CIE Economics Notes – A2 Appendix 4.2.1

Fahim Aqil - Computer Science, Durham University

When it comes to writing a personal statement, Thevesh is that person—he’s passionate, dedicated and always excited to help you along the way. His wide knowledge and abilities as a coder enabled him to guide me as I applied to read computer science at top UK universities, even though his own specialization is in economics. He was detailed in explaining how I could improve the ideas I discussed in my PS, and helped me to deepen my understanding of computer science, as well as the mathematics and logic behind many fundamental ideas in this field. I am impressed with his effort and passion in guiding students through their UK university applications.

Cassandra Hsiao's CommonApp essay

In our house, English is not English. Not in the phonetic sense, like short a is for apple, but rather in the pronunciation – in our house, snake is snack. Words do not roll off our tongues correctly – yet I, who was pulled out of class to meet with language specialists, and my mother from Malaysia, who pronounces film as flim, understand each other perfectly.

In our house, there is no difference between cast and cash, which was why at a church retreat, people made fun of me for “cashing out demons.” I did not realize the glaring difference between the two Englishes until my teacher corrected my pronunciations of hammock, ladle, and siphon. Classmates laughed because I pronounce accept as except, success as sussess. I was in the Creative Writing conservatory, and yet words failed me when I needed them most.

Suddenly, understanding flower is flour wasn’t enough. I rejected the English that had never seemed broken before, a language that had raised me and taught me everything I knew. Everybody else’s parents spoke with accents smarting of Ph.D.s and university teaching positions. So why couldn’t mine?

My mother spread her sunbaked hands and said, “This is where I came from,” spinning a tale with the English she had taught herself.

When my mother moved from her village to a town in Malaysia, she had to learn a brand new language in middle school: English. In a time when humiliation was encouraged, my mother was defenseless against the cruel words spewing from the teacher, who criticized her paper in front of the class. When she began to cry, the class president stood up and said, “That’s enough.”

“Be like that class president,” my mother said with tears in her eyes. The class president took her under her wing and patiently mended my mother’s strands of language. “She stood up for the weak and used her words to fight back.”

We were both crying now. My mother asked me to teach her proper English so old white ladies at Target wouldn’t laugh at her pronunciation. It has not been easy. There is a measure of guilt when I sew her letters together. Long vowels, double consonants — I am still learning myself. Sometimes I let the brokenness slide to spare her pride but perhaps I have hurt her more to spare mine.

As my mother’s vocabulary began to grow, I mended my own English. Through performing poetry in front of 3000 at my school’s Season Finale event, interviewing people from all walks of life, and writing stories for the stage, I stand against ignorance and become a voice for the homeless, the refugees, the ignored. With my words I fight against jeers pelted at an old Asian street performer on a New York subway. My mother’s eyes are reflected in underprivileged ESL children who have so many stories to tell but do not know how. I fill them with words as they take needle and thread to make a tapestry.

In our house, there is beauty in the way we speak to each other. In our house, language is not broken but rather bursting with emotion. We have built a house out of words. There are friendly snakes in the cupboard and snacks in the tank. It is a crooked house. It is a little messy. But this is where we have made our home.

Joyce Lee - Accounting & Finance, London School of Economics

Thevesh was a great help to me in the process of applying to UK universities. He guided me through my personal statement for Accounting and Finance by suggesting materials that I could read for wider and deeper understanding of the content and by working through my personal statement with me. Being highly articulate, he was able to help me with my language and synthesise my personal statement into a better piece that could convey my thoughts effectively in the limited amount of characters.

Kaylynn Teh - Economics & Management, University of Oxford

Thevesh is one of the best tutors I’ve had. I am truly grateful to have received his guidance throughout my university application process. From reading my personal statement and providing me with suggestions on how to improve it to preparing me for my interview, he made the process a little less daunting.

