Am I Going Too Fast

Finished chapter 6 (Gradient And Area Under A Graph) with my 5SA girls. A student asked me whether we're going too fast- doing 6 chapters in a period of only 2 months. Well from my observation, the girls are doing fine. What I feel is most of the students are doing well except maybe a couple of them. These students just need to do more exercises on their own as I think I usually don't give much homework compared to the other teachers. In fact, I did not even give any homework for the long Chinese New Year Break coz I believe a holiday should be a break for the students. I do pity students nowadays, having tons and tons of homework almost everyday. I don't remember having this problem when I was in school (that's was eons ago). So on Thursday, I took a break from teaching but instead let the students discuss the online assignment on matrices that was given out before the CNY break. The assignment is as follows :

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN.(sourced from the internet)

During an advertising campaign, Pepsi, Coke, and Eldora Cola tried to increase their share of the area's soda pop market. Prior to the campaign, Pepsi had 30% of all sales, Coke had 50%, and Eldora Cola had 20% of all sales.

At the end of the 6 month ad campaign, a telephone survey was conducted, and the following results were determined:

a) Of the original Pepsi drinkers, 10% switched to Coke, and 15% switched to Eldora Cola.

b) Of the original Coke drinkers, 12% switched to Pepsi, and 20% now prefer Eldora Cola.

c) Of the original Eldora Cola drinkers, 8% switched to Pepsi, and 5% switched to Coke.

Determine the effect of the ad campaign on the market share of Pepsi, Coke, and Eldora Cola. In other words, after the 6 months, what percent of sales does each company have?

Method: Set up a 1x3 matrix representing the original percentages.

Then, set up a 3x3 matrix representing the share of the market lost, or maintained.

Multiply the two matrices. The resulting 1x3 will indicate the new market shares


Students were divided into 6 groups comprising 5-6 students each. They were supposed to apply the knowledge and skills that they have learned in the topic of matrices to solve the given problem. The answers have to be uploaded by the group leader to the Sri Aman On-Line School portal.

2 groups (Aini's and Natashiya's) were able to come up with the solution without my help. I'm quite impressed with them. Giving these type of activities really make the students think about what they've learned. I wish I could carry out more on this type of activities.

I'm going a bit slower with my 5KB girls. I will only be starting chapter 5 (Variations) next week. Just found out recently that one of the students in this class is already an established recording artise but my advice to her is, finish her form 5 studies first, then decide the next course of action. I wish her all the best in her singing career. As this is my first year teaching this class, I'm not really familiar with the girls and their mathematical capabilities. There are a few very good students here who I feel won't have any problems at all but there are some who really need closer supervision. My biggest problem is how to make sure that every student is able to understand and apply what I have taught them on that day. Well I'll know better when I get the results of the March test which is coming soon. I'm very hopeful that most of them will do well.