2021 PSLE Discussions and Strategies (Children born in 2009)

[lassie girl]

For the fun of it and for discussion sake only - so please do not read on if any of these discussions is going to make anybody lose sleep or lose appetite from now till the posting results are out….


If I were to hazard a guess, it will likely be very interesting for the IP schools… and the trickle down effect might affect the more popular o levels schools and affiliation schools etc as well… we have to remember indicative cut off are likely just indicative - because last year’s cohort didn’t have the same “constraints” that this year’s cohort need to handle (ie new method of AL and choice ranking matters + your citizenship status)… one’s posting outcome is also now dependent on citizenship status so the same AL students competing may have very different outcomes…

The ones who made their choices/ranking with no elaborate “strategic plan or ranking” will likely not feel any impact from this. Eg choosing a school that the parent/child really likes although indicative cut off is “safely” higher. The kids either did very well, or they picked a school near them instead of the “best” school they can get. These will be the happy and contented ones.

Then we have the kids with affiliation. Maybe because of the uncertainty of the new system, likely more will put the affiliated school as first choice (or their affiliated IP as first choice so that they can still activate their o levels affiliation at second choice) which effectively takes them out of the common pool competing with everyone else. They might be the happy ones as well. Typically these affiliation schools will be quite popular as well as can be seen from their cut off. With more affiliation kids staying on, would it mean the seats left for “outsider” be lesser which will drive the AL cut off lower?? If these kids stay on for their own IP or o levels track, there is a good chance the affiliated schools’ IP AL cut off might be lower?

Not to forget the ones with HCL advantage. Would they prioritize the SAP schools over the non SAP ones? Interesting…

Then there is the group who are the daring ones who (say got AL6) and will still rank all the indicative AL6 schools first, followed by all the 7 schools then all the 8s… with the hope of getting the “best” school possible… posting outcome might really be very dependent on citizenship status…
And the play safe group who put eg 1st choice AL0 (their AL score), 2nd choice AL0+1, 3rd choice AL+2 etc… the scary thing is that if enough people rank their schools the same way, the final AL cut off might really throw out some interesting surprises…

Under the t score, we do hear of people who at least try for a better cut off school just in case that year, the t score swings. In fact I heard of some who put a few “better” schools just to try, with a safer net somewhere below. Would most people still try one AL better in this new system or start with schools with their AL score (just to be safe).. what’s the implication if enough people think the same way? We shall see…

Please remember this discussion is only for the fun of it…… :siam:

[Liew Nga Wing]

lassie girl\" post_id=\"2051929\" time=\"1639573778\" user_id=\"35383:[quote=\"lassie girl\" post_id=2051929 time=1639573778 user_id=35383]
For the fun of it and for discussion sake only - so please do not read on if any of these discussions is going to make anybody lose sleep or lose appetite from now till the posting results are out….

If I were to hazard a guess, it will likely be very interesting for the IP schools… and the trickle down effect might affect the more popular o levels schools and affiliation schools etc as well… we have to remember indicative cut off are likely just indicative - because last year’s cohort didn’t have the same “constraints” that this year’s cohort need to handle (ie new method of AL and choice ranking matters + your citizenship status)… one’s posting outcome is also now dependent on citizenship status so the same AL students competing may have very different outcomes…

The ones who made their choices/ranking with no elaborate “strategic plan or ranking” will likely not feel any impact from this. Eg choosing a school that the parent/child really likes although indicative cut off is “safely” higher. The kids either did very well, or they picked a school near them instead of the “best” school they can get. These will be the happy and contented ones.

Then we have the kids with affiliation. Maybe because of the uncertainty of the new system, likely more will put the affiliated school as first choice (or their affiliated IP as first choice so that they can still activate their o levels affiliation at second choice) which effectively takes them out of the common pool competing with everyone else. They might be the happy ones as well. Typically these affiliation schools will be quite popular as well as can be seen from their cut off. With more affiliation kids staying on, would it mean the seats left for “outsider” be lesser which will drive the AL cut off lower?? If these kids stay on for their own IP or o levels track, there is a good chance the affiliated schools’ IP AL cut off might be lower?

