mentor for university application. Under her guidance and help, I secured an offer to study in my first choice of university. (MBBS, University College London.) Ms. Chin was always very prompt in the preparation of documents such as the mandatory reference letter, and we could be assured that our submission of the university application would be done well before the deadline. Often, she would be the very first mentor to inform us of any important deadlines or events.

Ms. Chin has not only been a wonderful teacher and mentor, she has also established a strong friendship with her students. We communicate a lot on Facebook, and apart from having her senior student helping her in the Chemistry laboratory with junior students, she also takes the time to go for lunch with her students. She is indeed one of the best lecturers I’ve had.

My one and the half year pursuing A-level in Sunway College was no doubt one of the most precious memories I ever had. Throughout my journey in Sunway College, I learned lots of things, met lots of awesome people and also lots of lecturers that inspired me a lots. And someone that I must mention about is Ms Chin, my Chemistry lecturer. Talking about myself. I actually very passionate about Chemistry this subject. And with Ms Chin’s teaching method, it provokes me to love this subject even more. The reason I said so is because she did not ‘spoon-feed’ us all the facts blindly, but she taught us the basic concepts and explained to us the reasons behind all those facts. Through the exercises she gave us, she made sure we really understand the topics well. And yet, some of the questions she gave was a bit more challenging but yet related to the syllabus. This give us a chance to brainstorm and think beyond our expectations. For someone who love to take on challenges like me, this no doubt is a very productive learning method. Besides, Ms Chin is like a mentor for me. She was willing to spend her time with us her students to know us better personally. She would never hesitate to share her precious life experiences with us. Yet, for a non-local who is away from home, she gave me a sense of security and comfort as I found her to be a very approachable person. She would consult from times to times even if it was unrelated to my studies. The feeling of gratitude is still fresh in my heart until now.

Ms Tan is an amazing tutor. Everyone knows that! Anyone who can take on a lazy, Economics-hating girl and turn her E grade into an A* in a matter of months should be given an award for Miracle Worker of the Century and paraded through the town square. Some people say a teacher’s worth is based solely on the results of her students. This is true to an extent, but what makes Ms Tan really special is how much she cares about her students.

She really makes the effort to get to know you, while at the same time taking her work seriously and delivering spectacular results. Do you know anyone else who would stay up into the late hours of the night, waiting anxiously while her students on the other end of the world were sitting for their exams?

So, yes, there is no doubt that Ms Tan is an amazing tutor. But there is also no doubt that Ms Tan is an amazing person, and friend.

Ms Chin is a teacher with principle, she will not let the students down and will give her best effort to ensure that the students get the best quality of education. She is strict yet caring and put the students’ welfare first before anything else. She made sure we learn, not only academically but also in life. She taught us to be a better person, to grow as an individual that’ll be able to contribute to the society in the future. She helped us through hardships and solved our problems without expecting anything in return. She has definitely gained the students’ respect and the students don’t treat her merely as a teacher anymore but a companion and a friend. Other than being just my chemistry teacher, she also helped me in the process of application for university. She was very helpful by giving me the contact numbers of her former students who are studying at the university I was applying to help me too.

Ms Chin took over our class in the second semester of my A levels and it was no simple task as we were lagging behind the syllabus. Nonetheless, she did an excellent job educating us. She’s an efficient and approachable teacher who’s devoted to her work. Under her guidance, we gained newfound confidence in the subject and had many enjoyable practical lab sessions.

My name is Lee Chui Yee, a former A-level graduate at Sunway College. Ms Chin was my Chemistry lecture for 1 year and a half. Apart from learning at college, Ms Chin has always been a very supportive and encouraging figure that helped me tremendously throughout my whole course. There was once I scored really badly in a class test (almost close to failing boundary), but she never gave up on me. She relentlessly motivated me to stretch my limits and I was never so proud of myself until I obtained an A* in the subject in the end! In my opinion, her kindness and unconditional love for students are her greatest traits. She will always be the one favorite lecturer I met during my A-level journey.

My time at A-levels was enriching and extremely educational thanks to Miss Chin. A lecturer with years of experience behind her, she exudes professionalism with her familiarity and thorough understanding of the subject. Always making a point to not just teach the class as a whole, she also caters to individuals’ struggles with the subject. She doesn’t just teach, she educates. If you ask me to name a lecturer who is dedicated and passionate about what she does it will definitely be Miss Chin.

