Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)

[kandc]

Hi all,

I am new here but had read through all threads in this subject. My son just started his Y1 with ACS (I) express stream, not taking HCL. Can I summarize a few possibilities for him:

1) If his main 6-subject results are good enough (>80% & pass the HAST), he will be upgraded to the IP/IB track in Y3. Then it is not necessary to take higher Chinese.
2) If his results so-so, he has to take O-level exam. If he still wants to enter the IB track at Y5, will passing HCL grant 2 bonus point for IB?
3) If his O-level not good enough to enter IB, the only bonus point he will have is to enter ACJC. But if he takes HCL, he will have extra 2 bonus point to enter a good JC?
4) so question is: how to convince the school to allow him to take HCL from Y2? What kind of results are needed?

Thank you & wish everybody a happy Dragon Year ahead!

[autolycus]

kandc:

Hi all,

I am new here but had read through all threads in this subject. My son just started his Y1 with ACS (I) express stream, not taking HCL. Can I summarize a few possibilities for him:

1) If his main 6-subject results are good enough (>80% & pass the HAST), he will be upgraded to the IP/IB track in Y3. Then it is not necessary to take higher Chinese.

The 80% figure isn't necessarily exact. It's a possible average. Errm, why is it necessary to take HCL in the first place?

kandc:

2) If his results so-so, he has to take O-level exam. If he still wants to enter the IB track at Y5, will passing HCL grant 2 bonus point for IB?

Yes, 2 bonus points for entry by JAE to Year 5.

kandc:

3) If his O-level not good enough to enter IB, the only bonus point he will have is to enter ACJC. But if he takes HCL, he will have extra 2 bonus point to enter a good JC?

He will have 2 bonus points. But I should point out that the only way we know they are 'good JCs' is that they take in good students and graduate good students. Remember, market forces. If you're making your son do HCL as a career decision, poor kid.

kandc:

4) so question is: how to convince the school to allow him to take HCL from Y2? What kind of results are needed?

My question would be: why convince him to do HCL in the first place? If he wasn't already doing it, he's gonna have to work real hard to score some arbitrarily high grade in CL to allow him to do HCL. :rant:

kandc:

Thank you & wish everybody a happy Dragon Year ahead!

I wish everyone, especially your son, the same!

[ngbrdad]

kandc:

Hi all,

I am new here but had read through all threads in this subject. My son just started his Y1 with ACS (I) express stream, not taking HCL. Can I summarize a few possibilities for him:

1) If his main 6-subject results are good enough (>80% & pass the HAST), he will be upgraded to the IP/IB track in Y3. Then it is not necessary to take higher Chinese.
2) If his results so-so, he has to take O-level exam. If he still wants to enter the IB track at Y5, will passing HCL grant 2 bonus point for IB?
3) If his O-level not good enough to enter IB, the only bonus point he will have is to enter ACJC. But if he takes HCL, he will have extra 2 bonus point to enter a good JC?
4) so question is: how to convince the school to allow him to take HCL from Y2? What kind of results are needed?

Thank you & wish everybody a happy Dragon Year ahead!

For ACJC the HCL bonus point will not come into effect.
2 affiliation bonus points and 2 CCA bonus points is already the maximum.

[autolycus]

ngbrdad:

For ACJC the HCL bonus point will not come into effect.

2 affiliation bonus points and 2 CCA bonus points is already the maximum.

Technically, they will come into effect, but 4 points is the max, so they will be truncated if there are already 4 points.

[Mvm]

There is a link to the parents portal on the school’s webpage. However we need an ID and password to log in. Any idea when year 1 parents will start to have access?

[South African]

autolycus:

Just remember that ACS(I) provides a very large and eclectic buffet. Some of the dishes are completely incompatible with others, even though their common setting is fairly well designed.


At my age, I've come to realise that you don't have to eat some of every available dish in order to get your money's worth. Indeed, the best approach is just to eat a lot of what you like to eat, and then do corrective or remedial exercise to get into the desired shape if you really have to.

In other schools, the buffet may be smaller but more rigorous. There are some places which seem to provide nothing but salads, others which only deal in protein. That's fine too, as long as the child eventually compensates for it. After all, we humans are omnivores.

And lastly, 'well-rounded' doesn't mean obese.

Hi autolycus, just pm you on queries about leadership programme.

[kandc]

Autolycus & ngbrdad,


Thank you so much for your reply and especially thanks to autolycus’ comments! I am really hesitating to "push" my son to take HCL, as I may have made a wrong decision to push him to study HCL in primary school. Results proved he is rather weak in learning Chinese, got only a pass for his PSLE HCL So I am learning from this site to explore if there is any other ways?

Is there any bonus points (affiliation or CCA) for ACS(I) body to enter IB by JAE at Y5, besides the HCL 2 points? Also got maximum bonus point by JAE? Is it difficult to get 2 bonus point from CCA? Seems that the 2 bonus point from HCL will be very important if applying other JCs.

[autolycus]

kandc:

Is there any bonus points (affiliation or CCA) for ACS(I) body to enter IB by JAE at Y5, besides the HCL 2 points? Also got maximum bonus point by JAE? Is it difficult to get 2 bonus point from CCA? Seems that the 2 bonus point from HCL will be very important if applying other JCs.

No, there are no affiliation points applied; those are only for selected JCs. The maximum point bonus is 4 points. 2 bonus points from CCA in ACS(I) is normally fairly easy.

In perspective, you'll need about 5 points adjusted to get into ACS(I)'s IBDP by JAE if you haven't entered by any other means. If you're a student in ACS(I) who has pursued CCA assiduously and also got a raw aggregate score of 6-7 points, you will have those 5 points. The HCL would give you 3 points.

However, if you need HCL + CCA to get your 5 points adjusted, that means you had 9 points. The best case scenario is that you had 5 A1s and everything else was 4 or worse. The worst-case scenario is that you had a 4 for English, which pretty much indicates a limitation to your language skills.

Again, considering the holistic interests of the student, I'd rather apply for another place. The IB programme requires lots of concerted effort, and although the average grade produced by ACS(I) is very high (top 3-5 in the world every year considering both northern and southern hemispheres), there are always a few who don't do so well.

The best advice I can offer is to avoid overdoing things. Work hard, but focus on things that the student has genuine passion for, and on things that are truly essential — some math, some science, a technical mastery of language, the ability to write good humanities/lit essays. Don't do things for the sake of 'trajectory'.

Why not? Because the world is changing at a greater rate. Predictability (if we ever had it) has decreased. You can't tell what will be useful or not, but if the ability to learn is super-solid, your son will be able to adapt to many of the things the future will throw at him. That comes first.

[South African]

Hi, my son is in ACSI express. So far how’s the workload in your sons’ class?


My DS says the sch teach very little and very little homework and Maths is too easy. Is it like that for your boys and is the school expecting the kids to read more and on their own? Or is it just simply too laid back or my DS is too efficient?

How’s the workload for the IB stream?

[number1]

My son also in express. So far ; very free; even more relax than primary school days . Cca not started as well. He’ s getting restless.