IP, IB vs A Levels

[Augmum]

phtthp:

appreciate detailed analysis & info provided

Wow....this is an very old posting of vks2010....guess was one of his longest posting.....
Indeed detailed info....informative for parents who are unsure of IP route for their kids....

[Nebbermind]

ruohoo97:

though this is an old post, but it makes me understand where does psle stress come from

Of course stressed lah. Assuming the cohort size is 45,000, of which 50% are boys, and with RI intake at 450, u need to be the TOP 2% in SG to get in, or wait for kids in this 2% to give up their seats coz they rather be somewhere else.

Top 2% leh!! How not to be stressed?

[Skyed]

But IP is risky in that if you screw up your As you don’t have an O level cert to fall back on.

[jtoh]

Then just repeat your A levels.

[WeiHan]

Nowaday, even a degree don’t guarantee you anything. Don’t have to mention about A level cert. Is even more true with O level cert.

[Dreamgear]

jtoh:

Then just repeat your A levels.

I dont think so easy to repeat esp if you are a boy and your results are neither here or there.....NS is pending.....

[AWSP]

slmkhoo:

Nebbermind:

[quote=\"ruohoo97\"]though this is an old post, but it makes me understand where does psle stress come from

Of course stressed lah. Assuming the cohort size is 45,000, of which 50% are boys, and with RI intake at 450, u need to be the TOP 2% in SG to get in, or wait for kids in this 2% to give up their seats coz they rather be somewhere else.

Top 2% leh!! How not to be stressed?

But surely RI hasn't shrunk in % terms, meaning that in the past, did it take more than the top 2% of students? I think it's aspirations that have grown, not that the chances of getting into the handful of top schools has decreased.[/quote]Cohort size used to be around 360 some 20-30 years ago. % wise I understand to be around 1%.
But then RJC were not all filled with RI/RGS students; at least 30% of the cohort did not go to RJC even with a 2 points affiliation. Some crossed over to HCJC/NJC and a lot did not make it. And HCJC were an even more mixed lot.
Now 40-50% of the places in RI and RGS were \"booked\" from a test conducted in P3 which screens for the top 1% at the age of 9 years old. The entire cohort in RI/RGS/HCI/NYGH remains intact from Year1 to Year6 with a minuscule number of places available for O level entrants.

[wonderm]

AWSP:

Cohort size used to be around 360 some 20-30 years ago. % wise I understand to be around 1%.
But then RJC are not all filled with RI/RGS students; at least 30% of the cohort did not go to RJC even with a 2 points affiliation. Some cross over to HCJC/NJC and a lot did not make it. And HCJC were an even more mixed lot.
Now 40-50% of the places in RI and RGS were \"booked\" from a test conducted in P3 which screens for the top 1% at the age of 9 years old. The entire cohort in RI/RGS/HCI/NYGH remains intact from Year1 to Year6 with a minuscule number of places available.

Your numbers above may not be correct.
Now 40-50% of the places in RI and RGS were \"booked\"
This is assuming all the GEP students end up in these 2 schools. Since there are GEP students in other IP and non-IP schools, the % \"booked\" can't be so high.

The entire cohort in RI/RGS/HCI/NYGH remains intact from Year1 to Year6 with a minuscule number of places available
The intake at Year 5 for RI and HCI is not really \"minuscule\", because they take in more than 20% O Level students at Year 5.

Bottom line, as long as the total intake of these \"top schools\" are not reduced and assuming their popularity stays about the same, the level of competition to get a place in these schools should be about the same, with or without GEP, IP.

[jtoh]

AWSP:

Cohort size used to be around 360 some 20-30 years ago. % wise I understand to be around 1%.
But then RJC were not all filled with RI/RGS students; at least 30% of the cohort did not go to RJC even with a 2 points affiliation. Some crossed over to HCJC/NJC and a lot did not make it. And HCJC were an even more mixed lot.
Now 40-50% of the places in RI and RGS were \"booked\" from a test conducted in P3 which screens for the top 1% at the age of 9 years old. The entire cohort in RI/RGS/HCI/NYGH remains intact from Year1 to Year6 with a minuscule number of places available for O level entrants.

What would you define as miniscule?

[ruohoo97]

AWSP:

Cohort size used to be around 360 some 20-30 years ago. % wise I understand to be around 1%.
But then RJC were not all filled with RI/RGS students; at least 30% of the cohort did not go to RJC even with a 2 points affiliation. Some crossed over to HCJC/NJC and a lot did not make it. And HCJC were an even more mixed lot.
Now 40-50% of the places in RI and RGS were \"booked\" from a test conducted in P3 which screens for the top 1% at the age of 9 years old. The entire cohort in RI/RGS/HCI/NYGH remains intact from Year1 to Year6 with a minuscule number of places available for O level entrants.

:stompfeet: Kids have less chance to interact with others who are from different social-economic and academic background. By the nature of meritocracy, those who are in top schools have higher chance to rise up to be society leaders,....but by then perhaps they might have exclusived themselves too much to know the social reality.