Miss Chin is a strict but fun lecturer. Unlike other lecturers, she challenged us to think further and gave us constructive feedback to improve instead of spoon feeding us. Her method of teaching motivated me to think out of the box and not to be fear of being wrong. Most importantly, she made the class very engaging by incorporating student’s interest into the lecture. For instance, she use “love relationship” to explain the forces of attraction between different types of bond etc.

Ms Tan is one of those teachers who possesses the ability to not only teach well, but to also inspire her students. And inspiration is not something that can be read out of books, but it is brought up when a teacher teaches with passion, that it’s almost contagious! Such a teacher is said to affect eternity because their influence never stops.

When I consulted her prior to my A2 examinations, I remembered feeling inspired and eager to master the subject(which was a big deal because I never enjoyed the subject).

Thank you, Ms Tan. You are a great teacher!

The first time I met Ms. Tan, I was moody and upset as I had to travel 45 minutes early morning to learn about monopolies and oligopolies. At this point in time, I couldn’t think of anything worst. I thoroughly disliked the subject as it was nothing how I expected it to be. I found it to be a pointless discipline that was filled with random graphs and equations that I was never going to need in real life.

Ms. Tan changed this for me. She made it applicable, interesting and straightforward. What was initially my worst subject somehow became my best. I genuinely began to gain a huge interest in the subject that I started spending my own pocket money on monthly Economic magazines and journals as well as reading around the subject. Ms. Tan doesn’t just improve your understanding of the subject but teaches you how Economics shapes the issues that happen in the world today. Thanks Ms. Tan for everything!

When I started with Economics, I thought that I would never be able to make it through my A-level. I found it so hard to understand and questions extremely difficult to answer; however, Ms. Tan taught me the techniques to overcome my problems, and after a few months, Economics became my best subject. She really made it enjoyable for me, and I wouldn’t have been able to pass without her! Thank you Ms. Tan XXX

Ms Chin has been my chemistry lecturer for upwards of a year, beginning from my first semester in the CIE a level programme, where I found myself hard pressed for guidance in the huge scope of new subject material. Over time, her guidance and her clearly annotated notes and tutorial sessions set me up for my subsequent exams, making the process of handling the chemistry much less arduous, and frankly quite fun. While we were limited to only 1 or 2 hours of classes a day, Ms Chin managed to cover all the material far ahead of most other classes, and the effect of her teaching efficiency was immediately apparent during our mock exams. Being impressively tech savvy, even more so than I am, Ms Chin collected huge amounts of practice papers unavailable elsewhere, and shared it with us to further our understanding. But beyond classroom affairs, Ms Chin has helped us a lot when it came to university placements, and fitting into the campus culture. Her experience in the teaching field shows, particularly when it came to her opinions on scholarship policies, universities, and just life as a student in general. These subtle things are often touched upon when we go on the occasional lunch outing, or when we go for consultation sessions with her. Now that we are close to the completion of our programme, I feel quite indebted to her for making my transition from school to college much less daunting, and very comfortable, in fact.

You’ll definitely learn something new when you stepped out from her class. Strict yet amazing and fun teaching method! My personal experience having her as my Chemistry lecturer for 1.5 years has been delightful, hands-on practices and extra guidance will always be provided! “Never try, never know,” I’m sure you will have amazing time learning Chemistry with her!

Dedicated to my chemistry lecturer, Miss Chin. I still remember the first Chemistry class with her, she is a strict lecturer and everyone is obedient and attentive in class. However, after she gives us more lectures, we get to know that she is a good, kind, pleasant and helpful lecturer. She wants us all to excel in her subject and so pushes us all a lot by giving us lots of relevant and challenging exercises and tests to further improve our understanding of her subject. After lecture hours, she encouraged us especially those who are weak in writing proper English to take up free English classes from one of her friends in order to excel Chemistry.

Before the term 1 even commenced, I have heard such nice things about the subject and the lecturer — and I have not been disappointed.

Ms Tan is the kind of teacher who knows what her students want both in and outside the classroom. As a tutor she is incomparable. Coming from a science background, Economics was total stranger to me but Ms Tan has a knack for teaching and she could translate a complex and abstract subject like Economics in such a simple way.

It is difficult to articulate exactly what made her so good but it is probably a combination of her love for teaching, her breadth of knowledge in the subject and the strength to take everything that came her way in her stride. Her lessons were absolutely fascinating and motivating as she utilised the whiteboard and technology in perfect blend. She graded generously, yet possessed high demands. She did not heap the superlatives of excellence and brilliance thus you really knew that “well done” from her really meant something. So you come out of her classes feeling inspired and we learnt loads by thinking and exploring ourselves.

