Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)
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Whitehead Uncle:
According to subject combination, because that's how the timetabling software works best. However, minority subject combinations may end up folded into classes with vacancies.Hi, attended the subject selection talk with ds yesterday. Would like to ask for advice from more experienced parents here. My son is in IP.
How are classes in Year 3 arranged? According to same subject combo or exam results in Year 2? (ie some classes are better academically than others).
Are the core and adv Math similar to E Math and A Math?
Core and Advanced Math are arranged in a slightly different order and grouping of topics relative to E and A Math. Core Math was designed to be 'mathematics everybody ought to be able to handle' and Advanced Math was designed to be 'mathematics for those who need more than that'. But it's still a fair approximation to our familiar Elementary and Additional Math. -
Will the school disallow a student who is weak in Maths to select both Core and Advanced Maths?
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spicyblackpepper:
Will the school disallow a student who is weak in Maths to select both Core and Advanced Maths?
I should hope so. Generally, it depends on how weak. Most Singaporeans have a good foundation in basic math and can work towards a pass. Or at least, this used to be the case. -
Hi, attended the subject selection talk with ds yesterday. Would like to ask for advice from more experienced parents here. My son is in IP.
How are classes in Year 3 arranged? According to same subject combo or exam results in Year 2? (ie some classes are better academically than others).
Are the core and adv Math similar to E Math and A Math?
According to subject combination, because that’s how the timetabling software works best. However, minority subject combinations may end up folded into classes with vacancies.
Core and Advanced Math are arranged in a slightly different order and grouping of topics relative to E and A Math. Core Math was designed to be ‘mathematics everybody ought to be able to handle’ and Advanced Math was designed to be ‘mathematics for those who need more than that’. But it’s still a fair approximation to our familiar Elementary and Additional Math.
Thank you very much for your prompt reply! -
OpenSecret:
Hi Autolycus & OpenSecret,
Just to add on to what Autolycus mentioned, yup HMT does not build anythng towards your IB grade, but rather give you the option of selecting a foreign Ab initio language instead of the usual Mandarin B SL which majority of us took. One thing to take note is unlike primary school where you take both HMT and MT concurrently, in Y1 to Y4 you take only HMT and not MT which may pull down your points as compared to other students which are doing MT.ngl2010:
Lexis and Autolycus, does it mean it is better to pass HMT in year 6 instead of year 5?
And, no point to take third language, right?
When I was in Year 1 - Year 3 (dropped HMT in Y4), I realised that HMT constantly dragged down my overall points (the one out of 45) as I could only manage to get 5 points all the time even with effort put in. Compared with students which took MT and got 6 or even 7, this kind of put me in a disadvantage which was why i decided to voluntarily drop HMT in year 4 in order to concentrate on the rest of my subjects (since I planned to do mandarin B in Y5 anyway).
can share your thots on the CL/HCL/Chinese B ?
How tough is Chinese B? Will it be a big leap for CL students?
For HCL students who took & pass their HCL in Y4, can they still take Chinese B (SL) in Y5?
I understand CL-B exams will be taken in Y5, leaving Y6 free to concentrate on the remaining subjects. Should Y5 result be undesirable, can re-take & use the 'better result' for their IB?
Similar to OpenSecret, DS (Sec2) results has been dragged down by HCL.
He is losing interest in HCL & thinking of dropping to CL & plan to take CL-B (SL) in Y5. I spoke briefly to his CL teacher recently, her advice was to continue with HCL. Accordingly, while CL will be easier to handle in Y3 & Y4, the struggle will come in Y5. The leap is lesser for HCL students. Also, she mentioned that the withdrawal may not be approved as his results at high 50s - low 60s is a decent score.
So the trade-off for HCL in Y3 & Y4 will be the dragging down of his results but easier to cope in Y5. But per OpenSecret mentioned, HCL has no bearings on the IB grade & those not keen on taking foreign lang ab initio.
Tho I am inclined for continuing with HCL, thinking hard which is better for DS since he has no interest in taking foreign lang ab initio. Would appreciate any comments/sharing/advice. Thanks.
PS: After posting the above, i went on to read other threads and it seems that CL-B is like 2nd Lang and easier and most can score 7/7. Errrmmmm seems to be opposite from the teacher's view......I'm confused now. :? -
We are not so brave for HCL we switched from HCL to normal Chinese after 1st week. Initially chose HCL because DS followed the trend although he did not have interest in Chinese. But after a few days I woke up to the fact that weaker in Chinese was one of the reasons why he didn’t choose another nearer Chinese focus school. In that school HCL is compulsory. Now his normal Chinese results are really encouraging, I cannot imagine that his weakest Chinese can score him 7 points in both mid year and final exams. I can feel the Chineseness coming back to my DS. We are a Chinese speaking family, besides scoring well in Chinese, we hope to encourage the true interest in Chinese, if we take HCL and struggle, how can we be happy with the language. My personal opinion.
