Posted at 2:14 pm by Miss Loi in Miss Loi the Tutor
金
曜
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2010
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12
Mar
Miss Loi avatar

2010 GCE ‘O’ Level Exam Timetable - Black Friday

(1)

According to the Mayan calendar and a movie, the World will end in 2012.

But according to the SEAB, a cataclysmic event may will strike earlier for some on 29 October 2010.

That’s because in the just-released 2010 GCE ‘O’ Level exam timetable for Singapore, whoever in charge of planning it has aligned the Mathematical and Scientific constellations closer together to result in a very, very, very, very, very Last-Minute Buddha Foot Huggers-unfriendly

Black Friday
Black Friday!

when dreary-eyed AMaths students at the end of The Week of Mathematical Armageddon (2010 Edition) will find themselves with a marathon series of back-to-back-to-back papers of AMaths Paper 1 (previous day’s afternoon), AMaths Paper 2 (morning) and, of all subjects, a Chemistry or Combined Science written paper in the afternoon!

Behold, for there shall be a Great Tribulation
such has not been seen in many O-Level examinations.
Woe to those who believe till the end
that they themselves are Iron Men.
Burning their midnight oil the night before,
but doomed to fall by the hundreds in the exam halls
under the dark skies of Black Friday.
The price to pay for their Last-Minute Buddha Foot Hugging ways.

Yes, for the ‘chosen’ ones, it will be your first day of waking up early. (after many days of afternoon papers)

There will be no time to squeeze the entire AMaths and Science syllabus together in that few hours the night before.

There will be no time to ’stretch’ yourselves by doing ‘more’ AMaths questions the night before.

There may not even be time for Miss Loi & Little Miss Loi to do a last-minute 双剑合壁 joss sticks session the night before!

Oh yes it’s BRUTAL! It’s CRUEL! It’s SADISTIC!

But instead of cursing the idiot who set the timetable whining, aim to complete your Ten-Year Series and know your topics by heart before the English paper starts, as you’ll need a clear mind for morning’s AMaths (with only enough time to quickly run through the topics absent from Paper 1 the day before) and somehow retain the spirit to recall stuff for your Science in the afternoon.

So if you’re currently on course to be a life-time honorary member of this club,

REPENT! And don’t try to be a last-minute Iron Man!
No Iron Man!
Barred from exam hall because of inappropriate attire

There are still >7 months left to cover 4 years’ worth of work. And Miss Loi shall leave you with a scary quote she found in a local forum for you to bring along to your camps in this March Holidays:

What I know for last year’s Emaths,
70 plus - C5,
88 - B3,
2 mistakes - A2.

Combined Science, around 80 - B3.

*sweats*

Posted at 8:45 pm by Miss Loi in A-Maths Questions
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2010
Sat
6
Mar
Miss Loi avatar

M Is For Miracle

(11)

Continuing from last week’s episode …

Night has fallen when the Maths Tutor reached her car.

Just as she was about to start the engine and drive away, the street lamps began to flicker wildly.

A great sense of foreboding filled the air, as a strange vision suddenly flashed before her eyes …

In an imaginary grid, a man walks along a straight street defined by the equation: mx + (m − 1)y = 10

At the same time, a black car zooms furiously along a straight road defined by the equation: (m − 2)x + 3my = 20

The car will hit the man if their paths meet …

A scream snapped her out of her trance before her vision was complete, and she blinked her eyes in time to see a frightened woman pushed a man away under the glare of the bright street lamps.

The man (who happens to be our young henchman if you’ve been following the previous episodes) then turned around and walked away with his head bowed, looking dejected.

In a shocking realization of her déjà vu experience, she recognized the man as the walking man in her vision just moments ago.

And in that very moment, the silence of the night was broken by the unmistakable roar of a speeding car’s engine, while the Maths Tutor could only cover her eyes and pray for a miracle …

… find the ‘miracle’ value of m where the paths of the car and the man would never meet.
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Posted at 1:27 am by Miss Loi in E-Maths Questions
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2010
Sat
27
Feb
Miss Loi avatar

Hell Hath No Fury Like An Ah Beng Scorned

(9)
如有雷同纯属巧合

Continuing from last week’s episode …

The shadows lengthened rapidly as dusk began to fall.

The *clack clack clack* of the Maths Tutor’s killer 5-inch Jimmy Choo stilettos echoed off the concrete walls as she made her way towards the elevator down the corridor, each step an excruciating twist of an imaginary dagger deeper into his wounded heart.

The Ah Beng cut a lonely figure as he watched, forlornly, her lithe figure receding gradually into the distance … along with his hopes … leaving him with a profound feeling of loss …

But loss often leads to suffering, suffering leads to anger, and anger leads to hate. And suddenly a voice whispered in his head,

Oh my mighty Smiling 哥 of this sprawling GRC, how can you stomach this? No one here has ever said NO to you! What would the others say?

He eyes began to narrow as he unwittingly gripped the mandarin orange tighter and tighter …

Remember what the Maths Tutor taught her students? When all seem lost and no matter how difficult the exam is, never hand in a blank paper! At least write something to score some working marks! NEVER GIVE UP!!!

Consumed by the Dark Side rage, he crushed the poor mandarin orange and threw it violently to the floor (to the shock of the watching kaypoh aunties), and decided that not only will he NOT give up, he’ll make sure he gets his Maths Tutor by any means necessary.

.
.
.

Meanwhile the sickening sound of that splattered mandarin orange startled the Maths Tutor, who couldn’t wait for the elevator door to open while the Ah Beng calmly began calling his henchmen on his phone …

As all his usual henchmen are busily gambling away at the new Sentosa Casino, the only one available is a young fresh ‘recruit’ who happens to be hanging around nearby.

