KUANTAN, 18 September 2015 – Some 150 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates from Sekolah Menengah Sains Sultan Hj. Ahmad Shah (SEMSAS) received free mathematics coaching from K3PM.
K3PM is a group comprising academic staff of the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) that has been established with the aim to improve the teaching and learning skills of mathematics among teachers and school students across the country.
K3PM Chairman, Prof. Dr. Zuhaimy Ismail Ismail said that three phases of activities were conducted in this program, namely a motivational session to love mathematics, a workshop session by UTM lecturers discussing  topics in the SPM mathematics paper, and a mathematical hands on training session.
“To initiate steps towards improving math proficiency among students, we must first get rid of the ‘fear’ of these subjects among students.”
“We also conducted workshops where students are exposed to topics that have a high probability of appearing in the actual SPM examination,” he said.
Students who attended the workshop also had an opportunity to sit for the SPM mathematics paper mock exam in order to get a  picture of what the actual examination might feel like.
“To assess the effectiveness of the activities of the program, a follow-up study on the mathematics achievements of the students will be conducted.”
The K3PM Program has been running since 2000 and has helped many students improve their understanding on mathematics. Besides focusing on mathematics coaching, the K3PM group also promotes UTM as a leading university in engineering and technology.