“How did I improve my GPA from 1.6 to 4.0” Article written by Deborah Chai from Raffles Girls’ Secondary School, graduate of 2020 
The year 2019 was a particularly tough academic year for me, particularly for my Chemistry grades. In Year 1 and 2, combined Science was taught, with the three different aspects, (Chemistry, Biology, and Physics) only being open to students in Year 3. As such, although my Science grades were doing well in 2017 and 2018, my foundation for Chemistry was weak. Scoring well in the Physics and most Biology related sections masked this fatal flaw in my learning. 
To make matters worse, 2019 was the year I took my Grade 8 piano examination, with a great portion of my time and energy going into practicing for it. Thus, during the holidays, I did not grasp the fact that my core concepts for Chemistry was weak, and I started the school year dangerously unprepared, unaware of how my GPA would turn out. Things went steadily downhill from there. With so much to focus on, including CCA and my 9 other subjects, I ignored Chemistry, except for during lessons. What my teacher taught I did not understand, and it did not help that I spent no extra time to study the subject on my own. Ionic, Covalent, and Metallic bonding were all a mess in my mind, with me being unable to differentiate any of them or remember the different properties, while atomic structure and the periodic table confused me. I only had a basic understanding of Mole concepts, mainly because I did well at math. The day of reckoning came, and I failed the first paper. It was then that my parents and I began to worry. Already, they were looking out for my future, and saw that Chemistry was crucial, with a 3.2 overall grade and a 2.4 for the subject itself, if I wanted to take the Science stream in Junior College, which would require H2 Chemistry. H2 Chemistry was required for all courses in the medical field, engineering, and even accountancy in University. I promised my parents that I’d try harder to improve my GPA, and I did, but on my own, I still could not understand the various topics. Again, I failed the second assessment. I sought help from my teacher, and although I had a long consultation, we did not tackle the root cause. However, it helped a little to improve my GPA, and I managed to pass the End-of-Year paper. However, I had a GPA 1.6 overall for Chemistry. Neither I nor my parents were satisfied, and we finally decided to hunt for a tuition class to help me improve my GPA. 
Another month passed before I found Seb Academy. Upon meeting Mr Sebastian Lim for the first time, he pinpointed my weak basics, and immediately started shoring up those key points. In three hours with him, certain essential ideas were set straight, I finally comprehended an entire year’s worth of topics. I felt i could finally improve my GPA. I spent the next year being mentored by him in one of his classes. 2020 was a significant year, and although I expected Covid-19 to negatively impact my grades, my Chemistry was a consistent GPA 4.0 this year, shifting it from my worst subject to the best. Not only did i improve my GPA, but I consistently obtained more than 90% for my Chemistry assessments. A large part of the reason was that I had an amazing, dedicated Chemistry teacher in Mr Lim, who spared no expense and pulled out all the stops in teaching us, from having cute cartoons made, to his Infinity Moles practice booklet, to Zoom lessons when we couldn’t meet face to face, and a practical class right before our exam, where he made his own chemicals, and bought specific equipment for us to improve my GPA. The other reason is one any can do, as long as one is dedicated to improving one’s grades. Just like how i improved my GPA. Don’t give up; that’s my advice to you. It isn’t just on the teacher’s part where the effort has to come from, it has to come from the student as well. Hard work was what it took to get me here, and it is what it’ll take you to get here too. And not just hard work, but smart work. The foundations have to be firm, before the structure of a building can be built. Likewise for Chemistry or any other subject. Spend time getting to know the basics, or seek help to tackle them, before moving on. I can promise you that, one day, you too, can reap the benefits. Not only would you improve your GPA, but also ground your foundation for your tertiary education and advance easily to more complex topics. 
Written by Deborah Chai from Raffles Girls’ Secondary School, graduate of 2020 At Seb Academy, we have wonderful video content in the form of lecture videos and mini videos in our student’s portal to help students review Chemistry concepts, in additional to our Chemistry tuition that we offer both online/virtually, or in person. This is targeted to help students review past concepts anytime, anywhere, and learn at their own pace. They can also pause the videos at any time, and review the concepts learnt in interactive quizzes. These have taken many hours to commit, curate, plan and put up, to help students learn best, in such a challenging time of pandemic like this. Together, we can combat “Zoom fatigue” together!