Our mock interview sessions made me more confident to voice and articulate my thoughts during the actual interview. The sessions also emotionally prepared me for the interview. As a result, I was a lot less nervous and was able to think on my feet during the actual interview. Besides prepping for the interview, we also explored economic concepts and topics that I was interested in- the sessions were not limited to preparing me for a single interview but served as a learning opportunity to expand my knowledge.

Thevesh is a brilliant teacher, he has a way of explaining things that makes convoluted concepts easier to grasp. When I was having difficulties, he went the extra mile by offering me different explanations to aid in my understanding. He was always patient and understanding, tireless in answering my questions and clearing my doubts.

Thank you, Thevesh, for your unparalleled guidance and support.

Athan Siah - Economics, University of Cambridge

Inspiring, dedicated and personalised. Thevesh not only strikes as an inspiring and extremely impressive individual at first glance but also willing to go the extra mile to provide personalised guidance as you get to know him better as a university application mentor. If you’re looking to read how amazing his personal statement critiques are, feel free to read a testimony by any one of the brilliant young minds he’s helped. I will also not focus on his achievements and credentials as an economist and tutor as I believe those speak for themselves. Instead, I hope that, at the end of reading this review, you will, at the very least, be curious enough to want to start a conversation with Thevesh.

Throughout the year leading up to submitting my UCAS application, Thevesh helped shape me intellectually, playing multiple roles including friend, debate coach, maths tutor and mentor. I believe what sets him apart is that he is not just a senior who will comment on your personal statements and walk you through their application experience. He is always prepared and excited to share with you things that he thinks you would benefit from. Even a long way before the actual application, Thevesh helped me explicitly by initiating deeply thought-provoking conversations about anything from ethics to the global economy as well as implicitly through the countless articles and discussions he shared with me. As a world-class debater, he helped me become a more articulate and structured speaker, which, by making me a more confident presenter and interviewee, has undoubtedly helped me in the admissions process. More importantly, skills and habits Thevesh has induced in me such as keeping up with the news and questioning the mathematics behind Economics are transferable to the next stage of my education.

Specific to Economics at Cambridge, I think a good yardstick to deduce your suitability for such a demanding course is whether you enjoy talking to Thevesh. I can’t say for certain, but listening to him explain Hotelling’s Law during a mock interview sounded awfully representative of a supervision at university. Thevesh is on a constant quest to satisfy his thirst for knowledge and his desire to educate; tagging along on this journey will open your eyes to an abundance of knowledge.

If you’re looking to grow as an economist, the quality of his detailed explanations of A Level multiple choice questions is proof of his ability to dissect and break down information into easily digestable chunks. If you’re looking to maximise your chances of being admitted into a top university, his wealth of experience easily matches professionals (if he saw me say this he would immediately lay a disclaimer that you should always defer to the experts). If you’re looking to grow intellectually as a person, just having a conversation with Thevesh will leave questions demanding to be answered.

What to do next:

Step 1: Go to the Contact page of this website
Step 2: Pick a mode of contact (email/mobile number)
Step 3: Say Hi to Thevesh
Step 4 (automatic): You’ll have found a new friend and reliable mentor who will try his best for you.

Lee Qi Cheng - Economics, University of Cambridge

Thevesh provided me with help and guidance throughout the entirety of my application. He started with personal statement coaching, not only by proof-reading my personal statement, but also making sure that the content was relevant and factually correct. What makes him truly stand out is his mock interview sessions, which gave me a very realistic sense of what the actual interview was going to be like. He highlighted several important concepts and taught me how to approach the interview (both in manner and in content). I was confident walking into the interview with all the tips and tricks he’d provided me. He by no means provided me with a cheat sheet. Instead, he’d provided me with the tools I needed to face the interview head-on and let my potential shine.

Thevesh also pushed me to expand my reading, which in turn provided me with some great content for my personal statement. It was a really fun and interesting experience to learn economic concepts not found in the syllabus from him, as he has the knack of explaining things accurately, simply and effectively.

