Networking Group - JCs General

[newkeynesian]

Hi Leeparent


The usual write more read more is not good enough?

Perhaps you can share with us here what’s your son’s secret ingredients to an A in GP.

Thanks.

[zac's mum]

newkeynesian:

Hi Leeparent


The usual write more read more is not good enough?

Perhaps you can share with us here what's your son's secret ingredients to an A in GP.

Thanks.

For GP, write more read more must be more targeted and specific. Reading more English story books will not help.

Firstly, must read more current affairs and world news. My GP tutor brought us various newspapers from different countries to show us different perspectives on the same piece of news. If you don’t wish to buy these daily, you can probably find some free reading room at some clubs (or the National Library) which stocks such newspapers. Eg New York Times, The Guardian, Melbourne Age etc.

Train the critical thinking. For every controversial topic, list out the pros and cons and finally decide on your point of view and explain why. That’s the basic structure of a GP essay. Look at some sample essays from Popular to get an idea. Practise writing more and get a tutor to critique your essay so that you can improve.

That’s my own tips for getting an A in GP. Using bombastic language may help, but not as much as demonstrating critical thinking like how a professional debating team puts together its arguments. If you can watch some YouTube videos of interschool debates you’ll get an idea of the quality of thought required.

[Liangbrolovesoccer]

sunkc2000:

Is PW marked by their own JC teachers ?

Yeap internally marked, moderated by SEAB.

Usually most JCs do have 2 groups of PW teachers (each led by a senior teacher or HOD) that rotate to teach the subject every year, while another group would take up the grading of the Oral Presentation (OP), Written Report (WR) and Evaluation of Materials (EoM).

The grading will be based on general guidelines standardised by SEAB, and schools will moderate results base on internal moderators that will observe a few groups during Oral Presentations and random pick a proportion of WRs to work out the benchmark. In addition, SEAB would send moderators (which as referred usually as external moderators) that tags along with internal moderators to inspect randomly selected groups for their OP and WR, to evaluate the need for any moderation (so its usual that some groups mat have more than 7 examiners during their presentation). The results can be moderated up or down depending on individual school performance and marking standards in relative to other schools (usually down). (i.e. lets say the school's standard is 52 mark as A grade, SEAB may raise the A grade mark to 53, which those at 52 mark will drop to a B grade, vice versa)

[darnocwee]

Honestly speaking, PW grades depend a lot on the kind of teacher you get

[JJ1111]

darnocwee:

Honestly speaking, PW grades depend a lot on the kind of teacher you get

Agreed.

[lego]

Sorry riding on this thread , may I ask - how many hours of sleep does yr child get on average?

Just want to have a feel what the norm is like for a JC student.

[sharonkhoo]

lego:

Sorry riding on this thread , may I ask - how many hours of sleep does yr child get on average?

Just want to have a feel what the norm is like for a JC student.

It really depends. My daughter managed to go to bed by 11pm most nights while in JC, waking up at 6am. She stayed up to midnight occasionally (maybe a few times a term), and very occasionally (probably less than 5 times in a year) later than that. Her friends realised that she was an early-to-bed person, so they would schedule their PW discussions to start at 9pm, and try to let her go to bed by 11pm! They were quite an efficient bunch. But I know other students who don't sleep till 1-2am on a regular basis, so probably only get 4-5 hrs a night.

[lego]

slmkhoo:

lego:

Sorry riding on this thread , may I ask - how many hours of sleep does yr child get on average?

Just want to have a feel what the norm is like for a JC student.

It really depends. My daughter managed to go to bed by 11pm most nights while in JC, waking up at 6am. She stayed up to midnight occasionally (maybe a few times a term), and very occasionally (probably less than 5 times in a year) later than that. Her friends realised that she was an early-to-bed person, so they would schedule their PW discussions to start at 9pm, and try to let her go to bed by 11pm! They were quite an efficient bunch. But I know other students who don't sleep till 1-2am on a regular basis, so probably only get 4-5 hrs a night.

:thankyou: slmkhoo
Dd's usual bedtime is also 11pm currently, averaging about 7.5hrs of sleep on a normal school day.
Got a bit worried after reading one of the posts.
Don't think she will be able to cope well with 4-5 hours of sleep daily but your daughter's schedule seems quite doable.

[Estéema]

S’times they need to learn to manage their time, manage what needs to spend more time tackling & what can be simplified.


DC initially dive into tackling one area & spent majority of time till I got worried & steer him to relook at rqmts & re-calibrate time to tackle the impt things & leave the "nice to haves" last priority. It’s good they learn to prioritize their time & resources in their learning journey. This much we can highlight to them right? To me they’ll still need some level of mentoring & direction - aka 指点指点

[sharonkhoo]

Estéema:

S'times they need to learn to manage their time, manage what needs to spend more time tackling & what can be simplified.


DC initially dive into tackling one area & spent majority of time till I got worried & steer him to relook at rqmts & re-calibrate time to tackle the impt things & leave the \"nice to haves\" last priority. It's good they learn to prioritize their time & resources in their learning journey. This much we can highlight to them right? To me they'll still need some level of mentoring & direction - aka 指点指点

Agree with this. Although they are already pretty independent, they still lack experience in many areas and are still learning some higher-order skills like prioritising, adjusting expectations, managing group relationships etc. It's important that the parent-child relationship is strong and respectful (in both directions) - ideally, the child respects and seeks the views of parents, but the parent respects that the child should make the final decisions (sometimes even less wise ones, in the parents' view). Sometimes, a little pain teaches the best lessons. But the parents need to rein the child back if the situation seems to be getting too bad, or the decision has long-term repercussions. It needs quite a bit of wisdom how far to let go and when to step in!