DSA 2023

[Monkbone]

Thanks phtthp and SG_KP1 for your feedback.


I guess different schools will filter differently. But here is a real-life case:
My friend's son is P6 this year, and is very good in Wushu, winning quite a number of medals over the years. He also scored well academically in P4 and P5, getting AL6 for P5 end exams. However, for P6 mid year his pri school unexpectedly hit the P6 students with Olympiad-level papers for all subjects, resulting in his AL14 score. Nonetheless he applied DSA Wushu to an IP school in the east, but did not get pass the 1st round of shortlisting.
My friend then checked with his friend's friend, who is a staff from this IP school, and got the feedback that the school will look at the kids' P6 mid year result first. If that is beyond their preset threshold, then hard cheese...

[Monkbone]

zac's mum\" post_id=\"2074270\" time=\"1657707242\" user_id=\"53606:[quote=\"zac's mum\" post_id=2074270 time=1657707242 user_id=53606]
You can probably put your qn to the IP schools during their Nov open houses, and also during their April/May DSA open houses. We can all guess at this forum but we dont represent the schools.

Yes let the kids do their best at each test/exam from now on, P5-P6. But unless the grades are going to change your *choices* of which schools to DSA for, I think you are still going to give DSA a shot anyway right, regardless of grades.[/quote]

Thanks zac's mum.

But IMHO, I do not think the sec schools will give an honest answer during open house, when asked which academic result year they will evaluate. The politically appropriate answer will be P6 AND P5, or even with P4. If they tell parents only P6 mid year exam then we can imagine the repercussions...

[floppy]

Monkbone\" post_id=\"2074273\" time=\"1657707644\" user_id=\"197889:

Thanks phtthp and SG_KP1 for your feedback.

I guess different schools will filter differently. But here is a real-life case:
My friend's son is P6 this year, and is very good in Wushu, winning quite a number of medals over the years. He also scored well academically in P4 and P5, getting AL6 for P5 end exams. However, for P6 mid year his pri school unexpectedly hit the P6 students with Olympiad-level papers for all subjects, resulting in his AL14 score. Nonetheless he applied DSA Wushu to an IP school in the east, but did not get pass the 1st round of shortlisting.
My friend then checked with his friend's friend, who is a staff from this IP school, and got the feedback that the school will look at the kids' P6 mid year result first. If that is beyond their preset threshold, then hard cheese...

The students are always viewed holistically. Hence, if a student has been doing well consistently, schools are not put off by one-off bad result (the reverse is also true: if the student hasn’t been doing well all the time, scoring a AL4 in the mid year isn’t going to wow the selectors). Furthermore, AL14 won’t be beyond any schools’ threshold for DSA Sports in the first round, especially if the school has O Level stream.

Notwithstanding, the first level filter for DSA Sports is always about the sports achievement. The second level cut would be about the aptitude and attitude of the candidate.

My take would be that the student’s achievement isn’t outstanding enough against other candidates. It’s a DSA Sports application but details about the achievements aren’t shared. Few medals but what are they? Pesta Sukan? National Wushu Championship? NSG? When were they won? Is he a Singapore Wushu Federation National athlete? These are the details that the selectors would be looking at.

[Monkbone]

floppy\" post_id=\"2074275\" time=\"1657708759\" user_id=\"97579:

The students are always viewed holistically. Hence, if a student has been doing well consistently, schools are not put off by one-off bad result (the reverse is also true: if the student hasn’t been doing well all the time, scoring a AL4 in the mid year isn’t going to wow the selectors). Furthermore, AL14 won’t be beyond any schools’ threshold for DSA Sports in the first round, especially if the school has O Level stream.

Notwithstanding, the first level filter for DSA Sports is always about the sports achievement. The second level cut would be about the aptitude and attitude of the candidate.

My take would be that the student’s achievement isn’t outstanding enough against other candidates. It’s a DSA Sports application but details about the achievements aren’t shared. Few medals but what are they? Pesta Sukan? National Wushu Championship? NSG? When were they won? Is he a Singapore Wushu Federation National athlete? These are the details that the selectors would be looking at.

If i recall correctly, he won some trophies 2/3 years back in National Primary School games and quite high score for NSG earlier this year.. but details I'll need to check with my friend.
Assessing hundreds of applicants per domain (esp for IP and popular schools) must be a pretty arduous task for the teachers-in-charge, but hopefully all the DSA-sec schools will really evaluate holistically as you mentioned..
My own DD will be trying for a different domain next year so, good luck and all the best to the pre-teens!

[zac's mum]

Well for 2022 P6 mid year exams, some schools took the opportunity to set very tough papers, their excuse being “to give the kids a wake-up call” (they promised that the prelims will be easier as that is no longer the popular time to give wake up call)…many kids in my son’s class (and other medium-ability classes) fared badly.


Despite all this, there were still kids in the top 2 classes scoring as well as they did previously (toughness of the papers was nothing to them). That’s how things are.

