Julian’s Legacy 1983 to 2019
Julian was born and raised in a very humble, Singaporean environment. Since young, Julian strongly believed in self-discipline and had self-taught his way to ace every level in the Singapore education system. It was by fate & faith that he took on the MOE Teaching Scholarship and from then on he was determined to be the best teacher possible. Julian founded Julian Chemistry so as to impart his unique & innovative teaching style in an independent setting.
Julian had a bold vision: To bring across quality teaching materials to all students especially to the underprivileged.
Julian believed all students should have access to highest quality materials regardless of background and this was made possible with technology today. We were due to record our first open classroom teaching video series in May 2019. However, due to the high work demands and constantly pushing himself beyond limits (dedicating himself to close to 300 students), Julian suffered from a sudden cardiac arrest on April 2019. During his last moments, he was still conscientiously replying to students’ queries and in an instant, leaving behind many of his students and loved ones.
His siblings (Cecilia, Ching Eng and Chris) together with Ms Raene Lim, decided to continue Julian’s vision, reusing and improving his highly regarded teaching materials (Topic Notes, Summaries and Lesson Video Recordings) which he left behind. We strongly believe in his vision of delivering high-quality Chemistry lessons as well as forging strong characters to all students!
More about Julian
Julian Tan was a former lecturer at Raffles Institution (Junior College) and a recipient of the MOE Teaching Scholarship and graduated from NUS and UCLA with First Class Honours in Chemistry.
To pursue his passion for teaching and Chemistry he started Julian Chemistry to focus his undivided attention on providing best-quality Chemistry tuition to O Level and A Level students. Given his unique and innovative approach to viewing Chemistry as a discipline, he was excited to share these perspectives with learners in an independent setting. He hoped to be able to reach out to students all over Singapore who might be overly caught up in the rigour and demands of mastering Chemistry, and to provide them instead with insight on how to form those (chemical) bonds and connect the dots(-and-cross diagrams)!
Julian tutored students in A Level Chemistry at the H1, H2 and H3 levels for more than 17 years and consistently assisted them in achieving stellar results (80% A and 90% AB for H2 Chem). He was also a trainer for the Singapore Team at the International Chemistry Olympiad and the co-ordinator for the Raffles H3 Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Chemistry Olympiad programmes.
Many of his former students have gone on to excel academically at top universities such as Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, UPenn, NUS and NTU. He also received the Terman Award (Most Inspirational Pre-College Teacher) by Stanford University in 2017.
Education
- Bachelor of Science, 1st Class Honours in Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- Near perfect GPA (4.79/5.00), placed on Dean’s List multiple times
- Perfect GPA (4.00/4.00), placed on Dean’s Honor List twice, Two-Quarter Exchange Programme, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
- Specialised in Pharmaceutical & Medicinal Chemistry and Organic Synthesis
- Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (Credit), Chemistry and Mathematics, National Institute of Education, Singapore
- 6 G.C.E. ‘A’ and ‘S’ Levels Distinctions, Hwa Chong Junior College, Singapore
- 8 G.CE. ‘O’ Level Distinctions, River Valley High School, Singapore
Scholarship / Awards
- Ministry of Education Teaching Scholarship
- Nominee for Outstanding Youth in Education Award
- Most Caring Teacher Award
- The Stanford University Terman Award - Most Influential Teacher
Experience
- Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator, H2 Chemistry and H3 Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Raffles Academy (Gifted) Chemistry, Raffles Junior College
- Lecturer, H2 and H1 Chemistry, Serangoon Junior College, Dunman High School, Saint Andrew's Junior College
- Singapore Chemistry Olympiad Trainer and In-charge for Team Raffles
- International Chemistry Olympiad Trainer, Team Singapore
- Senior Head (Policy), Higher Education Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore
- 18 years of coaching and mentoring experience
A passionate educator who taught his students to love learning by making Chemistry tuition in Singapore fun and enjoyable.
of his past students obtained the A/B grade
of his past students obtained A grades
of teaching and mentoring experience