GEP 2010 - Screening & Selection

[Funx3]

phankao:

A friend who used to mark GEP screening papers trained his son. He got in GEP. So, what's so unusual about that? Can train, right?

SEEMS U R RIGHT!!!!
So Your Friend Could Actually Conduct GEP Classes for other Interested Parents????

[phankao]

Funx3:

phankao:

A friend who used to mark GEP screening papers trained his son. He got in GEP. So, what's so unusual about that? Can train, right?

SEEMS U R RIGHT!!!!
So Your Friend Could Actually Conduct GEP Classes for other Interested Parents????

Actually have ... but I have no p3 kid. haha. Maybe 7 years later lah. I don't know about the other students he taught though. They don't guarantee anyway.

[comfy]

phankao:

Funx3:

[quote=\"phankao\"]
U Mean it's a Matter of Try it B4, Know the Mtd to do it, So CAN DO????

phankao:

Yes. If you've never seen before, may not know how to do, right? Almost like Math, huh?

Think I Know what U mean .....

So some of these \"tests\" not very difficult to train, right? But you must have come across the type of questions before.A friend who used to mark GEP screening papers trained his son. He got in GEP. So, what's so unusual about that? Can train, right?[/quote]Actually it also depends whether the kid has the aptitude to be trained, else train until you vomit blood till don't see result. :lol:

[phankao]

comfy:

phankao:

[quote=\"Funx3\"]
Think I Know what U mean .....

So some of these \"tests\" not very difficult to train, right? But you must have come across the type of questions before.A friend who used to mark GEP screening papers trained his son. He got in GEP. So, what's so unusual about that? Can train, right?

Actually it also depends whether the kid has the aptitude to be trained, else train until you vomit blood till don't see result. :lol:[/quote]Yes, but that means there are kids who CAN be trained, who may not have gotten selected if they had not been trained bc those type of questions make no sense to them.

[aqeqiq]

I think children can be trained to increase their chances to get into gep but whether the training actually gets your child into gep is a separate thing. The child must also have some level of ability (the high octane petrol in small capacity car example). Having come across similar questions would firstly not cause the child to panic and secondly the child would have some stored memory of methods which could be applied. Having said this, there would certainly be those naturals whizzes who can figure the answers out without having seen the type of questions before. Above applies to math and GA. I was told by someone that English is difficult to teach for gep. Maybe my friend was referring to comprehension.


If I may use my child as an eg, she is an advanced reader and good at math but not an out of the box thinker for math due to lack of interest. I think she could have gotten in if she had been sent for tuition (currently none except Chinese) but if she struggles with gep math after getting in, will it be worth it? It is up to each individual parent to decide.

[AppleCrumble]

As a parent of a kid who has gone through the primary GEP, I am fully aware of the rigorous demands of the program. Hence, I would suggest that parents of P2 kids and below do NOT train their kids for the GEP screening and selection tests.


Every kid is gifted differently. As parents, let's celebrate the child's uniqueness in his/her strengths and weaknesses and help him/her find her 'purpose' in life.

GEP is catered to kids who are intellectually gifted (as per MOE's website). Let's recognise that not all kids are intellectually gifted; some are gifted in sports whilst others are gifted in the arts. I suppose this is the reason that MOE has set up other specialised schools like Sports School and SOTA. The world needs all type of talents to make it a better place.

If your kid has IT in him/her, he/she will be invited to join the GEP without any training or preparation. If the kid is 'hothoused', he/she may not enjoy the next 3 years of her education. Worst still, it may just 'kill' the joy of learning due to the demanding curriculum and the kid is not ready to take on the challenge. Do bear in mind that this is only primary school, the child still has a long way to go in the learning journey.

[aqeqiq]

AppleCrumble:

If the kid is 'hothoused', he/she may not enjoy the next 3 years of her education. Worst still, it may just 'kill' the joy of learning due to the demanding curriculum and the kid is not ready to take on the challenge. Do bear in mind that this is only primary school, the child still has a long way to go in the learning journey.

AppleCrumble, I agree with you as to the above but \"what if's\" and \"maybe\" questions do sometimes crop up in my mind especially when I know people who prepared their children who got in. My child is in a highly competitive school

[phankao]

aqeqiq:

AppleCrumble:

If the kid is 'hothoused', he/she may not enjoy the next 3 years of her education. Worst still, it may just 'kill' the joy of learning due to the demanding curriculum and the kid is not ready to take on the challenge. Do bear in mind that this is only primary school, the child still has a long way to go in the learning journey.

