Is GEP really necessary?
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atutor2001:
My kids met many ACS, MGS & SCGS kids in top overseas universities. Not sure if wealth or parent being an alumni has any impact. Interestingly these kids are also very smart though their A level results are not perfect scores.
What is it that they know that others don't? Don't need perfect 'A' levels score. In fact, perfect scores are sterile to some extent.
Tell a little story about this fresh graduate. His GPA is ridiculous, 4.0 or perfect. To top it, he had a perfect A+ for like 90% of his subject. If there were a 4.3 GPA, he would have come close to that. Unfortunately, he did not get a job offer while his classmates of lower GPA all had offers of $4000+ (he was from the highest paid faculty). He couldn't understand why, went for numerous interviews and all rejected him. In the end, he accepted the only job offer of $1,900.
Looking at his achievements on the resume, you can understand why. He is too one-dimensional. Excellent student, straight As all the way from primary school onwards, good CCAs, and score whatever he needs to score, but he does not stand out other than his academic results. What he needed was to show that he has something to contribute to an organization other than just academic brains. It is about the ability to lead, to bring diversity to an organization (or a university) that people want. Not your scholastic achievement. To be honest, a 3.8 GPA is no different from a 4.0 GPA. If a child spent so much time working on that perfect score, and missed out other aspects, then he is not a valuable person in the university, or in the society.
There will be people with perfect scores, but who can show that they did not spend all their lives just working on that. Their involvement in the society, their backgrounds, their ability to work with people, their contributions and their leadership qualities are what we are looking for. And, you can plan and plan and still not get there. Why? Because it has to come from the heart. And people miss that out. Parents do too much for their kids to let them do things from the heart. Schools do too much for kids to do things from the heart.
Another story. This is like a really average student. His GPA is nothing more than 3.6 in Poly. But this boy is so unique. He started a company, but it failed. He took time off (with his parents' approval) from school and used his skills to help a social enterprise. He does things free for charity organizations because he saw a need. He put all that down on his resume. He went to a top uni.
I don't know if you get my point. It does not mean you don't work hard, we should. If my kid can do a perfect score with ENOUGH effort, I'd say go for it! But I'll never squeeze every ounce from them to get there because it is what the system tells me to. I have found that my kids are rewarded as a result. Not necessarily by the Singapore system, but my universe is much bigger than that. And all ours should be. Singapore is a global city, and more and more foreigners are coming in...if we do not realize. Often, we are led to chase after unimportant things and forget to bring the best out of our kids. The paper chase has gone too far. Our kids are asked to do things like CIP hours with no meaning attached. They do them grudgingly and these do not add one bit to their well-being or credentials. It is expensive to bring up a gifted child, of course, but it is expensive to bring up any kind of child. Problem is, with so much resources poured into it, our gifted children are still not having any advantage in the world, or scored any stunning achievement as adults. Got to ask ourselves why.
But it is a complex problem, and I don't pretend I have an answer. Just bringing them up here since there are so many very bright people here with varied experiences to share.
Also, smart does not equate A level score, PSLE score or GEP selection. There are many factors to do well in such tests, we keep forgetting. Some people know not to chase after the distractions, and go for the 'real' things. :evil: -
2ppaamm:
:goodpost: :thankyou:atutor2001:
My kids met many ACS, MGS & SCGS kids in top overseas universities. Not sure if wealth or parent being an alumni has any impact. Interestingly these kids are also very smart though their A level results are not perfect scores.
What is it that they know that others don't? Don't need perfect 'A' levels score. In fact, perfect scores are sterile to some extent.
Tell a little story about this fresh graduate. His GPA is ridiculous, 4.0 or perfect. To top it, he had a perfect A+ for like 90% of his subject. If there were a 4.3 GPA, he would have come close to that. Unfortunately, he did not get a job offer while his classmates of lower GPA all had offers of $4000+ (he was from the highest paid faculty). He couldn't understand why, went for numerous interviews and all rejected him. In the end, he accepted the only job offer of $1,900.
Looking at his achievements on the resume, you can understand why. He is too one-dimensional. Excellent student, straight As all the way from primary school onwards, good CCAs, and score whatever he needs to score, but he does not stand out other than his academic results. What he needed was to show that he has something to contribute to an organization other than just academic brains. It is about the ability to lead, to bring diversity to an organization (or a university) that people want. Not your scholastic achievement. To be honest, a 3.8 GPA is no different from a 4.0 GPA. If a child spent so much time working on that perfect score, and missed out other aspects, then he is not a valuable person in the university, or in the society.
There will be people with perfect scores, but who can show that they did not spend all their lives just working on that. Their involvement in the society, their backgrounds, their ability to work with people, their contributions and their leadership qualities are what we are looking for. And, you can plan and plan and still not get there. Why? Because it has to come from the heart. And people miss that out. Parents do too much for their kids to let them do things from the heart. Schools do too much for kids to do things from the heart.
Another story. This is like a really average student. His GPA is nothing more than 3.6 in Poly. But this boy is so unique. He started a company, but it failed. He took time off (with his parents' approval) from school and used his skills to help a social enterprise. He does things free for charity organizations because he saw a need. He put all that down on his resume. He went to a top uni.
