Many schools and centres have continued the traditional approach of teaching students about themes such as social media, technology, and environment as standalone subjects. However, the revised 8881 syllabus cannot be studied as if it were.
The revised syllabus places a strong emphasis on the application of knowledge across topics. It requires students to think flexibly, draw comparisons, and link arguments, which are crucial skills for effective study.
Here is how you can get started.
Developing Content Knowledge
Merely reading the local newspaper is insufficient. Students often struggle to retain the information they’ve learned. To strengthen your understanding and memory, it’s important to rely on a credible and mostly neutral source for information. After reading about a certain issue, it’s beneficial to explore different perspectives and arguments related to the facts.
Indigo’s General Paper notes are thoughtfully crafted to provide JC H1 General Paper students with regularly updated current affairs notes. These comprehensive notes contain distilled information, and this is followed by compelling arguments and perspectives related to the chosen topic, allowing students to save time on doing their own research and crafting their own notes.
Developing Critical Thinking Skills
One key skill student should develop is the ability to think critically. This skill is abstract and cannot be built overnight; it is developed over time. After learning the facts and perspectives surrounding an issue, students should develop their own thoughts and opinions about it. They can express these opinions by writing an essay or a paragraph or by debating it with someone else who is passionate about the same issue.
During Indigo’s GP lessons, the facilitation occurs in the current affairs segment. Here, the tutor leads discussions on relevant issues, giving students time to form their own opinions. Additionally, the weekly current affairs notes include past essay exam questions related to the topic, allowing students to use them for brainstorming and argument development so they can apply the content knowledge they have learnt.
Be a Generalist
In the past, students heavily relied on the tip to focus on one or two topics likely to appear in exams. However, the revised 8881 syllabus now includes more general and hybrid-type questions. General questions require broad knowledge across different topics, while hybrid-type questions demand comparisons and understanding across two topics to complete the essay. Consequently, studying by topics may often leave students unable to choose questions that require a broader approach.
In the Indigo GP classrooms, the weekly essay questions taught are not organized by topics. Instead, the essay topics are intentionally designed to be random on a weekly basis. This approach aims to help students develop flexibility in their thinking and places more emphasis on learning and applying skills that will help GP students tackle any type of question they may come across in the GP exam paper.