If you’re currently in JC, especially if you’re a Year 2 student, all the disruptions due to the coronavirus outbreak may seem to have come at the most inopportune time.
After all, this is one of the most crucial periods of your life. Gearing up for the A Levels is no easy feat in normal circumstances—much less with school as you know it now upended completely.
With ‘circuit breaker’ measures in full swing and nationwide Home-Based Learning (HBL) replacing familiar lectures and tutorials in school, it can be difficult to adjust.
As a recent JC graduate and A Levels veteran, I believe it is still possible to keep up with your schoolwork and excel academically. In some ways, the current situation may even allow you to better focus on your studies. Beyond that, you can devise innovative ideas to still “have a life” as a JC student (I give you some cool ideas below!).
Here’s are three helpful pieces of advice to carry you through these trying times:
1. Self-studying is possible—and may even be the best way to go
JC is optimised for self-studying
In Year 2, I was hospitalised for one whole month that spanned over the March holidays. I missed two Block Test 1 papers and took the remaining ones right after I was discharged. My result slip came back with two ‘MC’s and three ‘A’s.
Confined to the hospital ward, I didn’t even have online lessons that you now do with HBL. I simply studied the content and did practice questions on my own.
I would say that JC is optimised for self-studying. Most schools and subjects adopt a Lecture-Tutorial system. You would already have the lecture notes with you. In my experience at least, teachers don’t bother to mark most of your work, if at all. Answers and solutions are given, and you can simply check through your tutorial worksheets and any other practices on your own.
In my school, all Math lectures were in the form of online videos we could access. Math ‘lecture’ periods were for self-learning i.e. pick any place in the school and go through the notes on your own. The only time we had to go to class was for Math tutorials.
Self-studying in 4 simple steps
So you can see that it’s doable. Here’s my super simple four-step process to self-learn any topic:
- Read through the lecture notes
- Do the tutorial and check your answers
- Review key concepts and make study notes
- Do additional practice questions if necessary
For certain Humanities subjects, steps 2 and 4 can even be negated because doing practice questions is not the best way to study for those particular subjects.
Why self-studying is a necessary skill in JC
Given that you still have HBL, you’re actually still attending lessons, just that they’re now online. So in actual fact, you wouldn’t have to self-study everything like I did.
That being said, I want to highlight this as an important first point, because you’ll find yourself doing a lot of self-directed learning in JC. This is particularly true in the revision phase. The heavy content required in the A Level syllabus means that you’re unlikely to ever absorb and thoroughly understand everything after hearing it for the first time in class. You’ll have to put in serious work on your own to really master each subject.
It’s really good to get used to self-studying early on. It will help you greatly along the way. And you will see the vast benefits when it comes to the period right before the A Levels, when you’ll mostly be on your own.
Consider online or private tuition
That being said, if you’re really struggling or find yourself unable to keep up with the schoolwork, it may be a good idea to find a private tutor who can provide quality online tuition, at least temporarily. The one-to-one guidance could really help to target your specific areas for improvement in a particular subject.
Personally, I have been tutoring all my students one-to-one using the video conferencing platform Zoom, with satisfactory results. (I give private tuition to JC and Upper Secondary students.)
2. Set a daily schedule—and stick to it
Follow your timetable and HBL schedule
My advice is to complete all your HBL lessons and assignments as if you were going to school.
Wake up early and then go exactly according to the HBL schedule set by your tutors, or follow your timetable. Make it as close to your normal school schedule as possible. Complete assignments, ‘homework’ and tutorials etc in your ‘free periods’ and ‘after school’.
Without the structured routine in school, you should set a schedule for yourself. Timings ‘during school hours’ should be easy, since you would go by your school timetable. What you have to do is to come up with your own ‘after school’ schedule for each day of the week, with time wisely allocated to both academics and other activities.
Schedule CCA sessions (with your friends!)
Suspension of CCA is probably one of the most devastating consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. All the competitions, performances, and events that you’d worked so hard towards have now been ruthlessly cancelled.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to pursue your passions. If you’d like, you could always set aside time for ‘CCA’ in your weekly schedule. (After all, who would want to be cooped up at home all day doing nothing but study?)
Athletes (like me) can find time to exercise at home or in your neighbourhood. No one is stopping you from practising your instrument or dancing your heart out—as long as you stay in the house. You could even film yourself dancing, singing, or playing the violin and post it on Instagram or TikTok. Better yet, FaceTime your batchmates and learn a new choreo together. Sports CCAs could have a mass PT session over Skype. Why not? Your creativity is the limit.
3. Make the most of the time freed up
Catch up with your schoolwork
You likely have much more time now than you would have had with a normal JC life.
Firstly, you save on travelling time. Secondly, with CCA suspended and large-scale events and programmes either cancelled or postponed, you’re now free of all (or most) of the commitments you’ve originally signed up for.
For those of you taking the A Levels this year, this new status quo may be a blessing in disguise. I’m not saying that any of the disruptions and cancellations are pleasant. But you definitely do have more time now to devote to your academics than you would have had otherwise.
This could be especially fortuitous if you were lagging behind in your studies. Use this extra time wisely to catch up on your schoolwork. Get yourself back on track before school reopens, and you’ll find that it will be a lot easier to cope in the coming months.
You don’t have to give up on a social life
For many people, socialising is a big part of JC life. With school and Faculty/House events cancelled, and now that you can’t even go out with a few close friends, you may be feeling like you’re missing out on one of the best things about JC.
But consider this: with more time now on your hands, you can give yourself greater luxury in pursuing a ‘social’ life. One of the questions I often get is, Is it possible to have a social life in JC? Well, it is undeniable that balancing academics, CCA and other commitments, and a social life is quite a challenge.
But now, the balancing game becomes so much easier. While you won’t be able to bond over concerts and movies or go café hopping, you can still talk to your friends, via any video chat app. (And that, I find, is often the best way to deepen relationships, rather than sitting side-by-side staring at a movie screen.)
Find creative ways to connect
My basketball batchmates from JC recently initiated a “Secret Santa Lunch”, where we ordered lunch delivery for one another, Secret Santa style. Credits to one of my brilliant teammates for the brilliant idea.
If you’ve never used GrabFood or Foodpanda before, now’s the best time to try them out, by ordering food for a friend! You may have heard of DrawNames, which is a free online Secret Santa generator that can assign names to each person in the group—super convenient and easy to use. You can even type in wish lists and so on into the group page.
Why not start this heartwarming exchange within your Civics Group or CCA? You can even agree on a uniform time for delivery, and have a “class lunch” or “CCA lunch” on Zoom (probably the best way to use the app—no more sleep-inducing lessons!).
A last note
Above all, I think it’s really important to keep up a positive spirit during this time.
Being a JC student during COVID-19 isn’t easy. It can be disheartening at times, but let’s take heart in what we still have and make the most of what we can work with.
For anything you’re still uncertain about, here’s a useful resource from the MOE, responding to FAQs for COVID-19 infection in Singapore and how schools are affected.
Have a question? Leave a comment below or DM me on Instagram @thelowkeymedic.