Chief Judge: A. Alagesan
If you've wondered who the creative brains are behind the setting of the state challenge hands-on tasks, wonder no more. The Star's Physics and Chemistry columnist for over five years, this time, Alagesan has been tasked with setting all the questions, posers and hands-on challenges for the two-day finals, so expect the unexpected!
For the last two years, he has conducted SPM workshops for The Star, and has also appeared on Astro, RTM1 and RTM2 for techniques of answering and studying SPM and STPM questions.
With 31 years of teaching experience and conducting workshops throughout Malaysia, Alagesan recently came up with a teaching methodology for Science and Maths called KOHOMO, which stands for "Knowledge-On, Hands-On, Minds-On".
In the lead-up to the national finals, Alagesan advised students to expect more challenging and creative questions.
He said, "Students must come prepared to face challenges. They do not have to study their textbooks in too much detail. However, it is important to have fundamental knowledge and know how to apply this knowledge in different situations."
He hinted that many of the Science questions and challenges would be home-based, and there would be a lot of reasoning and analytical skills required for the Maths questions. As for the general knowledge category, he said that the questions would be student-related current affairs.
"Teams should also come prepared with a good strategy or game plan, and be prepared to handle whatever situations that crop up over the two days."
