jc gp testimonials
Hear what our JC students have to say!
Find out more about our highly sought after GP programme here!
Jodi
National Junior College
One thing I appreciated about Illum.e was the clarity of the lessons. In class, Mr Chia and Mr Yeo always made it a point to bring us back to fundamental concepts and answering techniques that would help us tackle any GP paper. This allowed me to easily apply whatever was taught in class, even during the heat of exams.
GP lessons at Illume were always informative and stress-free, thanks to Mr Chia and Mr Yeo’s enthusiasm, humour, and approachability. These qualities also created an environment where I was unafraid to ask questions both during, and after class. The teachers’ care and dedication were also evident through the personalised feedback they gave for our classwork and graded assessments.
Personally, the technique handouts were most helpful during my time at Illum.e. The handouts provided a good summary of techniques taught in class, such as how to analyse Paper 1 questions, and Paper 2 questions types + answering techniques. Coupled with in-class timed practice, going through papers together in class, and the feedback, I was able to quickly grasp and apply these concepts.
Thank you Mr Chia and Mr Yeo for your help and dedication in teaching me! I really wish I had joined Illum.e earlier. Nevertheless, in the 1-2 months I was there, I learnt so much and felt more confident going into the exam. I’m very grateful to have been introduced to Illum.e!
Allyssia
Hwa Chong Institution
Mr Timothy Chia is a very passionate teacher and is always willing to take the extra step to offer guidance to his students. Though I was quite slow in learning how to apply the skills and understand the concepts, he always had patience. He would take extra time to repeat the concepts to me and would even organise extra consultation lessons so that I can clarify with him any of my doubts. And all these are done without any extra charges.
I enjoyed the content lectures a lot as the notes Mr Timothy created are very informative and insightful. Its not just content, but also reflections and skills to add depth and nuances. His essay skill lessons were also very useful as we could practice the content and skills we learnt in the content lectures. He also had a specific format we could follow to add depth to our essays and add additional layers within our paragraphs. Comprehension practices were very targeted such that we could practice specific skills at one time and perfect our skills to obtain maximum scores!
I want to thank Mr Chia for never giving up on me. I came in with no knowledge of how I can prepare and do well in GP. Throughout JC, I had very average grades. And was close to giving up on myself. However, after joining illum.e he made it so easy to start studying for GP and made it such that I knew where to start studying and what I should work on. Eventually, I obtained my desired grade of A for GP and I believe its all thanks to his support and his lessons!
Ying Xuan
Jurong Pioneer Junior College
To me, the lessons at illum.e are always engaging as the teachers find ways to make the content more digestible through mini games and quizzes. The questions asked throughout the lesson also let me stay focused, and notes given are concise, reiterating the points that are most effective in helping us score in GP.
Whenever I was unsure of a topic, Mr Yeo would always try to guide me first, so that I had many opportunities to think instead of being spoon-fed what would be considered the model answer. I am very grateful for this approach as it proved to be the best way of learning for me, helping my GP grade jump from a U grade in 2021 to A in A Levels in 2022 after just barely 4 months of tuition at illum.e.
Trisha
Victoria Junior College
Before I enrolled in illum.e, I struggled with writing GP essays and consistently received marks in the 20s (out of 50), sometimes barely passing. Despite my efforts to improve my writing by keeping up with current affairs, refining my expression, and implementing my school teacher's suggested methods, I was unable to break into the 30s.
However, after attending Mr. Liew's classes, I learned to write more effective topic sentences and better illustrate my examples, leading me to jump from an E grade to a A grade. I particularly appreciated the opportunity to learn new techniques for improving my writing, gaining knowledge of case studies that were applicable to my essays, and receiving frequent high-quality personal feedback from my tutor. Mr. Liew's classes were a highlight of my week, as I looked forward to learning something new every lesson.
I was able to attain an A in the A Levels. I want to express my gratitude to illum.e for fostering my interest in many current affairs topics, including politics (which I previously found dull). Mr Liew was instrumental in helping me articulate my thoughts in a clear and coherent manner.
ZR
Private Candidate
I definitely appreciated the high quality notes that are meticulously curated to answer GP essays! Clear and concise revisions in class almost every week that allowed fundamentals to be polished and drilled into me. This led to GP skills being instinctive and allowing them to shine through during A levels despite exam anxiety. Teachers and teaching assistants are also engaging and passionate while being more than qualified enough to guide students for their As! They also incorporate unique ways of teaching through games and quizzes to break up the monotony of traditional teaching.
The content notes with pre made CA/R w L3/4 points really helped in saving time and effort to find them, allowing us to just memorise straight away! There are also more than enough points and examples such that we can choose what's easier or more interesting to memorise. Answer keys to comprehension and compositions which are extremely detailed are promptly shared with us weekly which allows us to absorb and comprehend the answers during classes rather than being busy copying it down. Pre recorded vids also allowed us to learn at our own pace while letting us revisit complex topics during revisions.
