DSA 2017

[Nebbermind]

lee_yl:

The question is how many students actually applied for DSA. In one extreme scenario, if the 2800 successful applicants submitted those 16,000+ DSA applications, then the success rate is 100%!

When I attended DD2's school's gep briefing, we were told that the success rate for DSA by P6 geppers was XX.X%. I think this piece of useful information gave us parents a rough idea where our child stands if we were to choose to DSA. So I hope the same data can be made known for MS.

Ah! You forgot that many will get more than one CO!

[pirate]

lee_yl:

When I attended DD2's school's gep briefing, we were told that the success rate for DSA by P6 geppers was XX.X%. I think this piece of useful information gave us parents a rough idea where our child stands if we were to choose to DSA. So I hope the same data can be made known for MS.

Surely that will depend on which school one is applying to, and the quality of the competition in any particular cohort.

[coast]

lee_yl:

coast:

The 10% success rate that I mentioned was for the few IP schools I was aware of ... it refers to the chance of an applicant getting a CO from a particular school. Parents would have a feel because they roughly know the number of students taking the tests if they send their kids to the venue. A P of a top IP school also gave this 10% figure for those who applied DSA to his school last year. The number of students eventually admitted to the school via DSA would be higher as it includes those who were given WLs but eventually converted to COs during PSLE results day.

Thanks!
Yes, I mean let the parents and child know that their chances of success should be between 10%-20% (for those TOP IP schs) so that parents and child can really think through if they want to proceed with the tedious process.

Please take it with a pinch of salt. The actual figure might vary quite a bit since it was based on estimates on the number of students taking tests and one could not really “count” hundreds of students. Besides, there is probably no correlation between number of DSA applications for a school each year so while 10% might be a good guess for a school last year, it might not mean much for any other year.

I used the success rate with my DS to manage his expectations. He enjoyed the DSA process as he knew that it was perfectly normal if he did not succeed. He took it as a chance to know the schools better. During DSA, he interacted with seniors, teachers and even Alumni invited by the school to help with the DSA. He would make a more informed decision to select his school choices after PSLE should his DSA be unsuccessful. Prior to knowing the DSA outcome, I shared the following last year :-

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Re: DSA 2016
by coast » Fri Aug 19, 2016 1:41 pm
Just want to share that my DS has enjoyed his DSA journey. He gets to know the schools better. Regardless of the outcome, it was a good decision for him to have participated in the DSA. It will help in his eventual decision to choose his secondary school whether via DSA option or PSLE results (hoping for the former but it is okay if he needs to wait for his PSLE results).

All the best to your DCs and hope that they will hear the good news from their dream schools soon
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[coast]

Nebbermind:

lee_yl:

Thanks!
Yes, I mean let the parents and child know that their chances of success should be between 10%-20% (for those TOP IP schs) so that parents and child can really think through if they want to proceed with the tedious process.

But they donch randomly pick the kids. So cannot say chance is 10~20%, ya? If one excel not only in acad but also in sports and leadership, certainly it'll be a lot higher than that.

In any case, except for making yourself available on those test dates, it's really not as tedious as some made it out to be.

I strongly agree with you on this. For DS, the time spent was similar to going for a competition.

[coast]

iRabbit:

coast:

I agree with you on Maths.

But how about the other 3 subjects? For Science, there is a SO competition held by NUS High for P5.

While winners for SO, EL essay writing, National Debates, Big Spell are exemplary students, the numbers are insufficient considering the number of DSA vacancies … for IP ... 1400 minus Sports/Arts/ … so it seems unlikely that schools will just rely on competitions to identify subject strength talent.

I think schools will likely conduct subject tests and if the number of successful academic applicants (unless IP schools decide to reduce the number of COs under the new system), I think \"general academic abilities\" will likely do well especially if they choose their strongest subject.

I see where you're coming from. For popular MO competitions like NMOS and SMOPS, typically they can have 3-5 thousand participants. There's no way competitions for the other 3 subjects can come close to those numbers.

I agree with you that schools would most likely have to conduct subject specific domain tests for the other 3 subjects. And then there's the all impt interview too.

I just thought of something reading your post ... very few IP schools test Science for DSA (except RI, RGS for Science Domain and NUSH for all applicants) ... so I guess in the new system, we can't assume all IP schools offering all the 4 subject domains ... or maybe they are working hard now to develop the tests and talent development programs

[coast]

Nebbermind:

lee_yl:

The question is how many students actually applied for DSA. In one extreme scenario, if the 2800 successful applicants submitted those 16,000+ DSA applications, then the success rate is 100%!

When I attended DD2's school's gep briefing, we were told that the success rate for DSA by P6 geppers was XX.X%. I think this piece of useful information gave us parents a rough idea where our child stands if we were to choose to DSA. So I hope the same data can be made known for MS.

Ah! You forgot that many will get more than one CO!

I think that (in bold above) will not affect the success rate. As long as a student gets a CO (or a WL converted to CO), he is considered successful in DSA (even if he gets some rejects from other schools). I may be wrong though.

The 2800 figure seems different though ... \"Eventually, a total of 2,800 students were admitted to secondary school via DSA, half of whom were admitted to the Integrated Programme, or IP.\" Does this mean if a student got a CO but did not take the offer and decided instead to make his 6 choices after getting his PSLE results, he is not one of the 2,800? :?

[Nebbermind]

Anyway, no point scrutinizing the numbers. It’s not about chance but how good you are against the competition. If one is only so-so both acad and non acad, then definitely the chance also so-so

[coast]

- deleted -

[coast]

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/how-will-direct-school-admission-changes-affect-pupils


GAT

Schools, including IP ones, have been asked to stop looking at general academic ability and instead assess students based on their strengths in specific academic domains, such as maths, science or languages. In line with this, schools will stop using the general academic ability tests for DSA .

The general academic ability tests will be discontinued from next year.

But schools have already been asked to move towards looking at specific academic domains from this year so most are likely to follow this rule and consider admitting students based on their strengths in specific academic fields.

So some schools may stop using the general academic ability tests from this year. May I suggest checking with the schools directly?

[coast]

sob7:

If GAT is to be removed, would HAST be as well?

it was not mentioned in the MOE
SInce both are tests that similar in nature in testing a child's ability in maths, abstract reasoning and language.

I believe you are right. In any case, since it's advised to check with the school directly whether it will discontinue GAT this year, if it affects you, do call the school (or wait for its website) whether it will discontinue HAST this year.