I don't know if you get my point. It does not mean you don't work hard, we should. If my kid can do a perfect score with ENOUGH effort, I'd say go for it! But I'll never squeeze every ounce from them to get there because it is what the system tells me to. I have found that my kids are rewarded as a result. Not necessarily by the Singapore system, but my universe is much bigger than that. And all ours should be. Singapore is a global city, and more and more foreigners are coming in...if we do not realize. Often, we are led to chase after unimportant things and forget to bring the best out of our kids. The paper chase has gone too far. Our kids are asked to do things like CIP hours with no meaning attached. They do them grudgingly and these do not add one bit to their well-being or credentials. It is expensive to bring up a gifted child, of course, but it is expensive to bring up any kind of child. Problem is, with so much resources poured into it, our gifted children are still not having any advantage in the world, or scored any stunning achievement as adults. Got to ask ourselves why.
But it is a complex problem, and I don't pretend I have an answer. Just bringing them up here since there are so many very bright people here with varied experiences to share.
Also, smart does not equate A level score, PSLE score or GEP selection. There are many factors to do well in such tests, we keep forgetting. Some people know not to chase after the distractions, and go for the 'real' things. :evil: -
atutor2001:
My kids met many ACS, MGS & SCGS kids in top overseas universities. Not sure if wealth or parent being an alumni has any impact. Interestingly these kids are also very smart though their A level results are not perfect scores.
I would like to see it as an affluent kinda of thing...ie, you can afford to make more mistakes n not straddle by the burden that u need to get it right the 1st time.
Well, that's just one possibility.
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Nebbermind:
And probably a very clever guess.atutor2001:
My kids met many ACS, MGS & SCGS kids in top overseas universities. Not sure if wealth or parent being an alumni has any impact. Interestingly these kids are also very smart though their A level results are not perfect scores.
I would like to see it as an affluent kinda of thing...ie, you can afford to make more mistakes n not straddle by the burden that u need to get it right the 1st time.
Well, that's just one possibility.
-
2ppaamm:
Coz our system is too focus on intelligence, n not wisdom. Look at some of the remarks by our leaders :roll:Problem is, with so much resources poured into it, our gifted children are still not having any advantage in the world, or scored any stunning achievement as adults. Got to ask ourselves why.
You can only go that far with intelligence! -
Pam,
Should I say that we should expose our kids to as much as possible what's out there & guide them (but not bringing them) on these paths whereby these are their passions & love and not forcing them in achieving what we want out of them?
Feel that during my younger days, I still do not really know what I want to do when I grow up. Parents during my time also could not tell me much what's out there in the world for me to choose from.
I still feel that I like to be in the service line though I studied Engineering and later took up part time study in Business while I was working full time. In fact, it'll be good if my parents were able to give me some advise at that time so that I won't waste my years in the Engineering field.
But it did let me meet up with different kinds of people. To me, all my certificates are useless now as I'm now a homemaker.
Now I would not want to force my children to be the top but would rather let them choose the path they want to go. However, they must have the right value of life and learn to rely on God.
Time to :snooze: . Once again, I thanks all those who wrote here. At least I know that there are mothers around here whereby we can learn from each other. Also, the daddies too.
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2ppaamm:
Pam, to score stunning achievements, I believe one needs to have passion....just like Thomas Edison, after hundreds (or even thousands) of failed experiment, then he arrived at one success.Problem is, with so much resources poured into it, our gifted children are still not having any advantage in the world, or scored any stunning achievement as adults. Got to ask ourselves why.
In Singapore context, do we have the luxury to make so many failures first? Is it possible to do something great without even experience a single failure?
In addition, in my humble opinion, the current education environment here doesn't cultivate innovation and creative.
Even the professors in local university has to brainstorm a research topic for his PhD students here. While I was in the state, I tried to ask my prof. to help me think of a research topic, he just replied, 'Its your PhD thesis, not mine.'
Sorry for going side track...... -
And also who said need to be very rich to go oversea to study?
Like pam had mentioned there are scholarship. Also, can try study loan and pay back when you start working but I've not try yet.
My DH mentioned, if the child cannot think/wrong attitiude, oversea study can do more harm than good. He/She might mix up with wrong company and cannot even finish his/her studies there.
Scholarship just be careful those which need to sign bond tie you up unless that's what you want after your studies. One grandpa told me during his time, his friend's child commit sucide after finding that he cannot manage the course or don't like it. Don't ask me to verify it, it spoke out of his mouth and I heard it.
Ok, I not going to worry and leave my children to God. -
Just thinking aloud.
(1) Primary schools exhibit a very high variance in the quality they provide to students (i.e., different input).
(2) Children of poor families can be very bright (i.e., also different input)
If individual PSLE t-scores were adjusted in view of overall school performance, it would take away the unfair advantage given to kids with preferential access to resources (i.e., richer parents… better quality schools [these may not be branded ones]). Better schools giving better input (would deliver better overall results) and thus should bring DOWN the child’s t-score. Lousy schools giving almost no input (where everyone is likely to do badly) would bring UP the child’s t-score.
In this way, parents need not turn to tuition and intensive homeschooling to bridge the gap in the quality that some schools CANNOT MANAGE deliver. Schools become ACCOUNTABLE.
Ok… this is a strange idea right? But that is kinda how Harvard chooses its students (even though they don’t do it with an adjusted t-score) because there is a great diversity in USA schools and great variance in quality, that needs to accounted for. I am guessing that people will look at this idea and EXPLODE… and ask that those who don’t go to good quality primary schools stay contented with whatever their lot and be less kiasu. So… flame away.
I did say I’ve never quite fit in… I think strangely. I am surprised that many people here write about my "insights" when actually all my life I’ve always THOUGHT differently. They aren’t insights. It’s just weird thinking… that I cannot explain. And these thoughts come even if they cause me pain and loneliness.
Yup… flame away. -
Chen,
I'm not the one, right? I've yet to quote your words.
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