I definitely wasn't the mainstream type of student but Mr Chia was extremely accommodating in his teaching by building on past knowledge rather than dismissing and rewriting them. He also provided various additional avenues outside of tuition curriculum (eg. Providing MYE school papers for me to try out while giving timely feedback to improve ASAP, giving out personally sourced model essays and even marking novel school papers without answer schemes) I improved from a D to an A in less than a year as a private candidate which was definitely not a fluke! Once again thank you Mr Chia, Mr Yeo and the teaching team for being so patient and excellent!
Meng Meng
Hwa Chong Institution
The detailed yet clear and organised notes really helped me to understand the basics of understanding the questions, planning and writing of essays. Mr Chia engages the class really well with the little worksheets assigned to us in class, encouraging us to discuss and practice our analytical skills. He acknowledges our progress while making sure to point out any other areas of improvement we could work on. He explains the consideration and reasoning behind how to increase the the profoundness of our answers, prompting furtherance.
The break down of the different keyword and question types were the most helpful to me as they included question requirements and many different approaches i can use to approach a question. It helped me to spend lesser time planning essays stressfully and be allocate more of my attention towards creating better points for my essays.
Thank you Mr Chia for always being so patient and easy to approach! I can always leave your classes feeling more confident about GP as you always manage to clear any misconceptions and answer all the questions i have in the clearest, most creative ways. Thanks to illume, I secured an A for GP in A Levels!
Jun Wei
Private Candidate
I want to thank illum.e for helping me achieve my A in the A Levels GP exam. My experience as an A-level private candidate at illum.e has been nothing short of exceptional.
As a private candidate, I received all the necessary support from the tuition center, including comprehensive lecture notes, writing skills instruction, ample writing exercises, flexible class arrangements, consultations, and thoughtfully-crafted mock examinations. This was especially helpful for me as I retook the A levels.
However, the highlight of my experience was my tutor, Mr. Liew. He expertly conveyed complex concepts in a clear and easily digestible manner, providing examples of how we could integrate these ideas into compelling arguments. In just three months of lessons, my writing style underwent a remarkable transformation from long-winded to concise and nuanced, with a strong personal voice and critical evaluation. Mr. Liew was instrumental in shaping my writing style and instilling in me a valuable skill that I continue to apply in my daily life.
I wholeheartedly believe that cultivating a deep interest in a subject is the key to achieving the coveted A grade. Thanks to illum.e and Mr. Liew's guidance, I developed a newfound interest and confidence in writing, and continue to challenge myself to improve with each piece of work. For fellow students struggling with General Paper, I highly recommend experiencing what I did at illum.e or taking advantage of the trial lesson that they offer. Who knows, you too may experience a significant personal growth and transformation like I did!
Andrea
Jurong Pioneer Junior College
The teachers at Illum.e are highly dedicated and they always manage to make class engaging in the way they teach. Instead of simply giving us notes and teaching us what is in the syllabus, the teachers here go the extra mile and ensure that we enjoy what we are learning. The environment at Illum.e is also very welcoming and not intimidating at all, which really helped me learn more effectively.
My teachers, Mr Chia and Mr Yeo, were always very clear in their teaching, and were quick to help me point out and correct my common mistakes in my writing. They were also very approachable, and I could always clear my doubts with them at any time. Besides that, the notes at Illum.e are very comprehensive, which helped a lot in providing me with content for my essays and reduced my anxiety for GP.
I would like to thank the teachers at Illum.e for always being so passionate in the way they teach, and for being so patient even when I kept repeating certain mistakes. Thank you Illum.e not only for helping me to learn better and achieving an A for GP at A Levels, but also for making tuition such an enjoyable experience.
Noelle
Hwa Chong Institution
I enjoy that Mr Chia's lessons are very engaging and he helps me to understand how I could improve for each piece of writing (be it during lessons or consults). He is also very down to earth so I find it very easy to ask him any questions that I have. GP has been a less intimidating subject to tackle with his help!
The recorded lecture videos help me to digest the notes more easily and if there are any parts I am unclear of, I can look back at the videos. I also like the practice that we do every lesson (practice makes perfect!) as it helps me to hone my writing and comprehension skills. The teachers at illume walk around to check on our individual work during lessons and that personalised aspect is really beneficial for us since it helps us to identify our strengths and weaknesses. The tutorials also refresh our memory on the keyword and question types for essay writing so that it is ingrained in our minds!
Thank you Mr Chia for your patient and meticulous guidance throughout my time in illume! Your lessons and consults have been really useful for me and I've seen myself improve at GP to an A in A Levels with your help 🙂 Much appreciation for you!
TIArA
Catholic Junior College
In addition to being able to test our understanding of essay techniques and skills, Illume lessons include time to write essays and AQ paragraphs or do comprehension questions as part of their lessons. By marking our work on the spot and giving constructive feedback to probe us to think more critically, they ensure that we really understand how to answer these questions.