Whatever the schools want to look at, nothing much we as parents can change. If u still want to try DSA, just go ahead (like I did), lower your expectations at your end will make life more bearable. We can’t control or fight for who they want to pick or not pick.

[floppy]

Monkbone\" post_id=\"2074286\" time=\"1657713890\" user_id=\"197889:

If i recall correctly, he won some trophies 2/3 years back in National Primary School games and quite high score for NSG earlier this year.. but details I'll need to check with my friend.
Assessing hundreds of applicants per domain (esp for IP and popular schools) must be a pretty arduous task for the teachers-in-charge, but hopefully all the DSA-sec schools will really evaluate holistically as you mentioned..
My own DD will be trying for a different domain next year so, good luck and all the best to the pre-teens!

Assessing hundreds or even thousands of applicants isn’t really that difficult for non-academic talent areas. It’s easy to narrow down the number of candidates very quickly. Take your friend’s wushu domain for example, whether it’s a hundred or a thousand applicants, the school only have to begin with the end in mind and work it out from there.

Example, if the school is only willing / able to offer 5 CO for Wushu (which is fairly reasonable for a single sport), they are probably going to invite ~30 participants for the second round (~20% success rate). As there are only 5 IP schools offering wushu DSA - 3 boys and 2 mixed, the school can certainly afford to be picky since there are probably more demand (from students) than supply (CO places) for IP places.

To get to 30, I would probably first filter based on top 6 in any event for the last 2 years from either National Wushu Championship or NSG. Just the National Wushu Championship alone, there are over 30 odd events (duan routine, traditional routine, etc) for under-12, resulting in around 180 names in a year. For Primary Schools NSG, I believe there are fewer events. Let’s say top 6 from 10 events, you will have about 60 names. Together, each year yields about 240 names and for 2 years, that’s 480 names.

To get to 30 for the first round, I’ll probably start counting the number of times each name appear and rank them accordingly. I would probably give a bye (golden ticket) to all winners (or top 3) in each event. Alternatively, I can allocate points to each position (4 for first, 3 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth to sixth). Regardless, I wouldn’t be surprised if the top 30 shortlisted candidates will have at least 5 top 6 finishes in either National Wushu Championship or NSG over two years.

The second round, we can then focus on stuff like character, attitude, ability to cope etc to get to that 5 CO and maybe a couple of WL.

[Imp75]

Monkbone\" post_id=\"2074273\" time=\"1657707644\" user_id=\"197889:

Thanks phtthp and SG_KP1 for your feedback.

I guess different schools will filter differently. But here is a real-life case:
My friend's son is P6 this year, and is very good in Wushu, winning quite a number of medals over the years. He also scored well academically in P4 and P5, getting AL6 for P5 end exams. However, for P6 mid year his pri school unexpectedly hit the P6 students with Olympiad-level papers for all subjects, resulting in his AL14 score. Nonetheless he applied DSA Wushu to an IP school in the east, but did not get pass the 1st round of shortlisting.
My friend then checked with his friend's friend, who is a staff from this IP school, and got the feedback that the school will look at the kids' P6 mid year result first. If that is beyond their preset threshold, then hard cheese...

For this IP sch in the east, it is known to be a mugger driven school. Based on real life examples in the past, athletes scoring less than 75% average are not even called up for sports trials no matter how many medals were won. This is one peculiar sch where acads are more impt than the sport and that is why their sports are typically not powerhouse.

[floppy]

Imp75\" post_id=\"2074320\" time=\"1657757210\" user_id=\"2358:

For this IP sch in the east, it is known to be a mugger driven school. Based on real life examples in the past, athletes scoring less than 75% average are not even called up for sports trials no matter how many medals were won. This is one peculiar sch where acads are more impt than the sport and that is why their sports are typically not powerhouse.

For clarity, there are two IP schools in the east that accept Wushu DSA - one is a boys’ school while the other is a mixed school.

The boys’ school is one of the traditional sport powerhouses (still dominant in some sports,) while the mixed school isn’t anywhere remotely close to owning a sport

[Monkbone]

floppy\" post_id=\"2074325\" time=\"1657759416\" user_id=\"97579:

For clarity, there are two IP schools in the east that accept Wushu DSA - one is a boys’ school while the other is a mixed school.

The boys’ school is one of the traditional sport powerhouses (still dominant in some sports,) while the mixed school isn’t anywhere remotely close to owning a sport

Anyway, since the schools set different DSA criteria regardless of what they tell the public, I guess we'll just need to do our own research, and as zac's mum put it, to set the appropriate expectation. And treat it as an experience to harden the kids.
Thanks for your feedback guys!

[Imp75]

floppy\" post_id=\"2074325\" time=\"1657759416\" user_id=\"97579:

For clarity, there are two IP schools in the east that accept Wushu DSA - one is a boys’ school while the other is a mixed school.

The boys’ school is one of the traditional sport powerhouses (still dominant in some sports,) while the mixed school isn’t anywhere remotely close to owning a sport

I am referring to the pure IP school.