Case 1

Encik Kamil and his wife Puan Jamilah place a lot of emphasis on the education of their two children, Aliff and Hanisah. Aliff is a Year 5 student and will be sitting for his UPSR examination next year while Hanisah is Year 3 student. Encik Kamil sends his children to a nearby tuition center every weekend. Both husband and wife has a full time job and does not a lot of free time to sit and coach them with their lessons other than the weekends. Besides the workbook that are used in the tuition center, Encik Kamil has also bought additional workbooks so that his children can go through the exercises after school according to a timetable set by him.

The idea was good but Encik Kamil was having trouble ensuring that his children do the exercises in the workbook according to the timetable set by him. After a while, he realizes that,

1. he is uncertain whether his children actually do the exercises or merely read the questions and get the answers from the back of the workbook. It was also difficult to determine whether they actually learn something from it.
2. some of the questions in the workbook are also confusing and require explanations.
3. he was unable to pin point his children’s weaknesses in their lessons.
4. his children need to be assessed more frequently from time to time. The school examinations and monthly tests were not sufficient to ascertain their weaknesses. On the other hand, at the tuition centers, most of the teachers only gave exercises and conduct discussions thereafter. The systems adopted at some tuition centers are good but not many of these centers report the performance of the students to the parents.

With that, Encik Kamil and his wife deliberated and decided to sign up for the eExam e-workbook and took steps to use this e-workbook in the learning schedule of their children.

1. Encik Kamil ensures that his children complete at least 3 assessment tests in the eExam website everyday. For every test, the answers are only given at the end of the test. Encik Kamil does not have to worry about whether his children actually answer the questions because all test results are kept in a database which Encik Kamil can have access at anytime. It is also immaterial whether his children refer to their text or note books when answering the questions because when they actually put in effort to find the answers, the facts will be remembered better. It is definitely better than obtaining straight answers from the back of conventional workbooks.
2. To be able to monitor his children and ensure that they do at least 3 tests everyday, Encik Kamil activated the feedback feature of eExam. Every time his children completes a test, an e-mail or SMS is sent to Encik Kamil to inform him that his children has completed a test. If he chooses to deactivate this feature, he can do so at any time by accessing the eExam website.
3. Encik Kamil also activated the ASK US system feature of eExam so that his children can forward any problems and/or questions with regard to the questions in the tests. eExam will endeavour to provide the answers within the shortest possible time and the explanations can be access in a special column within the website. From here his children not only gets the explanations to their questions but also the problems and questions of other students. It acts as a special data center for explanations to all difficult questions and problems.
4. From time to time, Encik Kamil and his wife monitor their children’s progress through the PERFORMANCE REPORT provided by eExam. Various analyses are provided and this includes monthly progress report, topical analysis report, and test analysis and performance comparison with other students. With this Encik Kamil is able to better assess his children’s performance and tailor their study schedule accordingly. He is also able to discuss the performance of his children with regard to specific weaknesses with their schoolteachers or tuition teachers.

Case 2

Dr. Lee is very proud of his son, Chun Siang who has always excelled in his studies since the day he steps into school. Chun Siang is a intelligent boy and Dr. Lee does not have to send him to additional tuition classes. Mrs. Lee on the other hand is a full time housewife and can spend more time with her son after school to discuss his schoolwork. With the workbook purchased by her husband, Mrs. Lee ensures that her son completes the exercises and tries to assist her son wherever she can.

However, Chun Siang has a few weaknesses in his schoolwork especially in his Bahasa Malaysia subject. Dr. Lee bought some dictionary and Bahasa Malaysia reference books to help his son improve his vocabulary and essay writing. All these however were not effective because most of the words and tips provided needed further explanations from somebody who is well versed in the subject. As such, Dr. Lee engages the services of Puan Malini, a Bahasa Malaysia language teacher to coach his son.

Puan Malini was able to help Chun Siang correct his weaknesses in Bahasa Malaysia. However, she also finds that Chun Siang is very hardworking and always has lots of questions to ask. She know that her presence 2 times a week is not sufficient to fully help Chun Siang. He needs something, which can assist him directly. Puan Malini noted that a student in her school was performing rather well with his studies and upon checking discovers that the student was subscribing to eExam. In turn she recommended eExam to Dr. Lee.

How does eExam help Chun Siang?

Besides the e-workbook, eExam also has the progressive e-dictionary (e-KAMUS), which is both comprehensive and interactive. The progressive e-KAMUS not only provides the meaning of difficult words, but also scientific terms, ‘peribahasa’, ‘simpulan bahasa’ and English-Bahasa Malaysia translations. It is interactive in the sense that if Chun Siang is not satisfied with any particular explanation, he can proposed his own explanations in the e-dictionary or raised it in ASK US. eExam will then reevaluate the existing definition, adopt Chun Siang’s suggestions if it is acceptable and/or provide additional explanation if required. Every word/phrase searched by Chun Siang will be recorded by a system in eExam. If the word/phrase frequently searched for is not in their database, eExam will provide the definition and explanation within the shortest possible time. Chun Siang just has to research the word/phrase again after a few days to get the definition and explanation.