A unique aspect of my tutor’s tutorials is that they create their own list of keyword types by categorizing certain keywords together and offering specific ways to answer them in order to help us organize our thoughts when writing essays. My tutors are also very engaging throughout the lesson to help us stay attentive during class such as through giving us time to do pair work.
In addition to all the consultations he does for us, I would like to thank my teacher most for his dedication to teaching. He would put in a lot of effort before my A level to help mark my essays and to provide feedback on my corrections as soon as possible no matter how late it is or how early I sent them to him. Moreover , he always answered my questions that i texted him very quickly throughout the year and even encouraged me to ask more.
Camille
Hwa Chong Institution
illum.e focuses on the writing technique and thought process behind planning for the question which can be applied to any essay question rather than memorising model essays and phrases and regurgitating them during exams. What I found most helpful was learning how to organise my arguments and also learning about how to improve the depth and breadth of my essays. I would like to thank my tutor Mr Chia for his constant guidance and insightful consult sessions where he helped me to look at issues from different perspectives as well as giving me constructive feedback on my extra AQ and essay practices leading up to A’s :). Thanks to illume. I scored A for my A Levels for GP!
Jenny
Hwa Chong Institution
Wee Chia
Raffles Junior College
I attended gp classes at illume under Mr Chia in the later part of j2 and they were really some of the best classes i've attended! 🙂 Mr Chia is super duper passionate in teaching gp and it really shows because he goes all out to help his students improve 
He really puts in a lot of effort for us especially during post-prelim season, where we could consult him (endlessly). illume also gave us timed mock practices to better prepare us for As, and that was really useful in serving as a checkpoint for me to correct any glaring mistakes or misconceptions before the final battle.
For regular lessons, the lecture weeks were helpful in giving me a broad overview of a topic before we deep dived into trying essay questions regarding that topic the following week. The hybrid lecture-tutorial style really worked for me because I used to struggle with researching relevant examples myself. However, illume's substantial lecture and tutorial notes ensure that students never run out of examples to pick from!
I would 100% recommend illume to current and future students as the teachers are more than just people who teach you a subject; you can really ask them advice for anything as well!! Special shout out to Mr Chia who helped me clinch my A in GP 🙂
Xiao Na
Hwa Chong Institution
I find that the lessons at illume are extremely engaging because of their creative use of digital learning tools such as (the sushi website). I became more more receptive to the abstract concepts and ideas that were introduced during the GP tutorial lessons and as a result, I was also better able to internalise and then apply them in my school examinations. The learning environment that illume managed to cultivate was also extremely helpful for my learning. The teachers were extremely enthusiastic when they taught their lessons and they always encouraged us to clarify our doubts with them no matter how trivial it might seem to us. The tutorial notes were extremely comprehensive and it showed illume’s emphasis on providing each student with a solid understanding of GP topics.
However, some might say that good lesson material, without a good teacher, would not be enough to improve a student’s performance. But, those worries are simply unfounded at illume as the teachers were passionate about what they taught and always broke down difficult topics into more manageable pieces of information for us. This allowed me to see stark improvements in my own comprehension and writing abilities. I was a student of Mr Chia’s and I’m very thankful for his patience in teaching me and his valuable tips for doing GP. All in all, I would highly recommend illume if you want to see improvements to your GP!
Natalyn
Hwa Chong Institution
The teachers at illume make sure the lessons are engaging by playing quizzes with us. This teaching method not only helps us to understand the topic on a deeper level but also makes learning interesting instead of just doing essays after essays. Furthermore, the teachers will call students for consultations when needed so as to ensure that they target the students’ weaknesses effectively. The teachers are patient and kind which makes it easy for students to seek help when necessary too.
The lesson materials provided is structured and concise thus making it easy for students to understand. There are guided frameworks in the worksheets as well as highlighted concepts that we should take more notice of. The teachers also spend time going through the key concepts and making sure everyone understands before allowing us to practice on our own.
I would like to express my gratitude to Mr Timothy Chia for slowly guiding me on how to answer GP essay questions. He is able to identify my weakness and make sure I work on it for every tutorial session which has helped me improved. Choosing illume as my GP tuition centre was the best decision and I have never regretted it.
Eva
Anglo-Chinese Junior College
In addition to being able to test our understanding of essay techniques and skills, Illume lessons include time to write essays and AQ paragraphs or do comprehension questions as part of their lessons. By marking our work on the spot and giving constructive feedback to probe us to think more critically, they ensure that we really understand how to answer these questions.
A unique aspect of My tutor’s tutorials is that they create their own list of keyword types by categorizing certain keywords together and offering specific ways to answer them in order to help us organize our thoughts when writing essays. My tutors are also very engaging throughout the lesson to help us stay attentive during class such as through giving us time to do pair work.
In addition to all the consultations he does for us, I would like to thank my teacher most for his dedication to teaching. He would put in a lot of effort before my A level to help mark my essays and to provide feedback on my corrections as soon as possible no matter how late it is or how early I sent them to him. Moreover , he always answered my questions that i texted him very quickly throughout the year and even encouraged me to ask more.
