IP, IB vs A Levels
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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.
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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..... -
slmkhoo:
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%.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 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. -
AWSP:
Your numbers above may not be correct.
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.
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. -
AWSP:
What would you define as miniscule?
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. -
AWSP:
: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.
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. -
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.
think parents need to know their child best.
every child is different.
think IP curriculum is independent, like study university style.
A lot of exposure and much more research based independent projects to work upon. Like give you a topic - child go and research on their own, given supervision.
on the other hand -
some parents prefer the Traditional O level route. It is safer !
although some kids' PSLE score qualify them to enter IP track, but some parents feel safer to stick to the O level road - because got teachers to teach and guide them, follow the more structured systematic curriculum, step by step. They worry that if everything hinges on that A level cert and should something happen last minute (screw up A level) and child can't enter local uni (for whatever reasons), then child got to go overseas uni. But due to financial reasons, not every parent can afford or fork out a huge sum of $ to send their child go overseas uni. Not every parent willing to sell away the HDB house to downgrade to a smaller one, in order to raise funds for overseas education. Nowadays, the cost of minimal 3 or 4 yrs education overseas uni easily cost minimal half a million. Hence, there're still parents who prefer to stick to the Traditional O level route, because got teachers to guide and teach children step by step. Some parents feel that Sec 1 to Sec 4 - the children are still young. They still need guidance from Sec school teachers to teach & to guide them. They may not be ready for university independent style like IP program yet. Not all kids can study on their own independently. Different kids - different stroke ! Parents really need to know & understand their child best.
example:
for this pioneering batch of SCGS / CHS / SNGS (kids born 2000, yr of dragon) -
everything is so new!
Come what may - like it or not, at end of JC2 (ie. yr 2018), they'll be competing with all A level students from those well established IP JCs like RI, HCI, Victoria JC, etc - in ALL faculties ! Thus, simply can't afford the new JC to have any hiccup or glitch whatsoever in their pioneering first batch maiden A level curriculum.
in contrast, the O level curriculum for SCGS / SNGS / MGS is very, very strong, been proven many years ! There're bound to be parents who prefer & will stick to the traditional O level route. -
phtthp:
so is it understanding child character or parents preference? these 2 are not always the same. even if you take O level, you may still not do well in A, thus even with a O level cert you still cant go anywhere....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.
think parents need to know their child best.
every child is different.
think IP curriculum is independent, like study university style.
A lot of exposure and much more research based independent projects to work upon. Like give you a topic - child go and research on their own, given supervision.
on the other hand -
some parents prefer the Traditional O level route. It is safer !
although some kids' PSLE score qualify them to enter IP track, but some parents feel safer to stick to the O level road - because got teachers to teach and guide them, follow the more structured systematic curriculum, step by step. They worry that if everything hinges on that A level cert and should something happen last minute (screw up A level) and child can't enter local uni (for whatever reasons), then child got to go overseas uni. But due to financial reasons, not every parent can afford or fork out a huge sum of $ to send their child go overseas uni. Not every parent willing to sell away the HDB house to downgrade to a smaller one, in order to raise funds for overseas education. Nowadays, the cost of minimal 3 or 4 yrs education overseas uni easily cost minimal half a million. Hence, there're still parents who prefer to stick to the Traditional O level route, because got teachers to guide and teach children step by step. Some parents feel that Sec 1 to Sec 4 - the children are still young. They still need guidance from Sec school teachers to teach & to guide them. They may not be ready for university independent style like IP program yet. Not all kids can study on their own independently. Different kids - different stroke ! Parents really need to know & understand their child best.
example:
for this pioneering batch of SCGS / CHS / SNGS (kids born 2000, yr of dragon) -
everything is so new!
Come what may - like it or not, at end of JC2 (ie. yr 2018), they'll be competing with all A level students from those well established IP JCs like RI, HCI, Victoria JC, etc - in ALL faculties ! Thus, simply can't afford the new JC to have any hiccup or glitch whatsoever in their pioneering first batch maiden A level curriculum.
in contrast, the O level curriculum for SCGS / SNGS / MGS is very, very strong, been proven many years ! There're bound to be parents who prefer & will stick to the traditional O level route.
On another note, my feel is that the new jc will do just fine. All three schools are government schools and moe will pull resources in from the other established JCs to make sure it work...... -
jtoh:
Out of around the 1200 places available in RJC, about 900 are reserved for the RGS/RI students from what I've heard.
