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2010
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14
Apr
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A Tale of Two Tai Tais

(4)
Posted at 9:06 pm by Miss Loi in E-Maths Questions
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OH MY GOD! You haven’t changed at all since I last saw you years ago! Still look so young and pretty!

, exclaimed the well-dressed Tai-Tai A as she gave Tai-Tai B a big hug over a table at Starbucks.

Don’t flatter me lah. *Hiaz* My two kids have been giving me sleepless nights all this while. In fact, I’ve just seen the school principal after one of them was allegedly involved in a big fight in some rugby game *smacks forehead*

How’s life for you?

, asked Tai-Tai B.

Same old routine everyday. Shopping, gym and spa in the day. Mahjong at night if I can gather the girlfriends. Plus the occasional weekend shopping trip to Japan and Korea. Life’s getting boring to be honest.

, replied Tai-Tai A, as she twiddled her exquisitely manicured fingernails.

Wow enjoying life huh? I still have to take care of my two kids, and face my two parents-in-law every day as they are living with us in our HDB flat!

, protested Tai-Tai B.

Gosh you are still living with his parents??? My husband and I moved into our spanking new condo the day we got married. Till now no parents, no kids – just a new convertible sports car we bought last year Haha.

Tai-Tai A’s fingers moved slowly to caress the 1-carat diamond on her ring.

Ooh I’m so envious! And to make things worse, I have to handle everything by myself every time my husband gets called up for those stupid NS stints!

, complained Tai-Tai B.

The you should have married a PR like what I’ve done! No NS! Hee hee …

It’s now Tai-Tai A’s LV bag’s turn to be fondled.

Eh tomorrow’s tax filing deadline. You filed your taxes already?

Yes I just helped my husband calculate his income last night.

Oh so how much did your husband earn last year?

Errr … can don’t say or not? Embarassing lah especially when compared to yours! Let’s just say that his total tax payable is 4% of his total annual income.

Oh I see. We did ours last night too and my husband’s total tax payable is 6% of his total annual income. Oh well … earn more pay more … what to do? *Sigh*

As Tai-Tai B’s face began turning green with jealousy, unbeknown to them, a kaypoh maths tutor had been busily eavesdropping on their entire conversation from the next table. And being unable to tolerate Tai-Tai A’s hao lian bitchy attitude, she began to stroke the keys on her calculator in an attempt to find out exactly how much their husbands were earning …

As stated, Tai-Tai A’s husband’s total tax payable is 6% of his total annual income and Tai-Tai B’s husband’s total tax payable is 4% of his total annual income.

Given that both Tai-Tais are not working (obviously, else they won’t be Tai-Tais), and that their husbands are entitled to the following reliefs, where applicable (Source: IRAS 2009):

  • Personal: $1000
  • Parent: $7000 per parent staying with them / $4500 per parent not staying with them
  • Spouse: $2000
  • Children: $4000 per child
  • NSMan: $3000 where applicable

Using information from their conversation above and IRAS 2009 tax rates below, calculate the total annual income of each husband to find out whose husband earns more.

IRAS’ 2009 tax rates:

Chargeable Income Rate (%) Gross Tax Payable ($)
First $20,000
Next $10,000		 0
3.50		 0
350
First $30,000
Next $10,000		 -
5.50		 350
550
First $40,000
Next $40,000		 -
8.50		 900
3400
First $80,000
Next $80,000		 -
14		 4300
11200
First $160,000
Next $160,000		 -
17		 15500
27200
First $320,000
Next $320,000		 -
20		 42700
 

While it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be asked to read through such a lengthy bitchy conversation in an actual exam question on the minor topic of taxation, there’ll still usually be a wee bit of reading comprehension involving the basics of calculating taxes i.e.

  • All mortals are taxed on their
    Chargeable Income = Total/Gross Annual Income − Reliefs
  • Find out which row in the given tax rates table the chargeable income falls into.

By the way, Tai-Tai A just asked again …

Have YOU filed your taxes already?
,
金
曜
日
2010
Fri
9
Apr
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Jφss Sticks Relighted!

(22)
Posted at 10:28 pm by Miss Loi in Miss Loi the Tutor
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To the … umm … slight embarrassment of Miss Loi’s kindly friends and relatives who have been sending her warm wishes for the ’successful transition to ChΘρsticks‘ (and taking the opportunity to ask for the Feng Shui Master’s contact), it’s that bit of ‘TA-DA!‘ time again as Jφss Sticks have been relighted! (Chopsticks and what uneaten rice are plain silly don’t you think?)

Following only its second facelift in 3.5 years (coz the Trusty Webmaster’s rates ain’t cheap! :( ), new amenities and features of the new Jφss Sticks 3.0 (for the benefit of its blog residents and readers) now include:

  • New Exam Paper Viewer

    Exam Paper Viewer For a start, a new exam paper viewer has been designed complete with Oscar-winning Avatar-styled animated effects to, hopefully, make your viewing of Miss Loi’s fabled exam papers a more pleasant experience.

    Existing subscribers who happen to be startled by this should rest be assured that your computer is not infected by any virus.

  • Threaded Comments

    Reply pencil icon You can now use this little pencil to initiate an even more ‘intimate’ conversation with Miss Loi (or any commenter) by replying directly to a point she made (and vice versa). This should help make epic & long-ish multiparty discussions like this one easier to follow.

    P.S. Please use this with discretion. Do not abuse this poor little pencil just for the sake of starting an ‘intimate’ but ultimately meaningless conversation with Miss Loi.