Yance Joshua
National Junior College
The way how lessons are always made engaging for students and constant care and warmth by all of the teachers has always made them easily approachable for help. Teachers also constantly go out their way to help students via consultations and reviews of their own school paper
The provided lesson materials and preparations has made GP better understandable and much more enjoyable to study. As someone who did not like GP myself, the organisation and structure of the notes changed my heart towards the subject as it made learning much more streamlined and straightforward
I would like to thank Mr Chia and Mr Yeo for their constant guidance and support during the past 4-5 months under their teaching. Illum.e's tutors' commitment and devotion to helping every student has definitely helped me to better understand GP, simplifying the required skills and making content fun has made every GP lesson fun and enjoyable!
Lok Qing
National Junior College
Personally, i like that at illume, we aren't force-fed with model essays, rather, we're guided to come up with points which reflect our own opinions on real world issues which we were previously unable to succinctly put into words! This is due to the exceptional thinking framework curated by the teachers, which allows every student, no matter what their standard of language is like, to be able to write clear and thoughtful essays!
Also, each student is given more than sufficient attention as the teachers go around the class to check on their work to ensure we are on the right track, and if we had done additional essays on our own time we could always submit them to the teachers who would give detailed feedback on how to improve them!
I like that in lessons, sometimes the teachers would talk about a hot issue that was viral on the internet then, and we would hear the teachers' candid take on these issues, before learning how these issues are relevant and are connected to another big issue and how we could use them in our essays!
I would like to thank the teachers for always believing in us in spite of our grade, and for putting in the same effort, or more, than us in ensuring we are sufficiently prepared for A levels!
Sim Yee
National Junior College
What I really loved about lessons at Illum.e was the dedication and passion that the teachers have for teaching. I've been impressed by the amount of effort that they put in to guide their students, like consulting every student after every major exam to analyse their papers. I was shook when they had an internal assessment to allow us to prep for As and the teachers went the extra mile to mark everyone's papers in 2 weeks. They were also very open to marking worksheets or essays that you have written and give detailed comments and advice, and are always open to consult.
Most of the lessons at illum.e were engaging, not only allowing me to go beyond the bare minimum of what they need to score for exams, but also cultivating an interest in reading up and researching on current affairs.
Mr Yeo and Mr Chia's classes have a really open environment, making me feel comfortable to ask questions and clarify doubts, which I don't usually do so in school. I really enjoy the discussions in class.
One part of lessons that helped me learn well was their curriculum structure, which is easy to pick up and allowed me to score in exams. I learnt stuff that I was not taught in school too :'' which helped me a lot. I really loved the bite size content delivered like the different strategies to write a good AQ passage and essays (if you don't have sufficient content). The content lecture notes provided too were also very thorough and detailed,
I want to thank Mr Yeo and Mr Chia for the really fun lessons even though I've only been attending for a few months, but I regret not joining earlier HAHAH cos the lessons were very enjoyable and I really liked the guidance provided because it felt very personalised like 1 to 1 tuition even though it was not and I really got to clarify my doubts and pick up strategies to score better.
Yance Joshua
National Junior College
The way how lessons are always made engaging for students and constant care and warmth by all of the teachers has always made them easily approachable for help. Teachers also constantly go out their way to help students via consultations and reviews of their own school paper
The provided lesson materials and preparations has made GP better understandable and much more enjoyable to study. As someone who did not like GP myself, the organisation and structure of the notes changed my heart towards the subject as it made learning much more streamlined and straightforward
I would like to thank Mr Chia and Mr Yeo for their constant guidance and support during the past 4-5 months under their teaching. Illum.e's tutors' commitment and devotion to helping every student has definitely helped me to better understand GP, simplifying the required skills and making content fun has made every GP lesson fun and enjoyable!
Andrea
Tampines Meridian Junior College
Illume's curriculum and teaching style stood out to me and was really thorough in terms of their teaching of the subject from offering content lecture notes, concise and useful tutorials to having provided a full support system by having mock exams, providing one-on-one consultations with the tutors and even having multiple tutors to help students during lesson times, highlighting how they really cared about the welfare of their students and the quality of their teaching.
The lessons were always engaging and really helped me to push my grades up and improve the requisite skills needed for doing well in GP. The tutorial lessons and consults really helped to drill my skills and have targeted focus on my weaknesses. I'm really grateful to my tutors Mr Chia and Mr Yeo for being patient with me as they taught me and to have had Illume's support 🙂
BELLE
Hwa Chong Institution
Mr Chia is an understanding teacher and he really does his best to help us even outside of lesson time. He responds to all my questions about GP, even going above and beyond to help me mark extra assignments. illume’s notes provided are informative yet concise. They are very useful and can be used across many topics for both essay and AQ.
illum.e lessons were always very useful as the teachers would explain the notes in great detail, and makes us do many timed practices. These in class assignments have made me more prepared as the timed conditions were comparable to that of exam settings, and Mr Chia’s style of marking as we do the assignment allows for immediate feedback to be given, allowing me to improve on my answers and answering technique on the spot.