With all the help I was receiving, I didn’t just feel like a better applicant, I felt like I was growing into the shoes of a better economist. Because he’s studying an economics degree himself, his well-rounded knowledge of the subject gave me an amazing insight into economics on a different level.

He was very patient in guiding me throughout my application, and was never tired in answering my questions or any doubts I had. And if it happened to be that he didn’t know the answer to my question, he’d do his research and have a full discussion with me about it. He provided me with emotional support too, as university application is a stressful matter for most students, and I came out of the whole process feeling much more confident of myself and my application choices.

Sugheson Nagarajan - Economics, University of Warwick

First of all, Thevesh made it very clear to me that I should not read someone else’s PS before starting to write mine in order for me to write something original and sincere. This was important because, without reading other PS, I was able to be creative and authentic enough to write without any barriers or limits. This helped me to put all my thought and ideas on to the paper without restrictions. From then on, Thevesh often provided me with constant guidance with always asking me important questions. He is not the type of person who would directly give the answer or explanation to something but he would pose a question that would lead me down the trail of thoughts that will enable me to understand certain concepts better. For me, that is very important because I do not like to be spoon fed and his approach rather instilled curiosity and made me want to find the answers for myself.

Thevesh also provided me with extensive reading material. The books provided me with great insights on how economics was applied in reality and it was fun to read and learn concepts and ideas that lie outside the sphere of academic syllabus. This in turn allowed me to have a better understanding on economic concepts and some of it turned out to be great content to be included in the PS.

During the interview session, Thevesh maintained a very professional setting that resembled how actual interviews are. He was warm, welcoming and friendly. The methods he employed in interviewing were similar to the actual ones and by the end of the interview, he gives honest and critical evaluations about our performances. One of the things that I liked about him is his ability to identify key areas that needs to be worked on. His criticisms are constructive in nature and they are specific which then allows me to quickly fix or improve in that particular area.

I honestly feel like I improved both as an applicant because Thevesh made me think like an economist. He would often do the role playing method to get me thinking on how an economist would solve problems. If I appeared to be struggling, he would subtly push me in a way that would allow me to link my thoughts and be able to come up with the solutions. To me, that is important. As an economist, your knowledge is your tool box and you have to use what is inside and apply them to solve the problems and those are the things you can expect to learn from Thevesh.

All in all, I truly admire the work and effort that Thevesh put in to help me with my application. The sincerity and the work rate that he invested in me in turn created a cycle within me of wanting to do better myself. That chain reaction is something truly remarkable. Thevesh has a real charm when it comes to his ability to motivate and inspire people and that is not a skill that can trained but rather a product of honesty, hard work and humility. I am truly thankful for all the help I received from Thevesh. He has been an excellent UK application tutor.

Wong Siu Jane - Accounting & Finance, London School of Economics

Thevesh has been a great tutor and friend and to me. He was willing to help me with my personal statement even when he was busy in university. He guided me along the way and corrected my personal statement by discussing the ideas I presented through various drafts. Of course, he also gave me some ideas on what to write about, which expanded my knowledge on my field of choice, and showed me how I should give my personal statement a good structure which is essential. All this has definitely improved me as an applicant.

Thaneesha - Economics, University of Cambridge

The main way in which Thevesh helped me was through general economics thinking, but in particular, understanding the mathematical background to economic theories. Not only did he further my understanding into concepts at the A level standard, but he also introduced me to first year university concepts. I think that this not only aided me during my interview, especially during graph interpretations part, but I think it has also helped me for my A2 studies.

One thing that I am truly grateful to Thevesh for, is for never giving up on me. He pushed me academically, but was also there emotionally whenever I needed a morale boost, regardless of what time of the day it was. I think that this combination makes him an excellent guidance counsellor for whoever applying, because the whole process is rigorous and emotional draining. He truly gives his all to each student who is applying, and I believe that his help was part of the reason that I obtained my offer. Thank you Thevesh!

EconomyRice

Resources for CIE Economics (9708)

CIE Economics Notes – A2 Appendix 4.2.1

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