Mother tongue. .mother’s language… hope that my DS will be comfortable using mother’s language. -
I think that in general, for the sake of the children, it's always best to find a comfortable level of language use—we can define that as one where the child puts in fair but not excessive effort, and gets a raw score of about 60+ (which is equivalent to a B4 for O-levels or a 5 for IB-style grading).
Again, the points are pretty straightforward:
1. HCL fulfils MOE's 2nd-lang requirement and so the student has no constraints on language education in Y5; if your ds is so minded, he can even decide to take Latin or something! However, this establishes your ds as a first-lang user of CL, so he can't take CL at any level except CL A in IB. Hence the main advantage of HCL (or H-anything-L) is freedom to learn a new language at ab initio level (which is both easy and useful) in Y5/6.
2. CL is the standard, so your ds must still do CL in Y5/6 in order to meet MOE requirements. He can do CL B, and it's in some ways a bit easier. Generally IB subjects move slightly away from content in favour of a much heavier practitioner focus—practical usage and cultural adaptation, in the case of languages.
I wish you all the best! After all, the best is yet to be.
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My DS always talk about learning Latin :siao: Anyway, we will stick with Chinese as second language (B standard) for the 6 happy ACS years
:rahrah: My DS now set his target to maintain 7 points for his 2nd language (mother tongue/normal Chinese) -
BeContented:
Hi Becontented,
Hi Autolycus & OpenSecret,
can share your thots on the CL/HCL/Chinese B ?
How tough is Chinese B? Will it be a big leap for CL students?
For HCL students who took & pass their HCL in Y4, can they still take Chinese B (SL) in Y5?
I understand CL-B exams will be taken in Y5, leaving Y6 free to concentrate on the remaining subjects. Should Y5 result be undesirable, can re-take & use the 'better result' for their IB?
Similar to OpenSecret, DS (Sec2) results has been dragged down by HCL.
He is losing interest in HCL & thinking of dropping to CL & plan to take CL-B (SL) in Y5. I spoke briefly to his CL teacher recently, her advice was to continue with HCL. Accordingly, while CL will be easier to handle in Y3 & Y4, the struggle will come in Y5. The leap is lesser for HCL students. Also, she mentioned that the withdrawal may not be approved as his results at high 50s - low 60s is a decent score.
So the trade-off for HCL in Y3 & Y4 will be the dragging down of his results but easier to cope in Y5. But per OpenSecret mentioned, HCL has no bearings on the IB grade & those not keen on taking foreign lang ab initio.
Tho I am inclined for continuing with HCL, thinking hard which is better for DS since he has no interest in taking foreign lang ab initio. Would appreciate any comments/sharing/advice. Thanks.
PS: After posting the above, i went on to read other threads and it seems that CL-B is like 2nd Lang and easier and most can score 7/7. Errrmmmm seems to be opposite from the teacher's view......I'm confused now. :?
I have a kid in Yr5 now. He took HMT \"O-level\" last year and this year, he is taking Chinese B (CLB). Like you rightly mentioned, many Yr 5s prefer to take CLB cos they could \"get it over with\" by the end of the year, freeing some time for EE etc. in Yr 6.
I've looked at CLB workbooks. Seems to be much easier than that of \"O-level\" Chinese. Graphic stimulus, Short compres, majority MCQ. The other written component is letter writing and for that, the student is given several choices to write on. The other bits of CLB are 3 internal assessments - all oral in nature. Some group work, some individual. Grading is done by the class chinese teacher on an individual basis. At the end of the year, the school will choose 2 best scores out of the 3 assessments to be sent to IB.
Yes, it's easy to score above 80 marks but do bear in mind that in Year 5, 80 marks may not translate to a 7-points. The IB grading is based on how the entire cohort did for each subject. (As that of PSLE. haha!) And for 2014 Year 5's mid year exams, the candidate needs to score above 87 marks to get a 7-points. So in this manner, a 7-points may not be a given.
I am not too sure though, if retake is an option.
I guess if your son would like to continue with HCL, he needs to accept the fact that his overall scores will perpetually suffer compared to those taking CL till Yr 4. The real sense of imbalance will hit during End-of-year (EOY) exam for Yr 4, when those who took CL \"O-level\" in June scored A2 and above, they will automatically be given a 7-point for their CL and exempted from the EOY exams.
