Compare RGS vs NYGH

[WeiHan]

Choco05:

sleepy:

Recently I heard from someone that if go RGS, child needs to know how to take own notes because school doesn't give out lots of notes. Otherwise when come to exam period, the file will be so thin with insufficient materials to start revision. Also heard that Nanyang gave excellent notes. So during exam, easier to revise prior work. Is this true?

Not really. RGS likes to upload their notes online, and it's quite a big amount. However the notes will depend on the teacher or the department. Science department usually prepares the same notes for the whole cohort, while others, like maybe History, different teachers will have different slides or additional notes.

It is impossible that the teachers don't provide alot of notes nowaday. Even in top universities, students consider those professors that provide good notes and explain difficult concepts well as good professors and they are naturally more popular. It is impossible at that young age that they are suppose to scrape for their own study materials etc...if it is so, it must be that the teachers are lazy and not bcos they have intention to cultivate independence.

[Gladful]

Anyone interested to carpool from pasir ris to rgs (one way)? I am exploring getting a regular taxi but haven’t found out how much though. If keen to explore, pls let me know. Thanks!

[BitterSweet]

WeiHan:

Choco05:

[quote=\"sleepy\"]Recently I heard from someone that if go RGS, child needs to know how to take own notes because school doesn't give out lots of notes. Otherwise when come to exam period, the file will be so thin with insufficient materials to start revision. Also heard that Nanyang gave excellent notes. So during exam, easier to revise prior work. Is this true?

Not really. RGS likes to upload their notes online, and it's quite a big amount. However the notes will depend on the teacher or the department. Science department usually prepares the same notes for the whole cohort, while others, like maybe History, different teachers will have different slides or additional notes.

It is impossible that the teachers don't provide alot of notes nowaday. Even in top universities, students consider those professors that provide good notes and explain difficult concepts well as good professors and they are naturally more popular. It is impossible at that young age that they are suppose to scrape for their own study materials etc...if it is so, it must be that the teachers are lazy and not bcos they have intention to cultivate independence.[/quote]hello, just recently graduated RGS girl here. true that RGS provides less notes than other schools do (supposedly) but that's because RGS tends to test skills rather than content. i.e. instead of expecting students to memorise all the content, they expect students to use the conceptual understanding to solve new questions. for example, instead of blindly memorising solubility table for chemistry, exams might ask students to use understanding of solubility table to differentiate three different salts. (heard from my bio teacher that it is mandatory for teachers to set more than half of the paper this way instead of testing basic 'memory' questions.) this way, it's more interesting during exams and studying and also less chunks of notes to mug.

also for humanities subjects like literature and geography (in the upper sec levels), it's much better to come up with your own notes than to use the schools'. Because humanities exams are mostly writing essays, if you use the examples and case studies given in the notes, your essays will resemble everyone else's. but if you put in the effort to research your own case studies or to ask the teacher for some other examples, your essay will be more unique. also, it's easier to remember case studies that you researched yourself.

so at the end of the day, the amount of notes the school provides is not really that important, more important is whether students can apply and show conceptual understanding in their exams.

[Juz Mum]

hello, just recently graduated RGS girl here. true that RGS provides less notes than other schools do (supposedly) but that's because RGS tends to test skills rather than content. i.e. instead of expecting students to memorise all the content, they expect students to use the conceptual understanding to solve new questions. for example, instead of blindly memorising solubility table for chemistry, exams might ask students to use understanding of solubility table to differentiate three different salts. (heard from my bio teacher that it is mandatory for teachers to set more than half of the paper this way instead of testing basic 'memory' questions.) this way, it's more interesting during exams and studying and also less chunks of notes to mug.


also for humanities subjects like literature and geography (in the upper sec levels), it's much better to come up with your own notes than to use the schools'. Because humanities exams are mostly writing essays, if you use the examples and case studies given in the notes, your essays will resemble everyone else's. but if you put in the effort to research your own case studies or to ask the teacher for some other examples, your essay will be more unique. also, it's easier to remember case studies that you researched yourself.

so at the end of the day, the amount of notes the school provides is not really that important, more important is whether students can apply and show conceptual understanding in their exams.[/quote]


Thank you
This is useful for my DD secondary school selection.