AppleCrumble, I agree with you as to the above but \"what if's\" and \"maybe\" questions do sometimes crop up in my mind especially when I know people who prepared their children who got in. My child is in a highly competitive school

In all likelihood, a child that has been prepared for the GEP tests would just have been exposed to the concepts. The instructor cannot take the tests for them. If they get in, it just means they did have the aptitude to understand and assimilate! So I think they would have no problems adapting to GEP courses. In fact, there are GEP kids who got thru to GEP on their own accord that struggle too! I know from experience from my elder boy's time - his classes were combined with GEP bc he was in one such class from p4.

[comfy]

AppleCrumble:

As a parent of a kid who has gone through the primary GEP, I am fully aware of the rigorous demands of the program. Hence, I would suggest that parents of P2 kids and below do NOT train their kids for the GEP screening and selection tests.


Every kid is gifted differently. As parents, let's celebrate the child's uniqueness in his/her strengths and weaknesses and help him/her find her 'purpose' in life.

GEP is catered to kids who are intellectually gifted (as per MOE's website). Let's recognise that not all kids are intellectually gifted; some are gifted in sports whilst others are gifted in the arts. I suppose this is the reason that MOE has set up other specialised schools like Sports School and SOTA. The world needs all type of talents to make it a better place.

If your kid has IT in him/her, he/she will be invited to join the GEP without any training or preparation. If the kid is 'hothoused', he/she may not enjoy the next 3 years of her education. Worst still, it may just 'kill' the joy of learning due to the demanding curriculum and the kid is not ready to take on the challenge. Do bear in mind that this is only primary school, the child still has a long way to go in the learning journey.

AppleCrumble, your little chick dancing away is very distracting to me. Eyes keep on wandering to it. Oh, finally manage to concentrate and finish reading your reply, YES, I agree absolutely. I don't know what Phankao mean by training, is it exposing them is same as training them? Give the child all sort of books like IQ, puzzles etc to read or play, does that consider as \"training\".

[Faun]

AppleCrumble:

As a parent of a kid who has gone through the primary GEP, I am fully aware of the rigorous demands of the program. Hence, I would suggest that parents of P2 kids and below do NOT train their kids for the GEP screening and selection tests.


Every kid is gifted differently. As parents, let's celebrate the child's uniqueness in his/her strengths and weaknesses and help him/her find her 'purpose' in life.

GEP is catered to kids who are intellectually gifted (as per MOE's website). Let's recognise that not all kids are intellectually gifted; some are gifted in sports whilst others are gifted in the arts. I suppose this is the reason that MOE has set up other specialised schools like Sports School and SOTA. The world needs all type of talents to make it a better place.

If your kid has IT in him/her, he/she will be invited to join the GEP without any training or preparation. If the kid is 'hothoused', he/she may not enjoy the next 3 years of her education. Worst still, it may just 'kill' the joy of learning due to the demanding curriculum and the kid is not ready to take on the challenge. Do bear in mind that this is only primary school, the child still has a long way to go in the learning journey.

:celebrate: I agree with Applecrumble.

Too much fertilizer kills the seedling. Let the plant matures naturally.

If we keep 'Doing It' to the children, in a long run, they never know how to listen to their inner voice. They feel they are not 'Doing' but being 'Done
To'. They need to explore, try what they like and make some mistakes( which we fear greatly) and learn from consequences.

As a society, I think we are still not mature enough to embrace diversity. You can see when parents wince when they hear of kids going to SOTA or
Sports School. We need all kinds to make the world so why let our kids be cut by a cookie cutter.

We now have kids getting 240 to 265 or more going to Sports school or SOTA. Even the GEP kids are going there.

Study is not everything. To pursue ones passion and find ones purpose
here is also important and meaningful. The governent is encouraging 21st century competency in the education system but the hardest thing to do about this change is the parents mindset on what is of value.
I think the GEP is very good program n it's sad they only take 1% of the cohort. There are many more deserving ones. The exploratory learning style cannot be used in the mainstream perhaps because the syllabus is too much to slow things down for more discovery work. The need to drill and compete for exam and PSLE also takes up a lot of time. You can see this in the UNSW assessment test. Our kids here do one level higher than the kids in the other countries, ie our p4 do papers that their p5 do. All these escalation makes us looks good but is it really good? :?