The centre's first Maths completer - Stephen Tang Bing Wei

After two years and four months, the centre finally produced its first Maths completer on 21 August 2009! He is none other than Stephen Tang Bing Wei (aged 16) whom we mentioned in the post about the Recognition Day. It was a very emotional experience for Stephen, the Instructor and the assistants present.We couldn't be prouder of you, Stephen! Well done!

First of all, some details about Stephen. Stephen joined Kumon in July 2007 when he was in Form 2. His starting point was Level A. 25 months later, he completed 15 levels to reach Level O (differentiation and intergration or calculus). It has been an incredible journey for both Stephen and the Instructor. He has been very disciplined in adhering to the consistent learning as taught by the Kumon Method of Learning.

Stephen officially completed Level O at the end of June 2009. The Completion Test was scheduled on 21 August 2009 so that Stephen could have 2 months to do his revision. He has rather heavy workload from school and he is also involved in quite a number of extracurricular activities at school. Therefore, it was decided that he should at least have 2 months to revise before sitting for the test. Stephen made good use of the two months by doing many revisions in which he redid the worksheets several times and not just merely studying them so that he could remember how to do the questions.

On 21 August, he arrived at the centre at around 4.30 p.m. The Instructor was anxiously waiting for him to arrive. When he got to the centre, he looked visibly nervous and told the Instructor so. When food was offered, he declined, citing that he had no appetite. He then went into the room for higher level maths students to do some last-minute revision. At around 5 p.m., Sunny the Area Manager and Choy Yee from the Maths Instruction team arrived at the centre. Stephen was briefed through the test before it began. The goal was set to complete all 18 questions. Although he showed signs of nervousness in the beginning, he seemed very well prepared. He flowed through the first four questions without any problems. At Question 5, he struggled a little. He started to struggle more from Questions 7 to 12. However, he remained calm all along. At certain point, he got confused and doubted his own workings so he erased and redid the question. Looking at his smooth flow and in order not to break it just because he started to get confused, Choy Yee gave him some hints. The hints were really minimal but he understood them very quickly. There were only 2 questions which he did not manage to complete within the 90 minutes.

After that, Choy Yee proceeded with the marking. Stephen managed to recall the method to attempt one of the incomplete questions after he was given the reassurance that he was on the right track. So this correction was totally done by himself. The next correction was done by studying the solution key. This particular question is one of the toughest out of the 18 questions. Stephen took the initiative to ask Choy Yee questions regarding the part of which he was not clear. After he completed the test and corrections, there was a discussion session for about 40 minutes.

According to Choy Yee, most students were nervous before the test so a brief overview of the questions was usually given. Students would also be taught some techniques to draw back their confidence. Although Stephen was nervous at the beginning, he was able to handle it very well because once the test began, he progressed flawlessly. Stephen explained that he had studied the first part of Level O very thoroughly. This strategy had benefited him because he had high confidence in attempting the first part of the test. Most students who took the test were usually weak with the tedious formulas in the beginning of Level O. This was not observed in Stephen. Therefore, he had really taken a great deal of effort to study Level O. He is also a quick learner, as shown by his very positive study attitude. he was eager to learn and thought deeply about the explanations given.

During the 40-minute discussion, Stephen and Choy Yee talked a lot about his future plan. He was already starting to plan for his university course. He is interested in doing computer science so some topics that relate mathematics to computer were discussed. He is definitely more advanced than his peers and this will enable to contribute a lot to the society in the future. Level X never seems to be an optional level for Stephen but just the next level after Level O.

When Stephen finally emerged from the room, party poppers were let out by the assistants who were standing in line to congratulate him. The Instructor congratulated Stephen and passed him a present. It was a very emotional scene as the Instructor nearly teared when Stephen said, "Teacher, I have finally completed Kumon." Other students who were at the centre at that time also witnessed the scene. Hopefully, they had been inspired to complete Kumon just like Stephen had done.

The following is the Result Report of Stephen's Completer's Test:

The comment said:

Stephen, well done! You have great study attitude. You learned all the basic and foundation skills in Mathematics. This will equip you in your future study. Most importantly, the self learning skill will benefit you in every aspect of life. Congratulations! Let's contribute to the society with your skills acquired from Kumon. - Instruction Team -

You have made Kumon Jalan Pahlawan, Sibu proud. In addition, being the first Maths completer, you will always be special in our eyes. We hope that more students at the centre will be inspired and motivated by your perseverance and success. Go on to make Sibu and Malaysia proud by contributing to the society using the valuable life skills you have gained from Kumon. Well done, Stephen!