All About A Levels

[jtoh]

Clever girl!

[zeemimi]

jtoh:

Clever girl!

Or rather clever parents.

[jtoh]

zeemimi:

jtoh:

Clever girl!

Or rather clever parents.

Oh definitely.

[micko07]

jtoh:

Do they? If yes, that would be a relief. If they really do recognize the difference in standards, then they would have a different set of criteria for admission to the unis for local vs foreign students. For eg a course may require AAA/A for the local UK student and for the Singapore student an AAB/A or AAA/B might suffice. I haven't done much research in this area but I don't think it's happening.

I can only speak for Law, but it's true that some schools give lower offers for SIPCAL as opposed to the UK A levels (eg Nottingham, Bristol). Unfortunately, I don't think this is true for Oxford and Cambridge. I'm not entirely sure about LSE, UCL, Imperial and the like, but my response would be not to count on it.

Seriously, if you think the UK A levels is a joke, you haven't seen SATs. It's utterly ridiculous that 3 SAT II scores of 700+ + SAT I 2100+ is considered equivalent to AAA in SIPCAL.

[jtoh]

Thanks micko07. I suppose the one good thing about SAT is that our students can take it and score well to gain entry to good universities.

[zeemimi]

micko07:

Seriously, if you think the UK A levels is a joke, you haven't seen SATs. It's utterly ridiculous that 3 SAT II scores of 700+ + SAT I 2100+ is considered equivalent to AAA in SIPCAL.

Pardon me I'm ignorant of SAT. So are scores like what is mentioned above relatively easy to obtain? When does a typical jc student prepare and sit for SAT?

[micko07]

zeemimi:

Pardon me I'm ignorant of SAT. So are scores like what is mentioned above relatively easy to obtain? When does a typical jc student prepare and sit for SAT?

Personally, I think it's infinitely easier relative to A levels. I got above those scores for both SAT I and II with just one sitting for each paper.

SAT IIs are the subject tests -you typically need 2-3 out of a list of 20 or so subjects. If an Arts student like me who only did Biology up to Sec 4 could get 700+ via self-study, it really can't be that difficult. SAT II Math is pretty easy is you do H1/H2 Math - in fact, I think I had a friend who managed to get a pretty good score even without doing H1/H2 Math. I also did SAT II Literature, which was all right. You can look at the list of tests offered and some sample tests here: http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sa ... reparation

SAT I is the \"general\" test that must be taken by pretty much everyone (you can also do the ACT in lieu, but I've never tried that). SAT I Math is a complete joke - I remember a lot of the questions were about Sec 1/2 level. As long as you're careful, there's no reason why you can't get a perfect score. The vocabulary bit is pretty annoying because they tend to use words that don't come up often in everyday conversation, but that can be remedied by some hard-core memorization. You'll also need to go back and revise basic grammar rules (which can actually be completely counter-intuitive). The essay is also graded differently to GP so you need to be familiar with how that works too. You can see a sample SAT paper here: https://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-practice-test

You only really need SATs for US applications - I wouldn't sit for them otherwise (unfortunately, the UK schools typically make offers conditional on SIPCAL/ IB). If the kid is potentially interested in applying to the US, I would suggest taking them as soon as possible, so that you can resit if necessary. I can't exactly remember when I took my SATs, but I think I did SAT IIs in June of J1 and SAT I in December of J1. Practise loads, be very careful, and you should be fine (there are \"ten year series\" equivalents, which you can buy from bookshops or online eg http://www.randomhouse.com/princetonreview/college/sat/)

[zeemimi]

Tks micko07!

[angell]

Hi Parents!


I have some SAT books for sale in the Garage Sales.

My DD did well enough with the help of those books to be accepted by four well ranked US Unis

Also two A level prep books for sale.

Thanks!

[BitterSweet]

micko07:

jtoh:

Do they? If yes, that would be a relief. If they really do recognize the difference in standards, then they would have a different set of criteria for admission to the unis for local vs foreign students. For eg a course may require AAA/A for the local UK student and for the Singapore student an AAB/A or AAA/B might suffice. I haven't done much research in this area but I don't think it's happening.

I can only speak for Law, but it's true that some schools give lower offers for SIPCAL as opposed to the UK A levels (eg Nottingham, Bristol). Unfortunately, I don't think this is true for Oxford and Cambridge. I'm not entirely sure about LSE, UCL, Imperial and the like, but my response would be not to count on it.

Seriously, if you think the UK A levels is a joke, you haven't seen SATs. It's utterly ridiculous that 3 SAT II scores of 700+ + SAT I 2100+ is considered equivalent to AAA in SIPCAL.

Bit of a late reply here, but there's definitely a huge difference in A level prerequisites for Oxford and Cambridge with regards to Singapore A-levels. Most Oxbridge courses require grades of AAA* or AA*A* or even A*A*A* for those taking the UK A levels, while there is obviously no A* grade for the Singapore A levels, so the general pre-requisite is 4As in H2 subjects.

And yes, the SATs are indeed a joke in comparison to the A levels, I have friends who took SAT1 in the beginning of J1 (ie January), not having learnt anything from the JC curriculum, and scored 2100-2300+. That's why most UK unis don't care about SAT grades.