hi there,
I took F5 under james kwan some time ago...
you are accurate about your description on these issues,
1. he expects students to read up before hand.
that's not something in my capacity... if I am paying to read up before hand which would amount to me understanding the topics with the blanks in the notes... I would be motivated enough to read the text beforehand... and if that's the case... I would choose to self study.
anyway, for F5, it's not a subject to self study.
but fret not, it's not a difficult topic too... as the accounting treatment are mostly logical aside from conventional practices.
anyway, I don't have a problem with him hoping that students read up before hand... as I believe, most don't.
2. he expects you to do your own calculation.
this is the part that i do not agree with him.
If i know how to calculate... why do i need to attend classes?
often, he gives u enough time to copy the final calculation and i am bundled with a set of answers that... i do not know how it's derived...
This is not acceptable to me.
3. He shares about his life story... I don't mind that... except though I wish he apportion that time to allowing us more time to copy his notes and the calculations...
anyway, he is just sharing his life story... I don't understand why he gets a ton of MBAs... sounds like he is quite lost or he is not the type suitable for real world work. Either way, I got no issues with his tales. Wait till u go to Goh Sher Wee's lessons... and listen to his 45mins - 1hour of irrelevant rants... then you will realise... after the Goh Sher Wee experience... maybe SAA is not very professional in its selection of lecturers.
4. He stays back to answer questions. This is the part that I appreciate about him... I asked him exam kit questions, which he takes time to explain.
In this aspect, I can see that he enjoys teaching.
5. He is probably a nerd... But that said, who cares?
for me, as long as he can teach, that's fine.
Do I like the way he delivers the lectures?
No. He does not go on a step by step procedure and expects the students to answer the questions...
If I know what's going on, I would not be there.
I do not like to participate in the learning process by calculating... etc.
I like to listen and copy the whole workflow (calculations and what not) so that I am guided through in a step by step manner.
if you like the above, James Kwan is best to be avoided.
There are other lecturers that do things in the above method.
For F5... I had 3 lecturers.
James Kwan was the first... and I switched after I saw how I could not adjust to his way of teaching.
(I don't mind his nagging, I know he's only joking with some concern for us to do well in life)
I had another F5 lecturer, very good in calculations but could explain for nuts...
I switched to the final one... and he's good in the maths department and the theory department.
there you go...
passed on first attempt.
lesson learnt...
in life, for important things... be rich.
so you can have a choice.
I am not drawing a high income and have paid excessively to check out the styles of the lecturers...
is it worth the money?
yes, it is.
is it worth being angry with the former two?
the issue is to get the most compatible lecturer to deliver to me the concept framework in that stipulated time. Anger is non constructive.
anyway, I found that most of the lecturers seem to suffer from a slack attitude, aside from james kwan...
so... I did not choose SAA after trying out the lecturers in various subjects...
