2010 DSA(Direct School Admission)

[Strparent]

Pen88n:

Please do not be mistaken, I am not in any way against GEP kids or parents. I know a lot of them who are a wonderful lot of people. If there is such advantage provided in the DSA route for them, they should by all means grab it. But I am questioning the DSA system of providing an \"unfair advantage\" to GEP kids vs maintreamers. Given GEP kids have gone thru' a rigorous curriculum, they should be able to fair well in PSLE. Why the DSA preference given to GEP? It really puzzle me!

Firstly, pen88n, I just want to reinterate that my son and most of his good friends DID not do any pre-GEP preparations, seriously. DS was just told to try his best and see where he stands. In fact, in his previous school, he was like 13th in his class ( top class though ), and only 4 of them got into GEP. So I think GEP is not about academic superiority for sure, else DS would not be able to get a sniff, hahaha.

I agree on 2 counts on your comments. One, yes, I am grateful that there is an advantage via DSA due to preference for GEP students. Two, I also feel all students should take the HAST or GAT paper just to be uniform in entry criteria. HCI and DHS exempts all GEP students from this paper, and RI only applies them to those below 80 on SA1 GE results.

But I think there are other reasons behind the GEP preference, maybe something to do with the grants and coefficients for each GEP student in their school ? This is purely guesswork of course.

Anyway we looked at it, there will always be some points of unfairness. My boy struggled with the projects initially too, but as time passes, the comradeship he shares with his good friends through special events and projects were invaluable. They get to go for overseas competitions and the exposure were priceless.

I think most GEP students are more cocky ( in a good sense ) due to their overwhelming self confidence, but they are not necessarily better in exam results than those not in GEP. You have to understand out of 550 GEP students, there is a small number which MOE will earmarked for future advancements, and these few are fully deserving. My boy is just enjoying the free ride as he is definitel not in that small group, hahaha.

My only grievance is that I think if he had scored 1-2 more points in his SA1, I am sure he would have gotten a CO, because he aced the GAT and he did very well in his interview. But he is just a tad lazy when it comes to studying for examinations.

Strange that so far, none of the GEP students that had to take GAT were given CO... anyone ?

But I think for DS, he has woken up, and know now he has to work hard for PSLE ( since he is on WAIT List ), in order for him to join most of his good friends who already has CO from RI.

But having said that, even if he eventually fail to go to RI, I am sure he is a better person for all the enrichment gone through, and this DSA exercise as well.

[sautille]

My son, and his 4 other classmates, received COs from RI today. All under GEP domain.


He was elated for about 30 mins before returning to the reality of preparing for PSLE Oral and next week’s prelim exams.

Told him not to think too much about the CO but to do his best in PSLE.

[Strparent]

sautille:

My son, and his 4 other classmates, received COs from RI today. All under GEP domain.


He was elated for about 30 mins before returning to the reality of preparing for PSLE Oral and next week's prelim exams.

Congrats, sautille ! :celebrate:

yes, now for the PSLE. back to the grinding wheel.

May I dare to guess that your son and 4 other classmates, did NOT have to sit the GAT at RI ? I am fairly sure that is the case

16 of my DS clamssmates already get CO, and they all did well enough in their SA1 to be exempted from the GAT test. Most of the boys who sat the GAT test, are on the waitlist. Any DS who sat for GAT ( under GEP ) got a confirmed offer ?

Just out of curiosity. :?

[fruitplus]

Strparent:

sautille:

My son, and his 4 other classmates, received COs from RI today. All under GEP domain.


He was elated for about 30 mins before returning to the reality of preparing for PSLE Oral and next week's prelim exams.

Congrats, sautille ! :celebrate:

yes, now for the PSLE. back to the grinding wheel.

May I dare to guess that your son and 4 other classmates, did NOT have to sit the GAT at RI ? I am fairly sure that is the case

16 of my DS clamssmates already get CO, and they all did well enough in their SA1 to be exempted from the GAT test. Most of the boys who sat the GAT test, are on the waitlist. Any DS who sat for GAT ( under GEP ) got a confirmed offer ?

Just out of curiosity. :?

sautille :congrats:

Strparents, so far, all my son's classmates who sat for GAT~~ all got wait list offer (except for 1 got rejected).

[Strparent]

fruitplus:

Strparents, so far, all my son's classmates who sat for GAT~~ all got wait list offer (except for 1 got rejected).

Hi Fruitplus,

arrhhh, my conspiracy theory gains more weightage now, LOL. My son's classmates also same, those who sat for GAT at RI, mostly waitlist and 2 were rejected. Confirmed ones all exempted from GAT.
curse that 1-2 points!!! :x just kidding ;), DS got 79 for his SA1, due to carelessness in his maths.

I really hope to hear from a parent that his DS got an RI CO, who had to sit for GAT.

EDIT : Gratz to Au :celebrate: :celebrate:

pls tell me DS did not have to sit for GAT . am I right ???

[harish_thiyagrajan.023307hotmail.023307com]

I received CO from RI today by mail.....

[fruitplus]

Au:

I received CO from RI today by mail.....

:congrats: Au

[sautille]

Thank you, Strparent!


You are right. None of them had to sit for GAT. However, another classmate of his (also from GEP) did not receive any letter from RI today even though he did not need to sit for GAT.

[Pen88n]

fruitplus:

I personally know a GE kid who scored 24x during PSLE, but luckily already accepted by DHS thru DSA. And the kid is doing very very well in DHS now. From what I understand, the kid could not get use to the PSLE format.


From my son's experience, some similar questions asked in Science test papers, GE papers and PSLE expect different answers. More generalize ins PSLE, and more in depth (expect certain jargon, too) in GE papers. So it is quite confusing when he did multiple choice questions during P4,P5 and 1st half of P6 (for mainstream test papers) and could not find the RIGHT answer. They were only told what are the Right PSLE answers in 4th week of June this year.

If a mainstreamer is to score 250 or 24x, he will not even have the opportunity to enter any IP school. I also know of mainstreamer who is at 25x and did well enough in other secondary schools to later join DHS / NJC at Sec 3 intake. So I still question: why can't GEP kids go to other secondary schools like mainstreamers if they do not fare well in PSLE? Why should they be given the DSA advantage - just becos they are chosen to be in GEP in P3?

On GEP not preparing kids for PSLE or mainstream paper, I think this is something easily resolved by GEP teachers teaching the \"right\" PSLE answers and techniques. In maintream, there are teachers not teaching the \"right\" PSLE answers and techniques as well - you can see from post from parents about teachers not covering more \"chim\" Maths questions.

I'm all for DSA for nurturing special talents and providing special talent groups a route beyond normal PSLE (eg. sports, music, etc.). But when this DSA exercise becomes an unfair advantage to a GEP group chosen at P3, I question the basis of DSA and I think it makes the GEP become meaningless when ks parents now frantically \"groom giftedness\".

[sautille]

Thank you, fruitplus