Ex-student

by Alicia See 5 years ago

Terry Chew

It's so strange that they couldn't find my record in their customer database!?!

I kept silence until now as I had reported my case to CASE. https://www.case.org.sg/complaint_onlinecomplaint.aspx

I emailed to them a few times and called several times but there was simply no reply. Up until this 1* bad review that I gave on 21/10/19.

This was our experience with TCA... My son had a trial lesson. Mr Leonard Yong called. I wanted to double check the fees if it was $960 per Term. He simply told me to come down to the centre for the lesson and Ms Marilyn would explain. There, she kept selling the Package which included 2 Bootcamps. I had explained that we could not make it for Sep'19 Bootcamp so I wasn't keen. But she agreed that my son could go for Dec'19 instead. So I paid $2,940 for:
$70 Registration fee
$100 Refundable deposit
$1,920 ($960x2) 24 lessons
$850 2 Bootcamps (discounted price for Package)
* the 24 lessons will last till around SA2 and I can buy another 9 months' Package in P6 (which can be pro-rated in P6 till PSLE)

But when we did not want to renew the Package, Mr Leonard Yong blatantly lied and said the Bootcamp is "FREE" and disallowed my son to attend Dec'19 Bootcamp. But wanted to simply pass us the Sep'19 Bootcamps notes. Those notes are useless if they are not taught and there is NO step/explanation or answer. And their notes were not even 100% error-free! For the amount of $425, one can simply buy tons of assessment books!!! So I refused and asked for refund. When he saw a Raffles Primary girl watching, he became 'defensive' about how good they were and even turned nasty to my son!!!

The school is badly managed. There were frequent changes of teachers. Kids from different levels (esp. P6) and abilities were slotted in for make up, call back, consultation, Olympiad, Bootcamp lessons. As long as there's lesson going on, they just slot anyone in. So the class dynamic was always disrupted. How can one learns? Any kid needs to warm up to the teacher and other kids before he feels at ease and dare to ask questions.

Some teachers were always late (from a few minutes to 40 minutes and we were locked out once). Most teachers look tired. Most male teachers were not as patient. With the exception of Teacher Catherine (she's kind, firm and very helpful) and Teacher Sharaniya (she's patient and helpful).

Usually, most lessons were incomplete. Despite going through with my son at home and bringing them back for marking the next lesson, they were not marked (only marked twice).

Even though my son attended call back lessons, they did not have any personalised roadmap/plan to identify his conceptual gaps or weaknesses and his progress was never recorded/tracked. He was made to just sit through the same whole lesson which he had attended the same week. Whereas some P6 kids attended P5 lessons as call back. So after a few weeks, we stopped going for any call back lessons altogether. It was a total waste of time!

Even though a teacher said she would use part of the lessons to do 'consultation', she had never done so with my son.

The Bootcamp were not really beneficial. Most kids were in holiday mood and some were rather playful. The different teachers tried to 'cram' everything and didn't have any time to check if the kids understand and no personalised help was given.

The highest score for their own in-house Prelims was 40+ for P5 (which means the kids only attained 40% mastery or lesser). Which they claimed was due to their higher level of difficulty. I had asked for my son's Prelims paper but it was not returned as they could not find it.

I also did not receive the Solve Exam-type Mathematics Word Problems in 28 Essential Lessons Assessment book (as stated in the Package).

The invoice was not given upon payment for checking. I only get to see it for the 1st time after my 1* bad review.

Even though my son loved attending the lessons and wanted to learn and enjoyed the friends there, it had not benefitted much. Moreover, his friends had also quitted as they disliked the teacher.

- gave 1* review on 21/10/19 & wrote comment on 25/10/19

Best Methods for Approaching Problem Sums

by Leonard Yong 5 years ago

My nephew was failing in his mathematics since P4 so i decided to send him for the PSLE A* Mathematics Course at Terry Chew Academy. He was taught many problem-solving strategies and was able to manage Section C more easily.

After 3 months, he started passing and so he continued for another year. In the end he got a B for his PSLE! Without your help i think he will not even pass. Very thankful for your kind guidance and support!

Rich Content and Clear Guidance

by Guest 8 years ago

Thank You Mr Chew, I just received news that Hwa Chong has accepted my son via DSA. Nathan said you have inspired him to be confident in his thinking skills and your worksheets are very content-rich. We are really lucky to have him been trained by you.

Looking forward to continuing the training for SMO Junior competition. He has lots to learn from you.