Celeste Ho,HCI

Hi Mr Mike Wang,

As you have heard, the 2020 A level results are out, and I hope I’ve done you proud.

It was a very tough journey indeed, especially in H2 Chem as we all know that the trend is leaning more towards application, rather than just memorising and vomiting out whatever we memorised. However, I did not get defeated by the visceral fear, for you were there for all of us, being our confidence booster.

I recalled myself taking the Chem paper (especially paper 2), and the application was really weird to me. I could not grasp the concept they want, and i started panicking as time started to tick away. Seeing how the minutes had gone by one by one, I repeatedly told myself to calm down, and to move on to other questions first. I remembered you once told us to think about the basics, the small tricks that you had taught us, and thankfully, other questions were fine. To be honest, I was very disheartened after chemistry paper 2, as I felt that my A grade was gone. Even B grade felt like a far away dream, and it nearly affected my math paper the following day. Despite that, I picked myself up, and tried my best to be confident for paper 3, as I knew that organic Chem was my strength.

Remembering the way you taught us on how to identify whether the lone pair of electrons in nitrogen is involved in hybridisation (which I still rem till today 😂) and then teaching it to my classmates, looking at their mind-blown faces was a reminder that whatever you taught me, was still in me. Countless of small tactics and interesting ways to remember important information that you taught us was what gave me back the confidence that I will and can do well in my next paper. Fortunately enough, paper 3 was pretty decent (although I had a few calculation careless mistakes, but my organic was well done). For this particular paper, I recalled what you taught us about spotting patterns in elucidation. And there it was, right in front of my eyes, an application-based elucidation, which I managed to solve it confidently. It wouldn’t have been possible without your help.

Now that I reflect upon my two years in your lessons, they really helped me in overcoming this huge hurdle in JC. I can never emphasise enough how I came in with a U grade grade and jumping to a B grade in 4-5 months time, which you had played a big role. Your lessons are inspiring and fun, and I could feel your love and passion for chemistry. On the big day, upon seeing an A grade for my H2 Chem, I was more than just delighted. I was over the moon, and feeling so thankful that my hard work did not go to waste, and that I did not let you down. I have always loved chemistry, and your passion in teaching this subject just seemed to make it grow stronger. I hope that you will continue to stay passionate in this subject and inspiring many generations to come, being THEIR confidence booster and making a change in their lives.

Thank you and Happy Chinese New Year Mr Wang.

Yours sincerely,
Celeste Ho