I'm super grateful that the teachers has been so approachable and accommodating. Moreover, they really helped me through my worst subject, by unpacking the GP content and question types, making it easier to tackle. illum.e’s GP department does comprise of the best teachers out there; besides being extremely caring, they also manage to teach GP in a digestible manner!
Ka Shing
Hwa Chong Institution
Mr Liew is an excellent GP tutor who goes above and beyond for his students. From sharing interesting current affair articles to being there to clarify my doubts no matter the time, whether it be late at night or early in the morning, he has been of great help in my GP learning journey. Through his persistent guidance and unwavering support, I’ve managed to improve my results drastically, from failing the subject to a B at promos. Thank you Mr Liew!
E-Xuan
Eunoia JC
Mr Chia is a patient and friendly teacher who makes GP seem less confusing! He was skilled in teaching the subject and answered my queries on WhatsApp up till the day before my A Levels papers. He gave us personalised feedback which we could quickly apply to our writing. Even though he had many students, he was dedicated and accepted essay submissions from me and returned them with thorough feedback. His passion for GP and the quality feedback he provided helped me realise that I still had a lot of room for improvement and inspired me to strive harder to write better.
The content lectures and skills taught during the GP lessons helped me better understand the strategies to tackle different types of essay questions and SAQ questions. He also gave tips on how to choose questions wisely and strategies on how to score for GP, making it a less daunting subject to study.
I want to thank Mr Chia for being patient with me and making tuition a fun experience rather than a dreadful one 🙂
I would recommend students to attend his lessons as he is highly skilled in the subject and is also good at imparting these skills and knowledge concisely.
Brenda
Yishun Innova Junior College
I couldn’t have express my gratitude more for Mr Liew for his guidance in my GP journey thus far. He wouldn’t hesitate to clarify anyone’s doubts during lesson while engaging the class at an efficient pace - from eye opening case studies to practical skills that we can utilise in the paper. The fruitful discussions are always interesting to me.
Me Liew accurately points out my strengths and weaknesses, through explaining them during consult sessions - of which I have never received from other GP tutors - these tailored sessions together with the outstanding curriculum materials has improved my grade from S in the start of the year to C in the promotional examination within a short time.
I look forward to more sessions with Mr Liew and illum.e and further refining skills in this subject!
Zi Yi
Catholic Junior College
I found GP extremely tedious and I didn’t know how to revise for GP until I took Mr Chia’s lessons. He taught us in very comprehensive and interesting ways, he made content such as politics and science easy to understand and remember. What I enjoyed the most was when he told us stories that was relevant to the topic that he was teaching.
illum.e's notes were comprehensive and useful in preparing for GP papers, I manage to get above 60% for paper 1 with little general knowledge in the past but now the notes have helped me do much better and also saved me so much time without finding content by myself.
I want to thank Mr Chia for his patience, I couldn’t score well in paper 2 but he took his time explaining to me why my answers are wrong and how to answer better in comprehension questions, I was much more confident during A level GP papers after his guidance
I would recommend others to join illume's and Mr Chia’s classes because GP is the one of the most important subjects in JC, the prerequisite to go to University, hence it’s important to learn from the right teacher and Mr Chia is the one!
Phoebe
Nanyang Junior College
Mr Chia was a very engaging teacher who never fails to make his lessons interesting. We were always given extra information which I often found very insightful to the real world, and yet, useful and interesting for my GP essays.
His passion to transfer his knowledge about such facts and skills made me motivated to excel in GP, and also influenced my writing for the better. I have acquired many resources through my lessons with illum.e not limited to the notes with unique and relevant facts, articles sent to us as well as memorable videos of TED talks or documentaries.
I would like to thank Mr Chia for his patience in guiding us to achieve our fullest potential in GP despite having come to him with the lowest grades. It was not an easy journey but his never-ending faith and support boosted our morale which played a major role in my achievement today - I got an A for GP!!
I would recommend Mr Chia to other students looking for a GP tutor as GP has never been made more interesting and interactive in my whole JC life. He is guaranteed to provide anyone struggling with more than just better grades, but a new outlook towards the world we live in today!
Sin Chen
Catholic Junior College
Mr Liew is a teacher who gives really good and wise advices to improve our learning. He always go the extra mile to share more than one perspective when it comes to GP which really benefits me in my essay writing and I have improved tremendously. Similarly, this prompting and questioning techniques have inspired me to also think of multiple perspectives when I write or brainstorm to achieve that higher level of evaluation.
Mr Liew would also scaffold illume's politics notes and the learning steps whenever I’m in doubt and have difficulty understanding certain topics such as Politics and democracy.
I would like to thank him for his patience and effort in explaining all the details when it comes to teaching me and the class! This was especially the case with the more difficult comprehension questions and techniques as well.
