Trial classes undermine the learning and development of long-term students because lessons must be dumbed down to cater to the constant influx of new students. The teacher’s attention is also diverted towards satisfying trial students rather than teaching the entire class. This is unfair to long-term students and does nothing for trial students either (since they too would eventually become long-term students). Students who attend such classes often end up discovering that they are merely repeating the same superficial basics over and over again. This is a complete waste of money.

In fact, trial lessons are not representative of what a student will experience throughout the year since trial classes can easily be manipulated to appear better than the actual classes. It is quite common for some places to engage in a form of “bait-and-switch” where the founder teaches the trial class but other classes are taught by trainee teachers. Only the tuition centre’s bottom line is enhanced by this arrangement.

For our part, our primary interest lies in the education of the students we are entrusted with. We have more than enough students every year so we absolutely have no qualms about taking in fewer students to ensure that those who do join us get the very best.

We will let the results that we produce speak for itself. We cannot comment on the practices of other tuition centres save to say that we disagree that such practices are in the best interests of students.