2009 DSA(Direct School Admission)

[sunnyrain]

She has received congratulation from NUSH. For SMO junior, I have never heard of that.

[wmd]

sunnyrain:

She has received congratulation from NUSH. For SMO junior, I have never heard of that.

Singapore Mathematical Olympiad (SMO)

The Singapore Mathematical Olympiad (SMO) is the largest and oldest mathematics competition in Singapore .

Each year, thousands of students from all over the country take part in SMO.

http://sms.math.nus.edu.sg/Competitions/CompetitionHomePage.aspx#Schedule

[turquoise]

wmd, has your daughter gone for the NYGH test and interview already?

[wmd]

turquoise:

wmd, has your daughter gone for the NYGH test and interview already?

No need to attend any NYGH test.

Here is the email from NYGH:

Thank you for attending the general aptitude test on .
We will notify you on the final outcome by end of August 2009.
You may view your application status with your password.

For enquiry, please contact us at:

Tel: 6508 3654
Email: [email protected]

Regards,

Administrative Dept.
Nanyang Girls’ High School

[Dharma]

Merlion:

I totally agreed with turquoise ... All the GEP P4-P6 test papers are standardize by the GEP branch, ie all 9 GEP schools have the same test paper for the GEP kids. Even the homework are about the same. I wish some parents can understand how difficult these papers are. Some of the maths questions are as difficult as those set for maths competition. Most of the time they have to study sec 1 or sec 2 material for project or ERM. There are still social study and a lot of presentations. So they really do not have time for \"formal\" PSLE training. Also there are a lof of reasons why GEP kids score 240+ - most of them are due to the poor result of their chinese. Most of them did extreme well for maths and science. Another big reason is once they knew that they got accepted by the top school, they just want to take a more relax approach towards PSLE.

People have to understand DSA selection is not just based on the school test result. It includes a lot of other factors. GEP kids are quite well train in presenting themselves and to react to tough questions.
I wish people can give more credits to these GEP kids. They went through a very tough 3 years training program, include a lot of non-PSLE material. They do not have \"priority\" over any mainstream kids. That's why there are still GEP kids got rejected by all these top schools. Please do not judge a GEP kid by just looking at the PSLE result. A lot of material that they have learnt and know are not shown on it. When it comes to project time, I think people will realize how good they really are. I have a JC teacher friend who once told me that GEP kids are \"usually\" very outstanding when it comes to project presentation. You can just leave them alone and they will complete the task all by themselves.
This is one of the main factors that top schools are looking for when it comes to DSA, not just test result.

Hi Merlion,

I understand where u are coming from and I am also fully aware that a vast majority of GEPers do extremely well in PSLE. I just said that there were few kids with PSLE scores in the range of 240+ and was wondering why? As u mentioned, these kids may have lost some motivation after being accepted into top schools via DSA.

Besides their brain matter and having the right aptitude, GEPers undergo very tough training program in their 3 years, where they get equipped with thinking skills(some out out-of-the box thinking), lots on exposure on projects and presentation skills. Even the work done by GEPers at a much greater depth as compared to their peers in the mainstream. All these training and exposure are definately an added edge when these kids sit for PSLE, especially when it comes to handling the 2 or 3 real challenging qns in PSLE.

[Dharma]

The other reason why gep kids don’t do as well in psle is because they think too much out of the box, they challenge standard answers and don’t accept general facts. And for psle science esp, this way of non-conforming thinking will result in them getting wrong answers. As for maths, they’ve not been exposed enough to mainstream problem sums.


While my son did well for both his maths/science in his midyear, he did poorly in the recent prelim practice paper. Hence, I’ve been feeling anxious that his school is not doing enough to bring the kids up to standard.[/quote]

Hi mathsparks,

On the contrary, most GEPers actually do very well in PSLE. It is good to think out of the box and challenge the standard answers. …But, what is impt is that they learn where they had gone wrong and not repeat the same mistake.

Is there a difference in topics for maths between GEP and mainstream. What I understand is that qns given to GEPers are pitched at a higher level of difficulty for the same topic.

[Merlion]

I am not their parents or teachers, so I don’t know why they got 240+. But GEP selection is not based on Chinese, so this might be the subject that they did not do well. As some of the parents also mentioned it here that some GEP kids think too much when they are answering science questions. It is normal that A FEW GEP kids did not do that well in PSLE. Everyone has their good day and bad day, right?

[Dharma]

Merlion:

I Everyone has their good day and bad day, right?

ABSOLUTELY

[Merlion]

Hi Dharma, the major maths topics are the same but GEP goes much deeper on each topic.

[Dharma]

Merlion:

Hi Dharma, the major maths topics are the same but GEP goes much deeper on each topic.

Thanks Merlion. Guessed as much.