Student Testimonial Vol.9

David Reynard Panderaja

Subjects

Mathematics

Started

5 years old

David plays the piano, loves to swim and practices taekwondo. Fascinated with tall buildings, David reads about the world’s famous tall buildings and would want to see them all personally. His dream is to construct the world’s tallest building.

To construct any building, the foundation is of utmost importance. Laying the essential foundation accurately right from the start ensures a safe and stable structure at the end.

For Kumon study, the benefits of doing the basics right and consistently from the beginning include cultivating a good study attitude and developing skills to face challenges. This is what David’s mum, Hani, paid attention to since enrollment and David is now an independent and confident boy who is eager to expand his knowledge and pursue his potential.

“Kumon requires hard work and parents’ commitment.” This is what Hani told a friend who enquired about Kumon.

Hani enrolled David into the maths programme when he was five years old. Initially, getting him to do worksheets everyday was a struggle. Hence she set a Kumon time daily for David to do his worksheets. It took a couple of months for him to get into the routine. Now Hani does not have to worry about getting David to complete his work. He knows when he should finish his school homework and Kumon work and would complete them independently.

Be it weekdays, weekends, or public holidays; at home or during vacations, David never missed a single day of Kumon. This routine enabled David to continue building his ability in maths and maintain his study progress. The challenge for Hani as the parent is to try to manage David's schedule efficiently, so that he can still enjoy other activities without compromising his Kumon homework.

In less than a year of consistent hard work completing worksheets every day, David advanced to level E (fractions), four years above his school grade level.

“Now I do not have to worry about David’s maths in school,” says Hani. School work is easy for David as he had already learnt multiplication before entering primary one. Hani has strong belief in David and would always encourage him not to give up. “There is no other way to master maths; one has to practice every day. Practice helps David master maths,” says Hani.

David’s parents expressed that they are very proud of his achievement. When asked about what she thinks of David being able to do advance learning, Hani said: “Being able to do advance learning is amazing. If David is not in Kumon, he would just follow the school curriculum. We would have no idea David could do far more than he could do in school.”

“There isn’t anything special; everything is just done normally” One may wonder what special efforts were put in to attain such a progress. Hani said nothing special was done, just consistently going through the basics like daily study, and full support from parents are important factors that helped David attain such an achievement.
There is no special ingredient. Just like this quote from the movie Kungfu Panda, there is no special formula for success; just getting the basics right.