[WeiHan]

BitterSweet:

hello, just recently graduated RGS girl here. true that RGS provides less notes than other schools do (supposedly) but that's because RGS tends to test skills rather than content. i.e. instead of expecting students to memorise all the content, they expect students to use the conceptual understanding to solve new questions. for example, instead of blindly memorising solubility table for chemistry, exams might ask students to use understanding of solubility table to differentiate three different salts. (heard from my bio teacher that it is mandatory for teachers to set more than half of the paper this way instead of testing basic 'memory' questions.) this way, it's more interesting during exams and studying and also less chunks of notes to mug.

also for humanities subjects like literature and geography (in the upper sec levels), it's much better to come up with your own notes than to use the schools'. Because humanities exams are mostly writing essays, if you use the examples and case studies given in the notes, your essays will resemble everyone else's. but if you put in the effort to research your own case studies or to ask the teacher for some other examples, your essay will be more unique. also, it's easier to remember case studies that you researched yourself.

so at the end of the day, the amount of notes the school provides is not really that important, more important is whether students can apply and show conceptual understanding in their exams.

That is actually better provided that the teachers explained the concepts well and demonstrated how powerful the concepts can be applied to varied situations.

Good notes don't have to be chunky and long. What I meant was good notes and good explanation of concepts

[BitterSweet]

WeiHan:

BitterSweet:

hello, just recently graduated RGS girl here. true that RGS provides less notes than other schools do (supposedly) but that's because RGS tends to test skills rather than content. i.e. instead of expecting students to memorise all the content, they expect students to use the conceptual understanding to solve new questions. for example, instead of blindly memorising solubility table for chemistry, exams might ask students to use understanding of solubility table to differentiate three different salts. (heard from my bio teacher that it is mandatory for teachers to set more than half of the paper this way instead of testing basic 'memory' questions.) this way, it's more interesting during exams and studying and also less chunks of notes to mug.

also for humanities subjects like literature and geography (in the upper sec levels), it's much better to come up with your own notes than to use the schools'. Because humanities exams are mostly writing essays, if you use the examples and case studies given in the notes, your essays will resemble everyone else's. but if you put in the effort to research your own case studies or to ask the teacher for some other examples, your essay will be more unique. also, it's easier to remember case studies that you researched yourself.

so at the end of the day, the amount of notes the school provides is not really that important, more important is whether students can apply and show conceptual understanding in their exams.

That is actually better provided that the teachers explained the concepts well and demonstrated how powerful the concepts can be applied to varied situations.

Good notes don't have to be chunky and long. What I meant was good notes and good explanation of concepts

agreed, good explanation of concepts is the best teaching/notes that schools can give students. from my experience in RGS, a lot of emphasis is put on the concepts. for every single topic in every subjects, teachers will give students a set of notes that state the underlying concepts, macroconcepts and learning objectives of the topic, which are very helpful to use to tie together your understanding of the different topics learnt in a subject.

I personally feel that my RGS education was a success in that even though five years later I may forget the exact stats and case studies that i used for my essay on development and resources, I will still clearly remember and understand how the two concepts affect each other.

[WeiHan]

BitterSweet:

agreed, good explanation of concepts is the best teaching/notes that schools can give students. from my experience in RGS, a lot of emphasis is put on the concepts. for every single topic in every subjects, teachers will give students a set of notes that state the underlying concepts, macroconcepts and learning objectives of the topic, which are very helpful to use to tie together your understanding of the different topics learnt in a subject.

I personally feel that my RGS education was a success in that even though five years later I may forget the exact stats and case studies that i used for my essay on development and resources, I will still clearly remember and understand how the two concepts affect each other.

I suspect this is actually what MOE termed Teach less Learn More. And the whole IP concepts want students to pick up such skill.However, each school will decide how far they are going to take this new education concept to. Different school may have different approach. In RGS case, the school decided that 50% of the exam questions should test such skill ability of students while another school may feel that 30% will be sufficient.

[blessmum4]

Can share tips on DSA to RGS? My DD currently in RGPS GEP class.

What are the success rate for the GEPpers to DSA into RGS?
Tks

[GiftedGem]

blessmum4:

Can share tips on DSA to RGS? My DD currently in RGPS GEP class.

What are the success rate for the GEPpers to DSA into RGS?
Tks

Hi blessmum4, did you attend GEP Parent Briefing on 8 Mar ? The info was already shared to parents.

[zbear]

blessmum4:

Can share tips on DSA to RGS? My DD currently in RGPS GEP class.

What are the success rate for the GEPpers to DSA into RGS?
Tks

I remembered previously, my ex colleague whose dd was in RGPS GEP class told me that RGS will take in all RGPS GEPpers so long as they DSA to RGS (they have priority over other schools).

Not sure abt now, though.