HELP UNIVERSITY’S A-Level centre is widely accepted as among the best for pre-university preparation in the region and internationally due to consistent adherence to a high standard of teaching and mentorship. It has a consistent record of successfully preparing students to enter the world’s top universities for courses like Actuarial Science, Economics, Engineering, Medicine, Natural Sciences and Biological Sciences.
Strong academic leadership is behind this success. HELP’s A-Level Department head Yeap Soon Chye, is an experienced science lecturer specialising in Chemistry and a master counsellor with a knack for successfully guiding students in applying to top universities.
He and his team of lecturers (popularly called the ‘A-Team’) have mentored countless A-Level students to attain A and A* grades in Maths and Further Maths, Economics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology to qualify for admission to universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, King’s College London, the London School of Economics, Harvard, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton and Chicago where they distinguished themselves further by winning prizes for academic excellence and first class honours results.
HELP is the only centre in the country to offer the full A-Level programme from two exam boards - the Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Level (IAL) and Cambridge Assessment International Education (Cambridge).
The IAL’s modular system allows students to re-sit single subjects in stages (or units) for a better grade. The Cambridge exam, meanwhile is taken in two levels - AS and A2. Students dissatisfied with any unit must re-sit the entire level, but AS grades are accorded UCAS points and counted for university entrance in the UK.
Both boards are widely accepted for university admission worldwide and give students the chance to develop intellectually.
The HELP Academy is well equipped to nurture A-Level students to achieve excellence. Its state-of-the-art Curie Science Labs were acclaimed by the IAL chief examiner from the UK to be among the best in the world.
Its Getting the Edge (GTE) programme cultivates leadership and organisational skills by assigning students to work with experienced lecturers on award-winning science projects. This has enabled the centre to win the Malaysian Toray Science Foundation’s Science Education Award for a record-breaking 24 years.
A unique pastoral care programme assigns students to a mentor-lecturer.
HELP’s A-Level department is also a vibrant centre with opportunities for nurturing personal and intellectual skills. Speech, drama and writing workshops hone presentation, speaking and critical thinking skills. Successful admission to good universities requires students to think critically, form their own opinions and present their arguments effectively and convincingly in their application forms.
This also explains how HELP’s A-Level students can muster their skills to excel in cross-disciplinary studies.
Doing HELP proud at Cambridge University: (from left) Goh Kah Wei trained in Law while Grace Ng and Melissa Chee’s performance won praise from the principal of Newnham College.
A good example is Goh Kah Wei who attained A* in Maths, Chemistry, Physics, and A in Economics, but who ended up studying Law at Cambridge University, graduating with honours.
Goh ascribes his successful academic journey at HELP to the close attention, supervision and friendship from the lecturers. This helped him to cope well with the Tutorial System (called Supervision) at Cambridge.
The department’s success stories attests to the efficacy of its teaching and nurturing methods.
Not only have its students gained admission to prestigious universities and won scholarships from prestigious institutions, their subsequent academic performance has drawn praise and recognition for the department.
One such testimony is from Prof Dame Carol Black, principal of Newnham College in Cambridge University. Referring to the First Class Honours equivalent results attained by former HELP A-Level students Melissa Chee and Grace Ng in their Chemical Engineering and Natural Sciences Tripos, Prof Black said, “Much of the credit must go to the education they received before coming to Cambridge. We are always keen to receive applications from students of such calibre”.
*Intake now in progress. For details, email marketing@help.edu.my or call 03-2716 2000.
