Academic Tutoring

Summarizing vs Analyzing in English Literature

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By Sonali Khemka (English Literature, English Language, LNAT tutor at The Edge Learning Center) Throughout your tenure as an English literature student, you will often be faced with the task of “analyzing” a particular text. While most students believe they at least have an idea of what this means, the task is often misinterpreted and students end […]

What to Expect in AP Biology

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By Luke Palmer (Head of Math and Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science and ESS tutor at The Edge Learning Center) The American stream schools will offer the chance for students to take College Boards Advanced Placement (AP) subjects. The objective of AP courses is to prepare student both academically and earn credit for college. It also shows […]

New IB English Curricula 2019

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By Karin Chun Taite (Head of Academics and English Literature tutor at The Edge Learning Center) The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) has announced that it will be launching a new set of curricula for IB English A Literature and IB English A Language & Literature in 2019. The details have not all been settled, but here is […]

5 Tips to Succeed on the IB IOC

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By The Edge Learning Center (Published on 28 November 2017) 1. Know Thy Texts, Know Thy Writers During the IB English Individual Oral Commentary (IOC), you will be presented with an excerpt from a text you have studied in class. It could be a short section of a novel or an entire poem. Either way, you […]

Ingredients of the Ideal Body Paragraph of a History Essay

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By Adam Stengel (AP/IB History, English Literature, English Language, History tutor at The Edge Learning Center) In no academic subject do students tend to mystify the processes of argumentative composition than History. Many of my students tell me that they like learning and thinking and talking about continuity and change over time, but they HATE writing about it. The […]

On Not Being A Torturer of Poems: 4 Tips for Engaging with Poetry

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By Janka Steenkamp (English Literature, Edge Writing, Public Speaking, Drama (IB) tutor at The Edge Learning Center) In literature, as in life, first impressions can be deceiving: just as that cute puppy in the window can potentially bite your finger off, that poem that you think is about an onion is about a long-term relationship. This is […]

How to Teach Math to those who cannot do Math

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By Alfred Tang (Math and Physics tutor at The Edge Learning Center) At The Edge, we teach students of all different levels. We have primary school kids all the way up to college students. Some of them are straight-A students. The majority of the rest are getting acceptable grades in school before they come to us. Then […]

Discussing the use of IB Chemistry Data booklet

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By Luke Palmer (Head of Math and Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science and ESS tutor at The Edge Learning Center) When studying IB Chemistry, there is a range of topic areas and concepts that need depth of data and information that is impossible to commit to memory. To this end IB Chemistry provides a handy resource in […]

Avoid These Common Mistakes to Stay Ahead of IB English

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By Karin Chun Taite (Head of Academics and English Literature tutor at The Edge Learning Center) The 2017 academic year is right around the corner, and it’s best to start off on the right foot. Stay on target by avoiding the following common mistakes that IB English students often fall into: 1. PREPARATION FAIL It’s all too […]

The Arts as an Area of Knowledge: Interrogating Lunch atop a Skyscraper

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By Louis Cheng (Test Preparation (ACT/SAT/SSAT/ISEE/IELTS/TOEFL) , IB ToK (Theory of Knowledge), Economics tutor at The Edge Learning Center) Every IB student needs to take Theory of Knowledge, a course that aims to provoke critical examination into the ways through which we know what we claim to know. The arts, in particular, are designated as one of the “Areas […]

How to Read a Graphic Novel or Comic Strip: Part 2 (Shots and Angles)

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By The Edge Learning Center In my last blog, I broke down some of the structural elements of a graphic novel so that we had the vocabulary to talk about how a graphic novel’s stylistic choices can create a particular effect. This is really important for those IB students who have been assigned graphic novels such […]

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