The Young Henchman
The Young Henchman

From the GPS application on his phone, the Ah Beng marks out his HDB flat’s location as X. His lone henchman is currently situated at Y which is due east of X. He spots the Maths Tutor’s car parked at Z which is on a bearing 210° from X. X, Y and Z all lie on horizontal ground. The Maths Tutor enters the elevator at a point T which is directly and vertically above X, with the angle of elevation of T from Y being 17°. On his GPS map with a scale of 1 : 5000, XY = 5 cm and XZ = 6 cm.

To catch the Maths Tutor, the henchman needs to reach her car at Z before she does. But the henchman is unfamiliar with the territory, and only has a small 20-cent compass he extorted from a kid in the neighbourhood. Find

  1. the actual distance between Y and Z (in m).
  2. the bearing he must tell his henchman in order for the latter to locate the car.

Assuming the henchman sets off for the car at a constant speed of 3 m/s along YZ the moment the elevator (with the tutor on board) begins its uninterrupted descent from T at a constant speed of 1.9 m/s to the ground floor at X, afterwhich she removes her Jimmy Choos and runs straight for the car along XZ at a constant speed of 2.5 m/s, who will reach the car first?

Will Loi Loi escape? Or will Smiling 哥 finally have her in his clutches?

Stay tuned for the next episode after someone solves the (cheong hei) math questions above!

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Posted at 3:28 pm by Miss Loi in E-Maths Questions
月
曜
日
2010
Mon
15
Feb
Miss Loi avatar

The Foolish Things People Do For A Sexy Maths Tutor

(8)

(If you have no idea what this is all about, please read Part 1 first)

如有雷同纯属巧合
Upgraded HDB Estate
The Ah Beng’s sprawling
(& fully-upgraded) territory

He surveyed his vast territory from the common corridor of his HDB flat, watching families going about their Chinese New Year visits, and young couples strolling along with their Valentine’s Day bouquets in hand.

The years had been good to him, as the Ah Beng rose and rose through the ranks of his secret society to become the dreaded right-hand man of his Triad Chief, having applied the mathematical skills he had picked up to impress with his lightning speed of calculating exorbitant compound interests for the entire loan shark network, and his ability to deduce (using mensuration formulae) with frightening accuracy the exact volume of paint needed to be splashed on each victim’s door to avoid accidental damage to neighbouring property.

But despite his stellar career in a finance industry that would’ve made some L1R5 ≤ 6 pts students green with envy, there remained a sense of emptiness that gnawed at his heart …

AIYOOOOOOOO!!!!!

A pesky voice jolted him from his reverie.

You are still single?????! When are you going to find a husband?!

Sufficiently intrigued, he walked to the HDB unit where the commotion came from, and peered through the window panes, just like the old days.

Better quickly find a boyfriend while you are still pretty! Your cousin Ling Ling’s already pregnant with her second child!

In a typical Hong Kong drama scene when the 插曲 (i.e. secondary track) usually starts playing, the Ah Beng’s heart skipped a beat when he found himself staring at a woman seated in the room - the sole reason for his feeling of emptiness all these years. And though she was beginning to look a bit rough on the edges, she was still as stunning to him as when he first set eyes on her many years ago (thanks to the facial products she has been using).

So when are you planning to get married? Don’t you think you’re too old for ang bao???

As she started to look helplessly distressed in the face of her relatives’ relentless interrogation, he sensed that it was now or never. And so in a classic 不管三七二十一 (don’t-care-3-7-21) moment, he barged into the room to yell in perfect Hokkien

I AM HER BOYFRIEND!

After a prolonged period of awkward silence, one of the aunties recovered from the shock and muttered

Aiyoh got boyfriend already don’t be shy to tell us lah! By the way, what’s your name and occupation Handsome?

Recognizing that “Triad Chief’s right-hand man” won’t be an appropriate answer on this occasion, the Ah Beng smiled and confidently replied with the first occuption that crossed his mind

Everyone calls me ‘Smiling 哥’. I am a Maths Tutor.

Oooh you’re a Maths tutor too just like my Loi Loi? Such a match made in Heaven!

By the way if you don’t mind, I have a maths question that has been troubling me all night. Should be chicken feed to a maths expert like you!

At the Chinatown market last night, a stall keeper sold me two jars of pineapple tarts at the same price. He claimed that, while he made a profit of 20% on one of them, he also made a loss of 20% on the other - hence he “didn’t make any money from me”.

In order to find out once and for all if he was telling the truth, can you help me calculate the overall percentage gain/loss on selling the two jars of pineapple tarts?

Given that the Ah Beng’s maths has become rusty ever since he delegated most of his calculation tasks to his runners after he became the right-hand man (see, maths is all about constant practice!), can you please do a good deed on this Chinese New Year/Valentine’s Day to help him get out of this fix???

P.S. ‘Smiling 哥’ actually turned desperately to look at the real maths tutor for help, but all he got was a fierce glance from an angry Loi Loi, since afterall, she had no idea who he was.

Posted at 1:05 pm by Miss Loi in Miss Loi the Tutor
土
曜
日
2010
Sat
13
Feb
Miss Loi avatar

A Word From Miss Loi’s Toes …

(3)

On behalf of all at The Temple, these two feline folks on Miss Loi’s toes would like to wish all

Tiger Toes
ROOOOOOOAR!
在虎年
步步高升! 虎虎生威‎!

Now don’t laugh at her chubby toes!

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