* Nanyang JC (NYJC)

[25HMOM]

roborovski:

mindays:

Interesting analysis. You seem to be ranking the Physics papers according to the JCs' COP! My DS1 had just graduated from JC last year. From his experience, the model answers given by the NYJC teachers weren't very comprehensive/substantial, and so were some other JCs. He did not mention if NYJC papers were indeed tougher than most JCs but IMHO, being able to provide a good answer to any question set by the JC is of great importance too.

I would like to add that when JCs share their answer schemes, they are mostly edited. If I am not wrong, NYJC has marker's report that can only be shared internally within the school. Comprehensive answers may be given to NYJC students but it can be brief when shared with other JCs.

Don't tarnish all JCs' image of being selfish, including NYJC!
All answer keys, not just marker's reports, should be comprehensive enough to enable a student to rely on.
From what I know, teachers will honestly state their answer keys as private and confidential and hence unable to release during the exchange instead of deliberately editing their answer keys.
They will be caught red-handed when their papers start circulating in the market.
If what you said is true about edited answers and your NYJC neighbour had indeed done approx 16 sets of other JCs' physics papers after prelim right up to A level's, what benefit would your neighbour reap from slogging on those papers with edited answers?
Shouldn't NYJC help its students to concentrate on a few exchanged papers with quality answer keys instead?

[25HMOM]

mindays:

I took Physics for my A levels a donkey years ago. I can tell the standard of the papers. I took a look at paper 1 and 2 of these schools and skimmed through them. My neighbour's son who graduated this year passed my DS his set of papers (year 2015). He was from NYJC. I was initially surprised of how he possessed these approx. 20 school papers. He said NYJC provides these school papers for the students to practise. Yes, all of them are year 2015.

Oh to answer your question, I must say, it takes pure luck to have a neighbour who have copies of such papers. It is not possible for me to share these papers with you, digitally. I do not want to break the law as these are copy-righted materials. I am sure you wouldn't do such a silly thing to \"prove\" what you say.

A better way for you to check my credibility is to ask other JC students about the difficulty.

If your DS is around 16-18 years old now, you must have taken A level physics about 3 decades ago. I really doubt your capability to analyse accurately the difficulty level of every JC physics prelim paper by simply skimming through them.
I can't help being skeptical as I find your posts being mostly unreliable and misleading.

[roborovski]

mindays:

roborovski:

[quote=\"mindays\"]Personally, I had seen JCs papers for Physics.


On average for Physics,
HCI is the hardest among all JCs
RI comes 2nd
NJC 3rd
VJC, NYJC, DHS, RVHS - have a fair share of difficult qns (at least 70%)
TJC, ACJC, AJC, SAJC - moderate - tough qns
MJC, CJC, YJC, PJC, TPJC, SRJC, IJC, JJC - basic - moderate qns
MI - basic qns

If you don't believe me, take a good look at their papers.

I believe all JCs will try to teach their students within the syllabus.
HCI, RI may broaden their students' skills set by teaching outside the syllabus though.

Interesting analysis. You seem to be ranking the Physics papers according to the JCs' COP! My DS1 had just graduated from JC last year. From his experience, the model answers given by the NYJC teachers weren't very comprehensive/substantial, and so were some other JCs. He did not mention if NYJC papers were indeed tougher than most JCs but IMHO, being able to provide a good answer to any question set by the JC is of great importance too.

I would like to add that when JCs share their answer schemes, they are mostly edited. If I am not wrong, NYJC has marker's report that can only be shared internally within the school. Comprehensive answers may be given to NYJC students but it can be brief when shared with other JCs.[/quote]Referring to my post above, my DS1 confirmed de NYJC physics papers wasn't an exchanged copy given by his JC. He was referring to a 2014 NYJC physics paper that was purchased from Gan Exam Papers and found de answer keys doubtful. He consulted his teacher and found some key words missing in the answers. My DS1 JC did not exchange prelim papers with NYJC in 2015 but with about 5 other JCs which he thinks is sufficient. His JC did not rush them on other JCs current year prelim papers in the last hour but had given the previous years exam papers (2013/4) consistently before de mid-year exam. After prelim, most of his time was spent on revising concepts/learning techniques/memorising key points whilst doing a couple of exam papers as there wasn't much time left. He had 4 H2 subjects and GP to cope with.

[mathtuition88]

zbear:

mindays:

Personally, I had seen JCs papers for Physics.


On average for Physics,
HCI is the hardest among all JCs
RI comes 2nd
NJC 3rd
VJC, NYJC, DHS, RVHS - have a fair share of difficult qns (at least 70%)
TJC, ACJC, AJC, SAJC - moderate - tough qns
MJC, CJC, YJC, PJC, TPJC, SRJC, IJC, JJC - basic - moderate qns
MI - basic qns

If you don't believe me, take a good look at their papers.

I believe all JCs will try to teach their students within the syllabus.
HCI, RI may broaden their students' skills set by teaching outside the syllabus though.

Do u have any idea for the other subjects like Chemistry n Maths?

For H2 Maths, AJC (Anderson) is notorious for setting very tough questions. I would estimate that even straight A-students may not be able to solve those AJC challenging questions.

