It’s now March, regardless of whether you’re in J1 or J2, you still have a lot of time to make a difference in your GP journey. Start by aiming to do well for the upcoming common test!
Did you know that GP is one of the subjects with the lowest national percentages of A at around 22-25% while most other subjects are above 30% or even above 40%? That means that in the whole Singapore, only about 1/4 or 1/5 of the cohort would receive an A.
Does that mean it is an extremely challenging subject? Yes and No. Yes because it is difficult and confusing if you just jump into the subject and hope to do well. No because it is actually intuitive and straightforward the moment you understand how to study for the subject. GP seems very broad, so if you don’t have a targeted strategy you may struggle with it quite a bit. The good news is GP is really much easier when you understand what needs to be done and I am here to share that with you 🙂
Here are 4 simple steps to START studying for GP Essay (Paper 1) even if you’re absolutely clueless at the moment:
1. Choose a theme that interests you
There are many themes out there in GP but you have to be strategic about it! Choose from those themes that are more major. By major, i mean that they come out for A Levels nearly every year and sometimes even have 2 questions in a year. The themes i personally find important are: Science & Tech | Arts | Media | Politics | Environment | Social Issues. One other themes you can focus on is “In your society” questions, which means you specialise in all knowledge of Singapore no matter in what aspects (be it our work dynamics, green spaces, food culture, city living, diversity, crime & punishment, tech advancements, politics and foreign policy etc). Check out this article if you need some more information about the various themes!
Pro Tip: Pick something from the major themes!
I stress finding a theme that you LIKE. Legit, there will definitely be at least ONE theme that interest you. Liking that theme is very important because it gives you the motivation to find out more about that theme. Also, when you are writing essays from that theme you will naturally demonstrate more personal voice. If you really don’t have any preference, you could either go with what your school has selected or you can try my personal favourite Arts because Arts has very timeless examples and can include some really interesting stuff like movies and books!
You may be wondering what about other themes like education, sports, crime, fashion, poverty? Well i think of these topics as fringe topics that are not as major as the abovementioned ones simply because they do not come out as often. Some of them like education is also particularly challenging and requires a highly nuanced response. So i would recommend picking from the major themes. You should pick at least two themes to work on, but for starters go with one first and dive deeper into it.
2. Look at what questions there are for that theme
The next thing to do is to look at the potential questions that are being asked for that theme. I always encourage students/peers/friends to look at questions because it gives a very succinct and comprehensive overview of what that topic entails. Imagine if you just dive into Science and Tech, you would probably Google that and read what comes up but that becomes a little inefficient since the scope of the topic is virtually endless. Conversely, looking at questions evinces the key topics and concerns surrounding that theme. Once again, you can check out the article i wrote previously to see what types of questions there are.
Pro Tip: Spot the trends across different questions!
Note that questions can be similar. Don’t be overwhelmed by the large number of questions. Instead, seek to spot some trends among the pool of questions to see which ones are similar and relate to the same key concern. For instance, asking whether Science and Tech empowers us or imprisons us, or whether it has been a blessing or whether it has caused more divides, are all forms of asking about the consequences of Science and Tech. Of course, that is not to say you write the same essay for these different questions, but rather you could study for them in the same way or use similar examples. What changes is the way you argue and define the key words in the question.
3. Read some essays or articles to build content
Once you have identified the key theme and some key issues of that theme, you can proceed to build your content! It’s kinda like playing Pokemon where you have to train your Pokemon and expose them to outside gym battles. Similarly, you have to take time to accumulate your own content pool about this topic. The earlier you start, the more solid your content knowledge will be!
Pro Tip: Get content from reading essays!
Model essays are powerful tools because in one essay, it’s packed with so many arguments and examples. Check out some model essays here! The point here is not for you to memorise these essays, but to learn from them. I really mean this, because if you memorise and regurgitate, it may only work if the exact same question comes out. If the question is different even slightly, you would be failing to answer the question and simply spamming content in your essay. From essays, extract the arguments and examples. After that, you could really spend some time thinking about what you just read, how you feel about it, and how it relates to your own opinion. Actively digesting and evaluating what you read is important to train your critical thinking skills and help develop your personal voice (the X factor that differentiates A-grade essays in the exams).
You may also read some articles or opinion pieces but you must be selective because otherwise the huge amounts of time you spend reading would not amount to any proper content that you can use for your own writing. Pick opinion pieces that makes arguments about a larger issue rather than just an article which gives facts about an event and no arguments.
4. Start writing some paragraphs and get feedback!
After all the reading, you need to try writing and answering the questions!
This is really crucial because you can only improve when you try and you can only truly understand when you apply. From all the questions that you have seen, pick one and it’s time to show what you have got! It’s like going for gym battles with your Pokemon! If you are defeated, don’t lose heart, simply get feedback and work on it.
Feedback is extremely important for improvement because otherwise you will just keep repeating the same mistakes. Practice doesn’t make perfect, effective practice makes perfect. You have to make tweaks to your own writing every time you practice. Seek consultations with teachers or tutors. Remember, it is very important to have someone give you comments on your work and writing and also provide concrete steps that outline how you can improve. If you only get a comment saying you have not answered the question but you have no idea why, then you need to ask further because the why is what will help improvement. When I was a student previously (not that long ago), i found the most useful feedback to be the ones that can pinpoint exactly WHERE i have gone wrong and HOW i can improve.
Pro Tip: You don’t have to write an entire essay to practice! You can simply write just one paragraph and that’s good enough for you to try and apply what you have read and learned
If you have read this far, kudos to you to taking a step in improving your GP 🙂 The next step is to try out these 4 simple steps! It will surely take time but the sooner you start the easier it gets. I know of many students who wait till 1-2 months before exams before really revising or going for tuition. Honestly, that is not as effective because as you would have noticed by now, GP is a subject that takes time to improve. So go out there and ace GP essays with these steps!
Stay tuned for Part 2 few weeks from now where we will look at another 4 simple steps for studying Compre (Paper 2)! 🙂 And yes, if you are surprised Compre can be studied for, it can!
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