For many Chinese kids in Singapore, Chinese is one of the toughest subjects to master, especially if they’ve grown up in an English-speaking family. So when it comes to their 'ting xie' ('spelling' in Chinese) and 'mo xie' (aka 'dictation ) tests, many school kids often resort to writing the characters over and over again so as to commit them to memory.

Well, not in Jacelyn Tay's household.

The actress and beauty guru, whose son Zavier is now in Primary 3, has shared a way to ace 'ting xie' tests, a method which she calls ‘Mind Photocopying’.

“My son was exasperated when I gave him P3 Higher Chinese 'ting xie' practice. He got only half [the answers] correct. He was supposed to write five times of each wrong word as correction before we did another test. But there were too many wrong characters he had to copy so he got fed up,” she wrote. She recalled a previous experience where he wrote a Chinese character 10 times, only to forget it the very next day.

The 44-year-old then concluded that she would try changing up his learning method, especially since she scored straight A1s for her Chinese exams when she was in school despite her mother never quizzing her on spelling.

Jacelyn's ‘Mind Photocopying’ method requires you to first memorise all the questions. “Chinese characters are like drawings, she mused. If you can remember what the question is from the picture you took in your mind, you can remember how the words look like. Most likely you [would] know how to write.”

Her belief is that Zavier will only be able to improve on his writing skills the more he reads and listens, and only then can he become the teacher and give his classmates spelling tests without looking at the question sheet. How powerful is that? she wrote.

She then challenged her son to see who would be able to remember the nine questions on the test sheet better, and let on that Zavier got “super excited” because he wanted to win his mum.

Jacelyn also recounted how she had explained her concept to him. “Look at No.1 and the Chinese characters. Take a picture with our eyes now. Click! Eyes are the camera lens. Now let the picture register in your brain. Close your eyes. Do you remember what is question No.1? He nodded his head, she wrote. We laughed as we marked each other's paper. It was super enjoyable for me I must admit. We look forward to our next 'ting xie'. Best of all, I don't need to give him any more 'ting xie' 'cos he can do it himself. Haha save my time! What a clever mama!”

And in case you’re wondering, this unorthodox method worked like a charm for Zavier. He came home with full marks for the spelling quiz, which proves that mama knows best.

Photos: Jacelyn Tay/Facebook