Overall, all JCs set their H2 Math paper harder than the A level standard. For students aiming for B or even low A (just nice 70-75 marks), I would suggest that skip AJC / RI / HCI papers. Try A Level TYS multiple times (students tend to forget completely questions that only attempted once), and easier prelim papers like IJC / JJC / MI, etc, also multiple times to reinforce memory.

[phtthp]

mathtuition88:

For H2 Maths, AJC (Anderson) is notorious for setting very tough questions. I would estimate that even straight A-students may not be able to solve those AJC challenging questions.

Overall, all JCs set their H2 Math paper harder than the A level standard. For students aiming for B or even low A (just nice 70-75 marks), I would suggest that skip AJC / RI / HCI papers. Try A Level TYS multiple times (students tend to forget completely questions that only attempted once), and easier prelim papers like IJC / JJC / MI, etc, also multiple times to reinforce memory.

do u have any idea, for Bio ? Thanks

[mathtuition88]

phtthp:

mathtuition88:

For H2 Maths, AJC (Anderson) is notorious for setting very tough questions. I would estimate that even straight A-students may not be able to solve those AJC challenging questions.

Overall, all JCs set their H2 Math paper harder than the A level standard. For students aiming for B or even low A (just nice 70-75 marks), I would suggest that skip AJC / RI / HCI papers. Try A Level TYS multiple times (students tend to forget completely questions that only attempted once), and easier prelim papers like IJC / JJC / MI, etc, also multiple times to reinforce memory.

do u have any idea, for Bio ? Thanks

For Bio I am not very sure, sorry...

I believe for Bio, the strictness of the marking scheme is also a factor. E.g. the school's paper may look simple on the surface but it may have a underlying strict marking scheme.

[KTKS]

mathtuition88:

For H2 Maths, AJC (Anderson) is notorious for setting very tough questions. I would estimate that even straight A-students may not be able to solve those AJC challenging questions.

Overall, all JCs set their H2 Math paper harder than the A level standard. For students aiming for B or even low A (just nice 70-75 marks), I would suggest that skip AJC / RI / HCI papers. Try A Level TYS multiple times (students tend to forget completely questions that only attempted once), and easier prelim papers like IJC / JJC / MI, etc, also multiple times to reinforce memory.

Thank you for the tips. May I know if you are a maths private tutor?
Is it safe to rely on A Level TYS as the main practice papers? I know many pupils swear by merely relying on O Level TYS for distinctions. I am not sure if it works for A Level.

[KTKS]

mindays:

KTKS:

I believe it is still possible to exchange prelim papers with every jc with lots of hard work from the teachers.

But my question is: Is it rational and necessary for nyjc teachers to go to lengths to get almost all the jcs' papers? Due to time constraint, most JCs will just select a few (upper tier) JCs' papers for their pupils and go through the answers with them, which is more practical.

Mindays, did your neighbour's dc complete all the papers? Did he/she pass to you all the physics exam papers even if they were done, as I will only pass undone papers to others? Did these papers come with answer keys? Isn't it more convenient if you were to purchase new 2015 jc prelim papers from vendors for your ds which are available since early this year?

Yes, it's through the hard work of the teachers to exchange papers.
As there are limited A level resources, exchanging papers with the respective JCs is a common thing.

As I see, most papers were completed. At least 80%. Answer keys were provided at the back of the papers. I don't buy papers from vendors as it is very expensive. It's up to one's preference.

Thank you for your clarifications.

I know every JC will exchange prelim papers with a few others, especially those within the same zone. I do not quite agree that there are limited A level resources available unless there is a major change in syllabus for that year. There are always loads of TYS, own JC's past years papers and other JCs' past year papers available.

[zbear]

I assume all recommendations are for this year’s A level exams.


Come 2017, there is a change of syabulus, so exam questions will be set differently, won’t be able to rely too much on TYS.

[mathtuition88]

KTKS:

mathtuition88:

For H2 Maths, AJC (Anderson) is notorious for setting very tough questions. I would estimate that even straight A-students may not be able to solve those AJC challenging questions.

Overall, all JCs set their H2 Math paper harder than the A level standard. For students aiming for B or even low A (just nice 70-75 marks), I would suggest that skip AJC / RI / HCI papers. Try A Level TYS multiple times (students tend to forget completely questions that only attempted once), and easier prelim papers like IJC / JJC / MI, etc, also multiple times to reinforce memory.

Thank you for the tips. May I know if you are a maths private tutor?
Is it safe to rely on A Level TYS as the main practice papers? I know many pupils swear by merely relying on O Level TYS for distinctions. I am not sure if it works for A Level.

Yes, I am maths private tutor.

Sure, doing A level TYS as main practice papers is perfectly fine. I would suggest do past 5 years of TYS, instead of 10 years as those old papers may be outdated. Remaining time should be spent re-doing the questions, and selected \"easy\" school prelim papers. This advice is for average students who are aiming for B or borderline A.

The point is that for average students, it is more important to be able to do the basic to intermediate questions that form the bulk of the A level questions. Then, even if the minority challenging questions are left undone, they can still secure a B or even an A.

For stronger students who want to further improve their chances of scoring, after completely mastering the TYS, they can go on to the tougher prelim papers.

P.S: For Maths nowadays it is important to practice intelligently with understanding, as opposed to blind application of formulae and steps. Recent years there are trick questions appearing that are specifically constructed to catch those who blindly apply formula and steps, and also novel unseen questions that are unlike any previous TYS questions.