Not to forget the ones with HCL advantage. Would they prioritize the SAP schools over the non SAP ones? Interesting…

Then there is the group who are the daring ones who (say got AL6) and will still rank all the indicative AL6 schools first, followed by all the 7 schools then all the 8s… with the hope of getting the “best” school possible… posting outcome might really be very dependent on citizenship status…
And the play safe group who put eg 1st choice AL0 (their AL score), 2nd choice AL0+1, 3rd choice AL+2 etc… the scary thing is that if enough people rank their schools the same way, the final AL cut off might really throw out some interesting surprises…

Under the t score, we do hear of people who at least try for a better cut off school just in case that year, the t score swings. In fact I heard of some who put a few “better” schools just to try, with a safer net somewhere below. Would most people still try one AL better in this new system or start with schools with their AL score (just to be safe).. what’s the implication if enough people think the same way? We shall see…

Please remember this discussion is only for the fun of it…… :siam:[/quote]

With the new AL System + Citizenship status and balloting factor, there will be definitely changes on the S1 Posting from the previous T-Score system.

Let's wait for the result announcement on 22 Dec 2021. Good Luck to all P6 students.

[soloestoy]

I thought only choice order is a new tie breaker? But it’s true that citizenship tie breaker is much more likely to be activated under AL system.


For affiliated schools, I guess even the schools don’t know how their pool of eligible students will increase/decrease under the AL AMR vs the old T-score AMR.

[SG_KP1]

soloestoy\" post_id=\"2051941\" time=\"1639579788\" user_id=\"56690:

I thought only choice order is a new tie breaker? But it’s true that citizenship tie breaker is much more likely to be activated under AL system.

For affiliated schools, I guess even the schools don’t know how their pool of eligible students will increase/decrease under the AL AMR vs the old T-score AMR.

All things the same, I believe it is likely somewhat more students qualified under AL AMR than the old affiliated t-score COP. If so, this was not picked up in the simulation. I.e. if t-score COP was 200 and you got 199, there was no point to try the affiliated school. But if your 199 is still AL20, now you could have gone (in the simulation) but your 2020 PSLE S1 Option Form would not have included the affiliated school as first choice (since under t-score you didn't qualify). On the margin, this probably means fewer seats for the non-affiliated although exactly how many is :? :? :?

If more affiliated kids \"stay home\" as a play safe strategy, that will amplify the impact further. Edit: I have not considered more affiliated kids staying home = slightly less pressure on other schools.

[SG_KP1]

lassie girl\" post_id=\"2051929\" time=\"1639573778\" user_id=\"35383:[quote=\"lassie girl\" post_id=2051929 time=1639573778 user_id=35383]
Not to forget the ones with HCL advantage. Would they prioritize the SAP schools over the non SAP ones? Interesting…[/quote]

Arguably, the kids with high HCL grade relative to the indicative COP can be more aggressive and try their luck at the non-SAP schools first if they wish. I.e. take an AL7 non-SAP school and an AL7(M) SAP school, a kid with AL7(D) can try the non-SAP first and even though the SAP school is second choice the \"D\" will keep him/her ahead if unlucky and ballot out at non-SAP school. Of course there is some risk that there is a ballot at AL7(D) and choice order matters but this is starting to slice things really thin (citizenship will still be the first filter at AL7(D)).

While you cannot \"jump over\" anyone with HCL anymore (no +3, +2, +1), given how many students are in each AL band and the flexibility it provides in the S1 option choices, I would say HCL has become more valuable if you like CL and can tolerate a SAP secondary school.

lassie girl\" post_id=\"2051929\" time=\"1639573778\" user_id=\"35383:[quote=\"lassie girl\" post_id=2051929 time=1639573778 user_id=35383]And the play safe group who put eg 1st choice AL0 (their AL score), 2nd choice AL0+1, 3rd choice AL+2 etc… the scary thing is that if enough people rank their schools the same way, the final AL cut off might really throw out some interesting surprises…[/quote]

I have wondered whether many people will take enough risk on their say 2nd - 4th (or maybe 5th) choices. If enough people adopt the +1 strategy, some of the schools may actually not fill up as fast as they did in the simulation. I think a lot will depend on whether the relative demand (vs. vacancy) at each ALX school is the same. If everyone at ALX puts just one ALX school in their choices and it is predominately the same school we could get some odd results.