I would definitely recommend Mr Liew and illume to friends who may face challenges in GP. At illume every students’ doubt will be answered and followed up - we have truly learned a lot at illume!
Adelia
Anglo-Chinese Junor College
A dedicated and engaging teacher, Mr Chia has been a very thoughtful teacher in knowing my strengths and weaknesses for GP.
He has constantly helped me by answering my doubts and reviewing all my essay outlines by providing insightful feedback to help me better my writing skills. With his help, I also found it easier managing paper 2 as he constantly reminds me of the common answering techniques.
Through his guidance, i found motivation to want to do well for As! Appreciate the encouragements, Thanks Mr Chia!
sheng yuan
Hwa Chong Institution
Before J2, I never had the thought of going for tuition as I believed that studying harder is the way to score well. However, no matter how much effort I put in for GP, my grades did not improve at all and I had no idea what to do at that point in time. That was when I came across illum.e and I would definitely credit the centre, and Mr Chia for what I’ve gotten for my A levels. Within a short period of 4 or 5 months of lessons, I’ve become more confident in tackling various essay and comprehension questions as the lessons equipped me with all the skillsets and knowledge required.
I am super grateful for Mr Chia’s constant effort in replying to my questions and prompting me to develop further based on my queries. He constantly guided me to develop new ideas and analysis that I would otherwise never able to do, which definitely helped in my evaluation techniques in GP. The notes prepared at illum.e are comprehensive and well consolidated, which makes revision so much easier as I no longer need to spend long hours researching examples and analysis. The notes are also well designed in the way where I can easily use them to answer most of the essay questions, unlike school notes where I need to read all the articles to extract that few sentences.
I would definitely recommend illum.e if you wish to improve your GP as their notes are really really good! The teachers are also very enthusiastic in answering your questions and providing you with further guidance in question analysis.
Yi lin
River Valley High
Learning under Mr Chia’s, I gained knowledge and essential skills for the GP exams. I was also able to explore topics and issues that were more complex and beyond my means without his aid through the lectures on democracy.
They were an avenue for me to further my learning as such issues would have otherwise been difficult to approach without guidance. I was also able to gain insights on the writing skills that are vital to making my arguments nuanced in essays and the AQ through the ‘skills lectures’ that gave clear steps to approaching writing. This straight-forward approach allowed me to learn quickly what was necessary and thus gave me more time to endeavour into creating more depth in the content.
I am especially thankful that he goes the extra mile to give consultations and mark the work I had done on my own accord. The feedback was much needed as they were precise and reflected the faults in my writing, thus allowing me to quickly rectify my mistakes and improve.
Bernice
Nanyang Junor College
I would sincerely recommend Mr Chia and illume for GP tuition! With Mr Chia's dedication and passion for his students to do well, I am sure that he will be able to help his students strive to achieve their desired grades.
I used to be very fearful of GP but with Mr Chia’s ability to break down complex concepts in to bite size pieces for me to understand through various means such as videos, I was able to grasp the various concepts of different topics quickly and confidently.
The lesson materials are all very thoughtfully prepared each with a clear lesson objective at the end. The way Mr Chia teaches essay tactics - for instance, the way to structure the essay in order to make it more complex is also very interesting and unlike what I have learnt from school. He also has a way to make his lessons interesting, cracking jokes along the way to make us feel more engaged.
All in all, I am sincerely grateful for Mr Chia’s help in responding all my questions regarding GP (even calling me to ensure I understand what he was saying HAHAH), going above and beyond by marking my extra practices, equipping me with excellent and broad content knowledge on GP! I am sure anyone under his guidance will definitely do well.
Li Ling
Millennia Institute
Teachers at illum.e teach lessons in a different way compared to other centres. They provide a lot of high quality notes and did tremendous research before lessons. The concise content lecture notes were extremely useful and a wonderful contrast to the thick stacks of readings that we would get in school or the directionless GP essay outlines (that are limited in applicability to only specific essays) that I would get at other centres. The notes gave a wide range of examples, points and evaluation strategies, which not only helped to give me the necessary content for the exams, but also made sure that i did not have to set aside too much time to do research, which allowed me to concentrate more on improving my essay and AQ skills, and also gave me time to focus on my other subjects.
The teachers were also very friendly and enthusiastic and it is clear that they enjoy teaching. Both Mr Chia and Mr Liew also teach in a very simple and structured manner, with clear strategies on how to answer each comprehension question type, as well as different strategies to structure essays or techniques for rebuttal. I enjoyed both the lectures and tutorials at the centre and i was able to make an improvement of one grade in just 1.5 months at the centre. I would like to thank my teachers for teaching me General Paper, as well as for the hope they have in me, and i hope to continue making further progress in the following year.
Kaushik
National Junior College
Mr Chia knows the A level syllabus in depth and knows which topics to focus on to teach the best content to score an A for GP based on statistics and trends! As a result lessons are rarely boring with the use of videos and engaging discussions with peers to craft essay outlines.
