CedarBridge, BILTIR Join Forces For Exam Prep
Students are busy preparing for their end-of-year exams, and this year CedarBridge Academy students received some extra help from the international business community, as a group of insurance professionals from BILTIR volunteered to hold a series of review sessions at the school over the past month, with the students attending over their lunch period, demonstrating their commitment to success.
At CedarBridge Academy, over 100 senior students wrote the Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education [IGCSE] examinations in mathematics earlier this month.
The BILTIR [Bermuda International Long Term Insurers and Reinsurers professionals worked with the CedarBridge teachers to focus the sessions on the most challenging sections of the curriculum, and provided condensed study notes as well as a set of practice problems for students to use as they prepare for exam day.
Wendy Outerbridge, the Corporate Secretary at BILTIR said, “BILTIR companies employ professionals with strong math backgrounds, namely actuaries, accountants and IT specialists.
“These professionals have all completed several difficult mathematics-based exams to achieve their designations, so the volunteers could draw from that experience, understanding the pressure that the students feel, and offer helpful tips for exam preparation.”
Scott Selkirk, a life actuary at Somerset Re and one of the volunteers at BILTIR said, “The math teachers at CedarBridge have really done the hard work in preparing the students over the past two years; our goal was to jump-start the review process that the students must do on their own.”
Andrew Sooboodoo, Chief Risk Officer at Legal & General Re, and joint coordinator of the program stated, “BILTIR members were very pleased to be able to help the students in their upcoming examinations by providing additional tuition. We wish every student success.”
Instructional leader at CedarBridge Academy, Robert Steede, added “This program is invaluable because of the review opportunity offered, delivered by someone other than their teacher. The opportunity for our students to ask job-related questions of your colleagues reinforces their current job aspiration or provides them with alternative possibilities.
“Last week their mathematics teacher told me they were particularly excited after the lunch session on probability – the presenters were able to provide them with real-life applications with probability.”
CedarBridge Principal, Mrs. Kalmar Richards, stated “The tutoring program offered by BILTIR professionals provided students who were in the final stages of preparing for the IGCSE Math examination with an awesome opportunity to connect their learning with real world applications and to have content reinforced and reviewed in new ways.
“Having the tutoring sessions delivered by qualified professionals also underscores for students the importance and value of what they are learning. Having members of BILTIR volunteer their time to tutor the students for so many sessions speaks to the commitment of the tutors and demonstrates their support of teacher efforts to help students to master concepts. It also sends a message that the “professionals” want students to be successful.
“We value the partnership we have with BILTIR and are most appreciative of the generous amount of time that BILTIR tutors have invested in our students this year and last. The experiences of our students have been enriched and intensified by the coaching and tutoring provided by BILTIR members. So many of the students have indicated to me that the sessions were tremendously beneficial. We look forward to continuing our partnership with BILTIR in the years to come.”
Wendy Outerbridge, the Corporate Secretary at BILTIR said, “This is the second year in our growing relationship with CedarBridge. We plan to continue the program next year to cover even more of the exam material.
“BILTIR companies represent a growing sector of the international business community in Bermuda, and we want to make sure that local students know we are invested in developing the future talent of our industry.”
