Good systematic syllabus
Me, a coach?
I was a coach before. No, not in chess! I coached my students in passing Java exams a few years ago. I say coached because what I did was actually coaching students how to pass the exam. I don’t consider myself a teacher. It was one of the most challenging things I’ve done.
Java = Chess ??
Just like chess, to teach a programming language like Java is not easy. It involved teaching problem solving skills and good memory retention. What made it harder was that the passing rate for the exams was less than 20% and what I got were students who failed repeatedly in past exams. Mind you, I was not their lecturer in the college that they enrolled in. I was just an outsider but familiar with their Java syllabus.
100% passing rate
My own student passing rates in the beginning was terrible. It was only 33% passing rate. But in the second semester things improved with a 60% passing rate and later I achieved the magic 100% passing rate. After that, the number of students shot up. My record was handling 80 students for one semester. That was also the main reason I stopped coaching even though the money was more than my previous full time salary. Why? It was simply too tiring as my typical session involved personalised coaching with only 1-3 students. This meant I had coaching sessions every day of the week for 6-8 hours a day.
Lessons Learnt
I attribute the 100% passing rate to the teaching materials I developed throughout that period. It was all based on notes as well as more importantly, quizzes and exercises that I do with my students. It’s like teaching the basic endgame in chess. You put the minor pieces out like K+R vs K on the board and show the student the mating method. They try it out on their own. You point out better/shorter ways to win. It’s the same with the computer programming. Instead of homework, I drill the students with as many exercises as possible and correct their mistakes as they do it right in front of me. It was time consuming but highly effective.
Why the gap in reaching 100% success rate?
Shamefully I have to admit I am only human and my first two batches of students were like guinea pigs to test how effective my first batch of notes and exercises was. It took time to refine and come out with accurate material and in the right amount to the student so as not to overwhelm them. It was an exercise in trial and error to come out with the best possible syllabus and material.
Drills, drills, drills
What has this got to do with chess? After watching Susan Polgar’s My Brilliant Brain, I instantly recognised one feature that is, you can train any child to be GM material if you give them the correct training from young. Genius can be trained. It was the same with my own students. All I did was just keep drilling them like robots in solving problems. So there was nothing special about me or my students. I simply acted as facilitator in their exercises. Their pattern recognition skill was far superior than their peers who did not learn under me. One funny incident was that the college that teached the Java course actually called me up to confirm that I did not have “inside information” to their exams. Being an outsider, this was the silliest question ever. It implied that the exam questions leaked and somehow I got hold of it before hand and that was the reason why my student passing rates were that high. Anyway, I was not offended and took that as a major compliment.
What I’m trying to say is that, it is the same with chess. Academies like Intchess has come out with a starting syllabus and sets of drills/exercises for students of various levels. They are refining it as they go along. At first Malaysians just scoffed at this saying that our local coaches are achieving the same thing without a centralised school monopolising the entire chess coaching business.
The teaching material is key! It can be refined as time goes by and can only get better. I don’t see this happening for Malaysian chess and that is what I think (in my most humble opinion) is wrong with our way to improve chess among our juniors. I’m not promoting Intchess or anything but we need to somehow emulate what they have done.
I may be wrong as this is just my personal opinion and I’m not a chess coach anyway. Feel free to shoot me down in my comment section if you think I’m wrong.
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