Boys taking HCL are required to take CL @ \"O-level\" in Yr 3. But no recognition or concession will be given even if they score an A1 for that.
So, really, if your son wants to continue with HCL, it is wise to see beyond grades & taking it as an enrichment. Incidentally, I also have a Yr2 son taking HCL. But so far, there is no talk on dropping it...
Hope this post helps....
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breezy:
Hi Breezy,
Hi Becontented,BeContented:
Hi Autolycus & OpenSecret,
can share your thots on the CL/HCL/Chinese B ?
How tough is Chinese B? Will it be a big leap for CL students?
For HCL students who took & pass their HCL in Y4, can they still take Chinese B (SL) in Y5?
I understand CL-B exams will be taken in Y5, leaving Y6 free to concentrate on the remaining subjects. Should Y5 result be undesirable, can re-take & use the 'better result' for their IB?
Similar to OpenSecret, DS (Sec2) results has been dragged down by HCL.
He is losing interest in HCL & thinking of dropping to CL & plan to take CL-B (SL) in Y5. I spoke briefly to his CL teacher recently, her advice was to continue with HCL. Accordingly, while CL will be easier to handle in Y3 & Y4, the struggle will come in Y5. The leap is lesser for HCL students. Also, she mentioned that the withdrawal may not be approved as his results at high 50s - low 60s is a decent score.
So the trade-off for HCL in Y3 & Y4 will be the dragging down of his results but easier to cope in Y5. But per OpenSecret mentioned, HCL has no bearings on the IB grade & those not keen on taking foreign lang ab initio.
Tho I am inclined for continuing with HCL, thinking hard which is better for DS since he has no interest in taking foreign lang ab initio. Would appreciate any comments/sharing/advice. Thanks.
PS: After posting the above, i went on to read other threads and it seems that CL-B is like 2nd Lang and easier and most can score 7/7. Errrmmmm seems to be opposite from the teacher's view......I'm confused now. :?
I have a kid in Yr5 now. He took HMT \"O-level\" last year and this year, he is taking Chinese B (CLB). Like you rightly mentioned, many Yr 5s prefer to take CLB cos they could \"get it over with\" by the end of the year, freeing some time for EE etc. in Yr 6.
That's what I have been hearing as well....
I've looked at CLB workbooks. Seems to be much easier than that of \"O-level\" Chinese. Graphic stimulus, Short compres, majority MCQ. The other written component is letter writing and for that, the student is given several choices to write on. The other bits of CLB are 3 internal assessments - all oral in nature. Some group work, some individual. Grading is done by the class chinese teacher on an individual basis. At the end of the year, the school will choose 2 best scores out of the 3 assessments to be sent to IB.
Yes, it's easy to score above 80 marks but do bear in mind that in Year 5, 80 marks may not translate to a 7-points. The IB grading is based on how the entire cohort did for each subject. (As that of PSLE. haha!) And for 2014 Year 5's mid year exams, the candidate needs to score above 87 marks to get a 7-points. So in this manner, a 7-points may not be a given.
I am not too sure though, if retake is an option.
Now I understand better how it works I had the misconception that it's like the 'O' levels, just one try....so it's more continuous work. Thanks.
I guess if your son would like to continue with HCL, he needs to accept the fact that his overall scores will perpetually suffer compared to those taking CL till Yr 4. The real sense of imbalance will hit during End-of-year (EOY) exam for Yr 4, when those who took CL \"O-level\" in June scored A2 and above, they will automatically be given a 7-point for their CL and exempted from the EOY exams.
Boys taking HCL are required to take CL @ \"O-level\" in Yr 3. But no recognition or concession will be given even if they score an A1 for that.
So, really, if your son wants to continue with HCL, it is wise to see beyond grades & taking it as an enrichment. Incidentally, I also have a Yr2 son taking HCL. But so far, there is no talk on dropping it...
Hope this post helps....
your sharing has been most helpful......and this is not the first time i have benefited from your sharing thanks a lot.
Yes, we have been trying to get DS to see HCL beyond grades....but I suppose the fact that his overall score has been suffering and with some peer influence, he has been harboring that idea. And of course, the element of wanting the easy-way-out :spank: to up his overall score instead of working harder on his HCL :mad: .
As I replied this, DS came home. I have just explained and spoken to him.....decision is to continue with HCL and he doesn't want any tuition yet. Let's hope he will really put more effort to improve
Once again thanks for sharing. :love:
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