What would you define as miniscule?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. -
Skyed:
Out of around the 1200 places available in RJC, about 900 are reserved for the RGS/RI students from what I've heard.[/quote]The information is in
What would you define as miniscule?jtoh:
[quote=\"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.
http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/forum/2011/12/more-opportunities-in-diverse-education-landscape.php
The following is the article:
The commentary, ‘The runaway IP train’ (14 Dec), noted that only some 500 places were set aside for O-level students entering Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) and RI at JC1. We would like to point out that prior to IP, only 400 of HCI and RI’s students (at JC1) hailed from schools not offering the IP today.
There are 900 places reserved for RI/RGS cohort and probably 250 additional for \"O\" levels. I suppose the same applies to HCI.
I was an HCJC alumni. I could attest to the fact that during my time 20+ year ago, it was a diverse lot. I have schoolmates from catholic high, acs, saint andrews, mgs, SJI, TKGS, VS and what have you. it was possibly 100 from Chinese High and 1000 from everywhere.
Somehow, the statement from MOE appears to contradict with my own experience. Possibly the education system has stratified a lot. But reading between the statement (in RED) it could be a \"play of words\" from MOE. We can possibly assume that before hwa chong became IP, may be another 400 could have come from the other IP schools like dunman high, river valley high, victoria, cedar, acs (maybe also SJI, catholic high, st nicholas which have just turned ip).
The affiliation effect between chinese high, nygh and HCJC could have bumpeed up the number of chinese high and nygh students to 50%. That is after my time.
So is affiliation an unfair practice? I dont know.
Is 500 good enough for the likes of TKGS, Anderson and others? I dont know.
I dont think those in the other IP schools mind not going to the premier RI and HCI. Well, we used to have the option of crossing over from raffles to hwa chong last time as hwa chong is more premier than rjc.
Some sour grapes may also say that there is around 30% in HCI an RI who shouldnt be there in year 5 and 6 - it is not fair. I dont know if this is right or wrong and I dont want to participate in any arguments over all these.
I am a peaceful person -
Why is it that if they join after psle, they are not a diverse lot? Donch they also come from different pri schools?
Why about those who stay within the 'same' school throughout, eg, from affiliated schools such as acsp/acsi, acs, acjc? Did they end up being a liability to the society? :scratchhead: -
1girl1boy:
Hmmm.... going by your analysis... if you add back the demand from those from the new ip schools who still have O level batches in 2011, 2010, the number of 500 may be too low.... at most only half of the demand.
The following is the article:
The commentary, ‘The runaway IP train’ (14 Dec), noted that only some 500 places were set aside for O-level students entering Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) and RI at JC1. We would like to point out that prior to IP, only 400 of HCI and RI’s students (at JC1) hailed from schools not offering the IP today.
But reading between the statement (in RED) it could be a \"play of words\" from MOE. We can possibly assume that before hwa chong became IP, may be another 400 could have come from the other IP schools like dunman high, river valley high, victoria, cedar, acs (maybe also SJI, catholic high, st nicholas which have just turned ip).
The affiliation effect between chinese high, nygh and HCJC could have bumpeed up the number of chinese high and nygh students to 50%. That is after my time.
I am a peaceful person
Thanks for the input. Old schoolmate?
I will also not debate on the affiliation issue - too hot to handle. But interesting that it goes clearly against the meritocracy principle of Lee Hsien Loong. Too many vested interests makes it difficult to debat rationally.
Here are 2 interesting articles from OECD research and 1 from Dr Petunia Lee on early streaming and education stratification issues:
http://www.thelittleeducationreport.com/OECD.html
http://www.oecd.org/education/preschoolandschool/39989494.pdf
http://petunialee.blogspot.sg/2012/11/singapores-royal-jelly-education.html -
Came across a news article about the IB:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/why-schools-love-the-international-baccalaureate-1784352.ht -
I found a reply from University of Oxford
https://uni-of-oxford.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/549/~/what-qualification-do-oxford-prefer,-a-levels-or-the-international
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A-levels and the International Baccalaureate are both eligible qualifications for entry to our undergraduate degrees. We do not weight either of these qualifications as ‘better’ than the other, since both are eligible for entry, and all applications are considered very carefully on their individual merits.
In general, however, the IB could be considered a good grounding for multi-disciplinary Arts subjects who involve elements of many different subjects at school. On the other hand, students who wish to specialise in a particular Science at Oxford may find that the concentration of three subjects at A-level provides them more with the focus necessary for an intense subject-specific degree.
Please note these comments are intended to be general. The success rates for students applying with the IB and students applying with A-levels are broadly similar, and that the choice of qualification (as long as it is an eligible qualification as specified on our website) plays no part in the selection criteria for our courses. We would advise students to select the qualification which they feel best offers the teaching style from which they would most benefit.