The illum.e notes prepared by Mr Chia are wide-ranging, allowing you to prepare topics of your interest. More importantly, the notes prepared contain contemporary examples that are very relevant to the topic and are easy to understand. Simply knowing the examples is not enough; Mr Chia teaches the best way to use these examples such as the "Holy Trinity" to show range of examples or other forms of categorisation.
Additionally Mr Chia teaches us how to identify question types in Paper 2 and gives us an easy framework to answer each question type, allowing us to answer the questions quickly and correctly during examinations.
What I love the most about Mr Chia is the fact that he teaches us various evaluation techniques that we can apply to any essay that we do in A Levels as well as various ways to increase complexity of the essay by analysing the key words of the essay questions in depth.
Another thing I love is that Mr Chia is always available and willing to answer queries even in the middle of the night! Mr Chia is always open for consultations to analyse essays written by the student to personally help him/her improve as every student has different weaknesses when it comes to GP.
As the illum.e teachers and Mr Chia are extremely well-versed with content across many topics and knows many tips and tricks to help students score an A for GP in A Levels, which I did, I highly recommend illum.e for your GP lessons!
Zoe
Nanyang Junor College
Mr Chia is a very funny teacher and makes lessons very intriguing by always sharing some of his experience to make us have a deeper impression on the lesson content taught. He is very detailed oriented, making lessons are easy to comprehend.
Illum.e’s notes include many examples that are concise and straight to the point. Furthermore, lessons were constantly about practicing skills and various questions which I felt was the key to doing well. My teacher’s step by step guidance on how to approach a question definitely helped me be more confident when attempting a paper.
Thank you, illum.e and Mr Chia, for always willing to mark my extra assignments and give comments on how I can improve.
After joining Mr Chia’s classes, I became much more interested in GP as his lessons were very engaging. Mr Chia is also an extremely encouraging and motivational teacher who believed in me despite me getting mostly E in my internal exams.
With Mr Chia’s committed teaching and dedicated guidance, I managed to achieve an A for GP in the A levels!
Fasilah
Catholic Junior College
I will always recommend illum.e as my tutor, Mr chia is a very thoughtful teacher! He ensures everyone understands the message he is trying to convey before moving on, allowing everyone to be on the same page! He is also very interactive and engaging with his students which allows students to voice out their thoughts and concerns without hesitation and most importantly, he provides a safe space for them to do so! Mr Chia is patient with his students, ensuring that each student has their doubts cleared and takes extra time to clarify them.
Mr chia also uses step by step strategies which allow students to follow easily and have a more structured way of learning which I really appreciate. He uses articles and videos to provide more diverse materials to cater to the various needs of students. He gives practices to do after teaching his content so students can apply what they learnt, and he also gives feedback immediately to improve which is very effective. Giving feedback on the spot has allowed me to be a critical thinker to actively think of ways to achieve the best outcome asap and this has helped me during my exams where I need to constantly check with myself whether my answers are fulfilling its outcome
I would like to thank illum.e and Mr Chia, for helping me articulate my thoughts and express myself more clearly in GP essays! He has been patient with me by taking time to answer my doubts and give me the extra boost of confidence to reach higher potential! Thus I would highly recommend illum.e and Mr Chia to others as I feel they can cater to the various learning needs and styles of students and the centre has structured and engaging lesson plans!
Parth
St Andrew's Junior College
Thank you Mr Chia for helping me improve in my GP, a subject that has always pulled me down and one that I have struggled with from the very start of JC.
The only thing I regret is not joining your classes earlier as I am sure it would have helped me even more. You have been an amazing teacher and I am eternally grateful for the notes that illum.e has provided me with as it has allowed me to be more targeted when studying for GP. I have no regrets about joining illum.e as it has done nothing but help me improve in this nightmarish subject.
I feel that Mr Chia is a very passionate teacher that tries to make lessons as interesting as possible (through videos and articles both local and international) without steering away from the main topic of discussion which to me was very important as it helped me learn in the most effective way.
He is also very critical and straightforward when it comes to giving feedback. This is crucial so that I know what I am doing wrong and I can quickly make the necessary changes. His critical attitude towards my work was really important for me as it gave me a very accurate gauge of the quality of my work.
I also enjoyed the content notes that were prepared by Mr Chia and illum.e as they were very informative and easy to understand.
There was also a wide variety of topics for me to choose to focus on which is something I really treasured as it gave me a really big advantage as I was able to focus on topics that I enjoyed and was confident about. The skills notes were also very effective as it helped me to improve on specific parts that I struggled in when doing comprehension. Thanks to Mr Chia and the materials that he prepared I did well for GP (I have never gotten anything above for a D for GP prior) and I highly recommend Mr Chia as a GP tutor!
Wei Siang
Anderson Serangoon Junior College
My biggest fear for not doing well in GP comes in Paper 2. Before joining KP, I have been getting very low marks for the Short Answer Questions(SAQ) as the range of the marks that I have obtained hovered around 1 to 4 marks.