  • Gravatars

    A sample gravatar To those of you with personalized Gravatars, your handsome and pretty profile pics will finally see the light of day on this blog!

    If you don’t have one, you’ll be randomly assigned a venerable math symbol whenever you leave a comment, whether you like it or not. So get a gravatar if you do not like to be associated with random things in life, like HDB flat units and car plate numbers.

  • Connect with Facebook

    Connect with Facebook In an effort to encourage more comments from all who have sold their souls to Facebook, it’s now possible to leave a comment here and get your Facebook profile link & avatar automatically displayed via a one-time click of this button.

    Yes, no more typing out your name & email every time you comment, you lazy bums!

  • Twitter Love

    Twitter Love If you have a Twitter account, you can now enter your Twitter ID whenever you leave a comment to generate a cutesy link to your Twitter profile which will, hopefully, help you to attract more internet marketing spammers followers to your Twitter account.

  • Blog Comment Love

    Blog Comment Love If you have blog, you may now opt to generate a link to your latest blog post whenever you leave a comment which will, hopefully, help you to attract more stalkers readers to your blog.

  • Jφss Sticks Social Media Love

    Social Media Love With current craze into anything that’s social media (whatever that means), buttons have sprung up throughout this blog encouraging/imploring/begging you to spread, retweet and share with your friends the goodness that is Jφss Sticks, in return for good karma from Miss Loi.

  • Lastly … umm … can you see that the grass below has grown and little clumps of flowers have sprung up? :P

Yeah yeah yeah Jφss Sticks is WOLS and some of the above features can be found in many blogs … but but but … it takes time to put these things in nicely in order keep this blog as pretty as its fussy owner it can be okay!

As per the last upgrade long ago (who ask the Trusty Webmaster to charge so high?!), there’s bound to be a bug or two flying around so please let Miss Loi know if any page anywhere doesn’t look right to you.

Now back to think of the continuation to that Angsana tree story …

木
曜
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2010
Thu
1
Apr
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Jφss Sticks Renamed

(11)
Posted at 10:38 am by Miss Loi in Study Break
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UPDATE (a week after APRIL FOOLS’): To those of you who have been asking Miss Loi for the contact of her ‘very, very famous Feng Shui Master’, he doesn’t exist since this is an APRIL FOOLS’ joke. Repeat, an APRIL FOOLS’ joke!

UPDATE (post APRIL FOOLS’): Chopsticks is such a silly name (for a tuition centre) :P

UPDATE: In view of the huge amount of work involved in ‘converting’ Jφss Sticks to ChΘρsticks, this blog will be shut down for a scheduled maintenance from 12am tonight (2 April 2010).

Hope to be up and running again by Saturday!

Truth be told: Miss Loi has been regularly consulting a Feng Shui Master (a very, very famous one if she might add) on matters pertaining to her outlook in life, place of residence, business and … umm … the affairs of the heart.

High on the list is, of course, the well-being of this beloved blog of hers and she was devastated when being told, in no uncertain terms, that the name Jφss Sticks is extremely inauspicious and that it would bring great woe and misfortune to her (and possibly its readers) should it be continued to be used in the future.

Overcoming her initial reluctance to part with a name that she (and presumably all readers) had grown attached to all these years, she nevertheless got down to business and, after numerous in-depth brainstorming sessions in the past weeks with the Master in his office (hence the lack of blog entries during this period), she has decided (with the Feng Shui Master’s venerable input and blessings) that …

… From the perspective of many weak students, mathematical topics are often like tiny grains of rice scattered all over the table. And since Miss Loi’s role is to facilitate the task of “picking up” these concepts as quickly and elegantly as possible, it is only supremely fitting to name this blog after the ancient tool invented for this purpose.

And so with immediate effect, Jφss Sticks shall be renamed

ChΘρsticks

And Jφss Sticks Sessions are now ChΘρsticks sessions!

And with further input from the Master, based on the Chinese old wives’ tale that one (or one’s future husband/wive or whoever) will be cursed with a pock mark for each uneaten grain of rice, the tagline shall henceforth be changed to

“For Effective Prevention of Pock Marks From Uneaten Grains of Knowledge“

Nice, witty and creative don’t you think? What else do you expect from Miss Loi? *flicks hair*

As you can see, the blog header has been amended to reflect these changes, and the rest of the website shall follow suit in due time, since the wise Feng Shui Master has ordered ALL traces of the nasty words Jφss Sticks to be removed by a certain auspicious date/time or else …

Lastly Miss Loi would like to thank you (her readers) for supporting Jφss Sticks (oops must refrain from speaking the words!) this blog in the past years, and though it has been painful for her to change the name, she looks forward to your continued loyal support for ChΘρsticks from now on.

*braces herself for lotsa work this long weekend* :(

金
曜
日
2010
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12
Mar
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2010 GCE ‘O’ Level Exam Timetable – Black Friday

(6)
Posted at 2:14 pm by Miss Loi in Miss Loi the Tutor
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UPDATE: For those of you searching for exam timetables, Jφss Sticks’ 2010 ‘O’ Level & ‘A’ Level exam timetables are now available for download straight into your personal organizer (i.e. Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar etc.)!

Disclaimers apply – please read the paragraphs below the download links before you click!

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*

土
曜
日
2010
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6
Mar
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M Is For Miracle

(12)
Posted at 8:45 pm by Miss Loi in A-Maths Questions
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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.
,