[lassie girl]

SG_KP1\" post_id=\"2051944\" time=\"1639584013\" user_id=\"188234:

Arguably, the kids with high HCL grade relative to the indicative COP can be more aggressive and try their luck at the non-SAP schools first if they wish. I.e. take an AL7 non-SAP school and an AL7(M) SAP school, a kid with AL7(D) can try the non-SAP first and even though the SAP school is second choice the \"D\" will keep him/her ahead if unlucky and ballot out at non-SAP school. Of course there is some risk that there is a ballot at AL7(D) and choice order matters but this is starting to slice things really thin (citizenship will still be the first filter at AL7(D)).

While you cannot \"jump over\" anyone with HCL anymore (no +3, +2, +1), given how many students are in each AL band and the flexibility it provides in the S1 option choices, I would say HCL has become more valuable if you like CL and can tolerate a SAP secondary school.

Yes hcl will be very valuable in this new system. Having a D for hcl will make one 3 steps ahead of the same AL pack (when trying for SAP schools). Singaporeans can take that chance to try non SAP schools first before using this as an advantage at SAP schools - which again means they need to be strategic about their choice ranking instead of being able to put as they wish under the old system. This also could be one way for non Singaporeans to avoid balloting. For example, if one is a AL7D, one may not want to take chance to choose an AL7 non SAP because of the chance to ballot with citizenship rules, and to be ahead of the pack as well with a D which may not be so commonplace for our English speaking Singaporeans… And like I said what if enough people think the same way? and would the SAP cohort mix then change? Interesting….

SG_KP1\" post_id=\"2051944\" time=\"1639584013\" user_id=\"188234:

I have wondered whether many people will take enough risk on their say 2nd - 4th (or maybe 5th) choices. If enough people adopt the +1 strategy, some of the schools may actually not fill up as fast as they did in the simulation. I think a lot will depend on whether the relative demand (vs. vacancy) at each ALX school is the same. If everyone at ALX puts just one ALX school in their choices and it is predominately the same school we could get some odd results.

Exactly. Of course with no idea of the cohort’s performance we do not know how the AL scores will spread out or their relative chance in this posting. But what if enough people think the same way, the IP schools’ AL cut off will not be so nicely spread out like under the old system. Very interesting… we shall see how it pans out

[Liew Nga Wing]

In the eve of the announcement of PSLE results, I hope to recommend a book for all parents here,


"The Tyranny of Merit - What’s become of the common good?" - by Michael J. Sandal in 2020.

This book is now available in our National Library, Amazon.sg, Kinokuniya and Kobo,etc.

Hope you can enjoy the book.

[soloestoy]

Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=\"2052209\" time=\"1639890089\" user_id=\"195250:[quote=\"Liew Nga Wing\" post_id=2052209 time=1639890089 user_id=195250]
In the eve of the announcement of PSLE results, I hope to recommend a book for all parents here,

\"The Tyranny of Merit - What's become of the common good?\" - by Michael J. Sandal in 2020.

This book is now available in our National Library, Amazon.sg, Kinokuniya and Kobo,etc.

Hope you can enjoy the book.[/quote]

Good recommendation. Wonder our own elites read this book.

[ChiefKiasu]

We have reopened this thread because MOE is supposed to be releasing the results of the P6 to S1 selection on 22 December (tomorrow), so that it can reach its natural conclusion.


Godspeed to all P6 kids out there, and may you all get into the school that will mold you into a strong and resilient young citizen for our country.

[zac's mum]

All the best for the posting results!!!


Wow tmr the SMS networks are gonna be busy…the 12 year olds’ parents waiting for posting SMS, while the 11 year olds’ parents waiting for the invitation SMS for vaccination lol!