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julialai:
Came across a news article about the IB:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/why-schools-love-the-international-baccalaureate-1784352.ht
Hi, Julialai.
Thanks for sharing the info... but I couldn't open the link tried on both iPhone and PC.... can you copy the text and paste here to share?
Thank you. :thankyou: -
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twilight:
Thanks Twilight!This link should work.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/why-schools-love-the-international-baccalaureate-1784352.html -
When one reads this article by the Independent Post, one must bear in mind tt the UK A levels is of a much lower std than the A levels tt S’pore students sit for.
Whether to pursue IB or S’pore’s A levels (w/c is widely acknowledged by all leading unis as being v rigorous) depends on the student’s interest and talents. The A levels allows math n science inclined students to pursue these subjects at a deeper level at H3 level. At the top IP schools tt offer A levels, independent thinking and learning is also much cultivated through a myriad of schemes and courses eg philosophy, research work etc. Many of these students, being so well prepared for tertiary education, excel in the many top unis. -
Hello everybody!!!
Though I am unsure about foreign schools and the A levels, I assert that the IB might be a more rigorous course, for it will prove to be strenuous to students as they are engaged in a program that demands much discipline from them.
The IB places great emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and application, and within the context of Singapore, this course differs across schools! While ACS may yield many students with full scores, how are we to know that their curriculum is variant from one in SJI? Can we really gain knowledge of the IB curriculum from the empirical?
The media does not present us with such truths and as such we cannot justify it to be a valid claim that all students taking the IB in Singapore will yield the same results, for their learning processes are different. However, this should not mean that the two schools I have mentioned are to be judged as good or bad in their curriculum. It is true that we as outsiders cannot identify the mechanics of the program in the school, but by simply discerning the nature of the course, and understanding your child's potential, only then can we possibly assure ourselves that the course is suitable for the child who is taking it.
Another matter that remains poignant is the fact that schools offering the IB in Singapore don't provide the same courses for everyone. Though this is hearsay, a friend of mine told me of a relative who got into United World College (UWC), and was required to take Language B (Chinese) at a Higher Level, forcing her to drop one of her desired subjects to Standard. Though this example applies to an International school, it does reveal that the IB is indeed variant across all schools.
Though I don't have enough evidence to justify this claim, I think that most IB schools in Singapore will offer different Humanities and Science subjects (eg: Psychology / Philosophy and Design Technology) which will also affect the rigor of the course as certain subjects demand different expectations. Biology students have more content than Chemistry students, and are marked quite strictly during examinations for key phrases and precision in facts.
The Core topics [TOK, EE and CAS] may appear to be of less significance in comparison to the other 6 compulsory subjects, but they can prove to be equally distressing if not managed well. If poorly managed, these three subjects can create much disharmony to schedules, and plans for revision/work on other subjects.
Yet one must not regard the IB course with aversion as it is highly dependent on your child's potential. As aforementioned, I am unclear of the mechanics of the A-levels, but I believe that the IB is a much more well-rounded course as it engages the students to apply critical thinking (with the compulsory implementation of ToK) as opposed to the A-levels, where Knowledge Inquiry (KI) and other subjects are rendered optional, or placed into streams for students to pick.
Having a much more well-rounded course will benefit your child as they may eventually act upon their will to engage in higher order thinking, and discern what is suitable for their surroundings and themselves. A well-rounded course will ensure that they will gain heightened awareness to the disciplines that are advantageous to them. As cogs for the future of the organic structure of society, they will be able to function according to the values that they have learned and held strong during their education, ensuring the maintenance of society and its sustainability. This is a reason as to why I prefer the IB over the A levels, for I feel that the system of the A levels does not entirely encourage students to pursue critical thinking that will enable them to become more discerning, leaving them to treat such subjects with contempt or disinterest.
But nonetheless, these are my own thoughts of what the IB offers in comparison to my little knowledge of the A-levels. While I personally favor IB and regard it to be more challenging in workload and subject juggling, both are important courses that will determine your child's path in the future. I reiterate that the child's potential is key in deciding whether IB or the A-levels are suitable for them. -
As someone pointed out, there is an attempt in Singapore to make A level takes in some elements in IB such as contrasting subjects, PW, KI etc…
This is a separate subject and I admit that it is only a guess on my part…I’ll say that full score in IB of 45 is probably equivalent to 7 distinctions in A level ( 4 H2 level subjects and 3 H1 level subjects).