For half a year now I have been giving free A level chemistry tuition to church friend’s son. They have very modest earning income; so I was happy to obliged. I thought surely a level chemistry can’t be too hard, since I got an A without any sweat those many years ago.
But then it was more than 20 years ago! My goodness, how have I underestimated the challenge. So many things that used to click instantly seem so difficult to work out. My knowledge of chemistry have narrowed over the years into medical molecular biochemistry that simple organic and inorganic chemistry seem to be french to me.
I am also too busy with work and my kids to have proper time reading it up properly. But I don’t want to let this kid down. So I try my best, helping him through his past year papers, frantically reading his chemistry text books and revision notes as I do. It was a humbling experience: I learnt that I may be able to do a lot of things, but I am not necessarily as intelligent as I think! There are many times I just have to say I don’t know, looking things up from the books and the internet (which I don’t have easy assess to in his house).
Surprisingly, I got lots of feedback through the parents how happy he was with the tuition I give. Well, it wasn’t just because it was free. He got better grades during his class assessment, his teacher was surprised, and he was so much more confident. However he didn’t get as good a grade as he wished in the real A level exam, though he got an average of B in Chemistry.
Has has more assessment coming up: I’ve got much more work to do…