I soared through GCSE and she has been extremely encouraging. She instilled great confidence in her students and is always ready to engage at our level. It is not about great education solely really, but to enjoy school as well. Having her as a teacher was a blessing. You develop personally, and professionally.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my tutors at Heads-up Tutorial for their positive encouragement.

At Heads-up Tutorial, I enrolled for Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology. Personally, I like Heads-up Tutorial because I have the chance to ask questions about topics that I don’t fully understand. Also, I enjoyed the intensive course as the tutors are patient in answering any questions. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to receive personalized coaching from the tutors. A heartfelt thanks to all my tutors for their dedication and commitment.

Ms. Tan is a great, experienced and sensible tutor!!! As a SPM Science stream student, Economics was kind of too hard for me to comprehend at first, and moreover, English was not really my first language. But Ms. Tan never give up any of her students, she’s kind and patient to explain all those complicated theories in a clear and simple way, even in the language you are familiar with, until they became part of you. Ms. Tan also pays close attention to the current issues of business world, and she would always love to share that with her students. This made me easier to link the theories with the reality. I sincerely appreciate Ms. Tan a lot, without her helps, I wouldn’t get an A in my A-level’s Economics, and I will not be able to analyze the economics issues and learn some finance knowledge on my own nowadays. Thanks, Ms. Tan!!!

I would not have gotten straight-A results for my IGCSEs if it weren’t for the tutors at the Heads-up Tutorial Centre. I joined the Intensive program for Chemistry, Biology, Physics, English and Math a few months before my exam. Being a homeschooler, the centre had helped me a lot in achieving the results that I have. The tutors gave me lots of useful advice and answering techniques that I never would have known while I was preparing for the exam. The teachers made my preparations a whole lot easier, as they help me understand the topics better when I couldn’t understand. My classmates from the same program also contributed much help for me during my exams. They were a great support group and we would always discuss difficult topics and exchange bits of advice to each other before each exam. Surprisingly, there has been times where the things that we have discussed earlier would come up in the exam. So I’m grateful to have met them in the centre. I want to give out a huge thank you to all the teachers who had taught and guided me during the program. I really couldn’t have done it without them!

After having private tuition for 2 years as well as receiving and A* for IGCSE economics, I can safely say that having Ms. Tan as my tutor had a definite positive affect. During our 2 hour sessions, I would have completed several essays usually 1 past year paper. Whist doing these practices, she would also give me lectures whenever I didn’t understand. This allowed me to revise the specific topics I was unclear about in a clear and straight forward way. Furthermore, she also honed my economics writing skills. My economics answers would be clear, concise and straight to the point which allows me to finish questions quickly without going off topic. This I found was a particularly helpful as I would not waste time as well as knowing what to write to receive the marks I needed. In addition, Ms. Tan would help me write model answers and clear notes. This particularly helped me during my revision period as it was easy to locate specific chapters.

The many hours spent with Ms. Tan has definitely been an advantage that I will cherish and bring forward with me during my A levels course. I will also be looking forward to the many future hours spent with Ms. Tan stressing over A-levels.

“If you ever see Ms Chin, Chemistry and class in the same sentence, sign up right away! She knows everything! She can answer anything! Having been taught by too many Chemistry teachers in too little time, I can tell you that Ms Chin imparts a perfect mix of knowledge and exam technique; both skills which will guarantee your dream A* and a leap from whatever level you are at currently. I went for the intensive IGCSE sessions, and if she has another one for A levels, you know whose name will be at the top of the list. Heck, I might even sign up twice. For the same class. Cause it’s just that good.”

“Most of my IGCSE journey was spent at Heads-Up. Every class is led by a passionate teacher, well-versed in the syllabus and ready to take on any challenge posed by their students. I was taught their personal tricks and exam hacks that not many people know about, giving me the edge that I needed to get a satisfactory score and achieve my goal of straight A’s…Thanks to these amazing educators, I gained more than just knowledge of the subject, but more importantly, the passion.”

“Taking a fast-lane course in IGCSE meant that I had a lot to learn in such little time, but Ms Tan simplified and made the whole course easy and interesting. She gave us short notes that made it possible for me to simply reread them without looking at the textbook and yet successfully go through the exams. I owe all my success in the exams to her, for Economics, and all the other subjects… I will always remember how helpful you were at my lowest”.