Is PSLE so important?

[Dharma]

Merlion:

Please don't forget that for CL, there are kids from China who are 2 years older than our kids. It is so hard to be among the top students in CL for local kids as compare to other languages. And there are a lot of China students here.

Agreed but they are not as strong in English.

[turquoise]

Dharma:

Agreed but they are not as strong in English.

Actually, a number of them do score very well in English. They may not speak well but they do perform well in written English.

[atutor2001]

Dharma:

There were only 2 Malay pupils in recent years who topped the cohort ie. in 2005 and 2007.


I don’t think MT has as much an impact on the aggregate score as compared to Maths, Science and English as these 3 subjects have a much lower average score compared to MT.

To be fair to the 2007 top Malay girl, she is still doing extremely well in RGS

The impact of MT on the general student population may not be great but it is there. However, when it comes to deciding \"who is No. 1?\" it does matter.

Incidentally, hope you can share any information regarding the average marks for Malay and Chinese in the past PSLE. If the average Malay mark is more than Chinese, then I am totally wrong in my analysis. My gut feeling is that with the influx of Chinese student, it will only cause the average mark of Chinese to be raised.

There is no doubt that the 2007 top PSLE student is bright. The question is - is she the brightest in that cohort (based on PSLE result)? Is she still no. 1 in RGS?

An example of a top PSLE student that remains no. 1 all the way is another student from St Hildas, I think in 2000. She remained no. 1 in her A-level.

[Dharma]

turquoise:

Actually, a number of them do score very well in English. They may not speak well but they do perform well in written English.

The amt of money spent on tuition + ability to memorize dictionaries may have done the trick.

[turquoise]

Dharma:

The amt of money spent on tuition + ability to memorize dictionaries may have done the trick.

I agree. My dd's classmates from China are very hardworking.

[Dharma]

turquoise:

I agree. My dd's classmates from China are very hardworking.

They must be Singaporeans by now?

[Merlion]

I think most of them are PR. Some of the top "China" (Singapore PR) students will drop Singapore and go to other countries like UK, USA or Australia after A level. Singapore is too "small" for them and the PR or citizenship really does not meant that much to them.

[Dharma]

Merlion:

I think most of them are PR. Some of the top \"China\" (Singapore PR) students will drop Singapore and go to other countries like UK, USA or Australia after A level. Singapore is too \"small\" for them and the PR or citizenship really does not meant that much to them.

Some of my girl's \"China\" friends already aiming for Ivy League Unis after As

[turquoise]

Dharma:

They must be Singaporeans by now?

No idea if they are Singaporeans or PRs. And yes, at least one has lofty ambitions for Ivy League Universities.

[lwm99]

atutor2001:

The impact of MT on the general student population may not be great but it is there. However, when it comes to deciding \"who is No. 1?\" it does matter.


Incidentally, hope you can share any information regarding the average marks for Malay and Chinese in the past PSLE. If the average Malay mark is more than Chinese, then I am totally wrong in my analysis. My gut feeling is that with the influx of Chinese student, it will only cause the average mark of Chinese to be raised.

There is no doubt that the 2007 top PSLE student is bright. The question is - is she the brightest in that cohort (based on PSLE result)? Is she still no. 1 in RGS?

An example of a top PSLE student that remains no. 1 all the way is another student from St Hildas, I think in 2000. She remained no. 1 in her A-level.

atutor2001, I agree with you on this, and also think the top Malay students are very bright kids. When it comes to T-score, the average score and the standard deviation both play a part. If the average score for Malay language is lower than that of Chinese, and the gap among the Malay students are wide, then the top Malay students will have advantage over her Chinese counterparts if everything else being equal. But she will also need to be good in other 3 subjects to do well.