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1-to-1 tuition is generally considered the fastest way to help a student.

We go to the student's residence and give tuition.  1-to-1 tuition allows us to evaluate a specific student's English proficiency and come up with a suitable teaching plan.  Students tend to be more relaxed when they are in familiar settings (like their home), and travel time is minimized because we come to you.

After the first lesson, students may decide if they want to continue with the current tutor.

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Here's what we do during 1-to-1 tuition.

•  Composition (Paper 1)

Firstly, we ask the student to show us how he or she does composition planning.  Evaluating the question and planning the essay is critical.  Many students shorten the planning to about 5 minutes and start writing as soon as possible.  We teach the student to identify the call of the question, go through a mind-mapping exercise, create an argumentative strategy, and then do a quick paragraph planning.  With practice, the student can perform all these within 10 to 15 minutes.

In later lessons, we show students how to pick question topics most suited to them.  We also correct your grammar, teach sentence structuring, and train the student in developing a written argument.

• Comprehension (Paper 2)

We ask the student to do a comprehension paper.  From this, we can evaluate the student's reading speed, reading pattern (does he re-read the same line 2-3 times?), and overall comprehension of the passage.  Some students have good comprehension but read too slowly.  Others get stuck on a phrase or word and re-read it several times.  We teach the student techniques to improve comprehension as well as basic speed reading skills.

We teach you how to answer a question "in your own words".  Many students simply paraphrase the relevant part of the passage, this is not always the correct way to answer.

Lastly, the summary and the AQ are not difficult if you know the correct way to approach them.  Usually, we start teaching the summary and AQ during the 2nd or 3rd lessons.

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Many students just want to "do well" for the exams.  Other students want a crash course 3 months before the exams.  There is no one-size-fits-all lesson plan.  Each student is motivated differently.  But if you can get the teaching method right, the learning process is a very rewarding one.