CIE Thinking skills

[omega007]

Anyone has taken or is going to take the CIE Thinking skills??? How is the subject, tough or easy??? Approximately, how much time do you require to finish the course???

I would be glad to get an answer.

    

[djshaheer]

although i havent taken it...bt have heard dat its pretty easy to score in it..general knowledge counts well in it.. 

[google]

Yeah i have taken the paper of thinking skills in this may/june09...and i wanna tell you that its not that easy as it seems from the name....it requires alot of analytical ability, critical thinking and ability, analysing some extreme situations and evaluating the problems, their solutions and many more. Basically the purpose of the subject 'THINKING SKILLS' is to apply our critical thinking and resoning to more complex situations of our life..
the paper tests two main things i.e. mathematics and critical reasoning...the main aim of the paper is to test the candidates ability to come up with their answer in shortest period of time using shortest approach as time management is the main problem which candidates face in the paper.....
i hope that this general knowledge about the subject is enough..if you want any more details just post out your questions...

[omega007]

Is it easier than science subjects like Biology, Physics etc. And do you need good English skills for it??? Where can I get books for it???

Please tell me google, I'm really interested in this subject.     

[google]

Basically we cant make a straight forward comparison between thinking skills and science subjects. In science subjects we need to study alot of stuff where as thinking skills is about something else...its about ones intellectual capacity!!!
the subject is very interesting and believe me it helps you to see things wid reasonong at the bak of ur mind...critical evaluations.....
so i recommend you to opt it...and yeah you need very good eglish skills for this as otherwise studying it is immpossible...you should also need to be good in mathematics as mathematics of thinking skills is quite very difficult...
it has only one book endorsed by cambridge....named as 'THINKING SKILLS' by John Butterworth......

[shooting_star]

i gave the exam in may 09 as well

i agree with google....it's not as easy as it sounds....the multiple choice can basically kill u ! ! !

and u wana compare it with the sciences then...in a way its easier cuz for the sciences u need to study study study....

u can't do MUCH in thinking skills....i mean the questions in multiple choice are soooo different ....u can't prepare for it....for paper 2 wich is the writing part might require some studying...but then it's easy to finish studying for that in less than a week ! ! ! however, the amount u study isn't usually reflected in the grades u end up with...im not saying that's the case for everyone...but it generally is !!!

Goodluck with it  !!! My teachers say that the subject attracts alot of universities 

[paperclip]

I did my AS Thinking Skills in Nov 08 and A2 this May 09. The subject itself is interesting if you are given enough time to work through. A2 is very much harder than thought. Paper 3 is very demanding as you can only spend around 3 minutes per question. And it is nearly impossible to arrive at the correct solution for maths at such short time. I had only finished 15 out of 20 questions for my paper 3, which is quite bad. I'll be sitting for my paper 4 tomorrow and I'm facing the same problem as well, not able to finish the paper. I think I'll have to drop one maths question and spend more of my time on the argument.

I studied my AS course for 8 months and around 4 months for A2 course. I think 4 months are really not sufficient for me to be very well-prepared for the exams but we have limited resources on past year papers.

[omega007]

@google....do you need the thinking skills endorsed book anymore???...If you don't, sell it to me by any means (second hand)...where do you live???....how can i contact you???....Your cooperation would be highly appreciated     

[google]

  actually i could not find the thinking skills book from the book shops as it is very rare so i issued it from my school library..if you are in Pakistan you can get one from Islamabad 'saeed book bank'...

[omega007]

Tell me more about thinking skills....like....how much does it count towards university???....and can i prepare for five months and take the AS papers in nov'09???....what else did you study for it???....can you score an 'A' easily or is it tough??? 

[paperclip]

For me I think it's tough under time pressure. Initially, when I was a newbie, I had difficulties in spotting the conclusion, assumption, strength, weakness in the MCQ. But I got better after much practices and am able to see them now. 4 months are a bit short, in my opinion, unless you are really good and a fast thinker. Sometimes I spent hours analysing an argument for paper 2 critical thinking. I even got frustrated sometimes, scratching my head for a problem... 

[ed1903]

hmm anyone taking this oct/nov 2009?

[MAF]

I just needed some help with the argument analysing thing i.e Q3 in paper 2.
When we find the conclusions,intermediate conlcusions,reasons etc... how do i show them? As in a paragraph?
OR like R1+R2+R3=IC and stuff like that?