There was simply no breakthrough before attending KP's lesson. I can understand that not many tuition centres would mainly focus on SAQ which is one of my biggest weakness in scoring for GP as many tuition centres would have assumed that you have at least a strong prior knowledge in that area. Hence, I thought this would put me to an extra disadvantage as nobody could exactly help me to rectify my problems.
But with KP's help, I managed to use a highlighter to spot clues and he has taught me 4 ways on how to paraphrase the clue sentence to fit the "Answer in your own words as far as possible" type of question. Again, at the initial stage, I barely saw any improvements, but during the Prelims, it shocked me. I have passed the SAQ section and it is the first achievement that I have ever made in my entire schooling life. Because of the strategies I learned from KP, I have passed my GP exam for the first time with an *improvement of 3 bands!*
Reagan
Hwa Chong Institution
I am very thankful for the help I received from KP!
KP, thank you so much for letting me join your classes so close to the start of A's. Before that my GP score was still around C and my essays really cannot make it, i still rmb my cher saying it was too late for her to help me during prelims. Thankfully I had your help and your lectures and videos really helped in improving my GP content and skills. I seriously owe my improvement in GP entirely to you and I really appreciate all the time you've given me despite me joining your class so late into the year.
Thank you so much again for the help in GP and allowing me to achieve the results I want for my dream courses.
Cindy
Raffles Junior College
I got an A KP! Thank you so much for your help! Thanks for marking the additional practices that I do and I really appreciate you making GP more fun for everyone. I have learnt a great deal from you!
Eric
Hwa Chong Institution
Before joining illum.e, GP was always confusing to me, and I never knew how to score well. I always averaged a E or D and going to many other GP centres and spending months of my J1 life there did nothing to help. But within a few weeks of joining illum.e, my perspective on GP shifted immediately. I could understand many skills and concepts much clearer due to the concise and effective teaching of the teachers at illum.e. Not only are they the true GP masters, but they are also passionate and driven to help us improve consistently. With great notes and unique skills and strategies, I immediately saw an improvement in my grades and I secured my first A after 2 months! Lessons are really engaging and I’d strongly recommend any student to join illum.e!
Cassandra
Nanyang Junior College
Unlike my previous experiences with other GP tutors or centres, illum.e is definitely an amazing experience with targeted, detailed and strategic skills taught together with concise and well-summarised notes which definitely makes illum.e the best GP tuition centre in Singapore, no cap!! The tutorials provide so much useful insights about GP, and their teaching style is so different from others in the sense that it immediately helps me understand what I need to do next to score well, which I did! The teachers are also super passionate and committed to helping us, and they have personalised growth plans for us through 1 to 1 consultations which helped me immensely! Thank you Illum.e!
Jimmy
Eunoia Junior College
The tutors here are very caring, approachable and friendly. The mastery that my tutor has in GP is amazing too! He could write an A essay in half the time it takes for me to plan one and I really look up to him. Knowing that, I quickly got myself to learn the different tricks and tips and I also enjoyed the well-thought out and concise notes for all the different topics for GP. I will always gain new insights from every tuition lesson, and I instantly saw improvement in my writing which was always my weakness. Definitely will recommend illum.e to all A level students!! :))
Andrew
Hwa Chong Institution
GP is, or should I say, WAS, a daunting subject for me, but things started to change after I joined illum.e’s classes. The lessons are well-structured, engaging and highly effective. They completely reshape what I know about GP into much understandable but yet scalable levels which enable me to score well. I can see how I can consistently improve and the growth mindset the teachers passed on to us is very encouraging. I am very happy to see my grades improving and scoring A’s!
Marissa
St. Andrew's Junior College
I thoroughly enjoyed learning with illum.e for the past year as the classes have made GP such a wonderful subject to learn. The lessons are always interesting and expose us to different content each week, and with skills tutorials, I became very familiar with the type of questions and what to expect in GP, and how to score. I became confident when tackling different GP questions on my own, which led me to score well for GP. Besides that, I have grown very interested in current affairs and I find myself analysing many current issues in the multiple perspectives that we were taught in class. Highly recommend illum.e’s best GP tuition classes!!
Sherley
Jurong Pioneer Junior College
I was having difficulties in GP in J1, and so my seniors recommended illum.e’s GP tuition to me. I was skeptical since I had never gone to any English tuitions before, but I decided to give it a go. I joined the June crash course and immediately understood what was wrong with my GP learning, especially with the help of all the teachers at illum.e who are passionate and caring. My grades jumped from S to B in my next paper, and I have to say that illum.e’s tutors and curriculum are definitely the best!!!
Izora
Hwa Chong Institution
I really enjoy the lessons here especially with Mr Yeo, Mr Liew and of course, Mr Chia. Not only do they always offer me constructive feedback, they teach GP very well and effectively! I look forward to GP classes here every week, and I would say I am very lucky to have found illum.e! I would recommend illum.e as the best GP centre to anyone who needs help in GP!