Chinese Compo Writing Formula

Through these years of teaching, one common problem in students’ Chinese compo is that, they are constantly looking for a “formula” for Chinese essay writing, just like Math and the science subjects.

As we all know, in order to score in O level, students drill on the ten-year series.  This will let them familiar with the type of questions that are tested, and as well as given them an idea what to study and what not to.  Through this drill, students will see a “pattern” of the exam questions.  For Math and science subjects, once you see the question pattern, you are able to solve the question with a standard steps.

Hence, many students memorise passages from those “exemplar” compo and pour them back to the examiners in PSLE. Although this could help them score some marks in PSLE, it is not necessarily true for O level. Memorising the good phrases can be helpful, but using them correctly is the key. Just like applying the correct formulae in Math and Science.

Furthermore, the type of phrases to be used is very different from PSLE as the requirement for O level Chinese compo writing is different from PSLE.  Hence, learning the correct formulae is also very important.