All About GEP

[iFirefly]

vlim:

Hi comfy,

With trex8's dd experience with TLL, u can consider it... Hope it helps your dd!

hi vlim, are your ds & dd with TLL? my DS (p6) is with TLL English and he only joined this year, solely for psle, as English is his weakest subject. most probably he will not continue next year as we dont want him to rely too much on tuition when he goes to secondary school next year (especially IP in RI).

my DS2 (p3) is also with TLL English but he only joined in term 3 this year, due to 'availability & suitability' (or lack of it?), blar3... you know what i mean. :slapshead:

not sure if it was due to TLL but my DS1's English marks did improve from his usual 70+ to 80+ in the recent SA1 exam. as for my DS2 (who is not serious and focussed in his studies), it is too early to tell but i do notice that his interest in current affairs and writing has improved fairly.

[smurfette3]

I need help for my son, he has been doing worse and worse for his math. At first, he could cope with GEP now I am not too sure. Hi Herbie, do you have any contact for a good math tutor? Could you pls pm me, I desperately need help. :sad: He is only in P4..thought his marks should only drop in P5? He has no problem doing P5 problem sums from good school papers but somehow cannot get GEP math right.

[vlim]

Hi firefly38,

My p6 ds didnt have tuitions except for chinese. My p3 dd is with TLL taking English since beginning of this yr. Yet to see great improvement from her exam results as all the while her English results is slightly above average. But she loves attending TLL English lessons and loves the teacher. But in long run it should be beneficiary to her looking at the things they were taught

[Flowermonaster]

Hi Comfy, if recess is too short, how about after school. For my DS, he normally will catch his teacher during recess or after school.

comfy:

JenniferHJ:

Yes, please approach the teachers, they aren't there for nothing!(:

Hi JenniferHJ, I totally agree with you. That why I didn't send her for any math enrichment after the may PT meeting as the Math teacher said that my dd needs to attend remedial lessons. Bascially I don't agree with the teacher's teaching style and she admits that she can go very fast as she is a very experience teacher. So what can I say but to see how the remedial lesson can help her. But to my disappointment, the teacher was on MC and cancel one lesson, hence not much revision on her weak subjects but just teach new subjects and can not ask questions that is outside of the teaching problems as she said that will not be fair to other students that do not attend her remedial class. Can only see her furing recess time but how to as students at shortage of time to eat, rest and due to late release from previous lesson teacher. I can see very little progress or no progress in her math. So the teacher feedback the same remark again in her Term3 report. I am at my wit end, try to help her but find it rather tough, so most likely going to outsource but try EL first.
So you see, approach teacher provided the teacher is supportive and make you feel welcome. I thought a good teacher will approach stds if stds don't approach her. Just my opinion, I might be simple-minded in thinking like that. Remedial lessons to my dd seems of no help. So to me, teacher in this case is REALLY of no help and I think great for students who don't need her help. Really ironic.

[25hr mama]

Hi everyone It is kind of worrying for me after reading all your posts abt tuition. My dd in p4 this year. She did quite ok for the 1st 2 terms(I think), with 90+ for Math, & HMT, SCI, ENG 80+ respectively. Average for all subjects came up to 85%. This term, there isn't any test for SCI, for HMT 85, ENG 70 and Math 74 (all marks here have not included daily work or filing). Pls advise, at what stage or score then we parents should consider tuition. Currently my dd not attending any tuition, hope some parents here could share your experiences to help me with my decision. I wouldn't want to load her with tuitions unless itz really necessary (want her to hv rest n play time too), but also do not want to be over optimistic b4 itz too late. All inputs are most appreciated, thank you.

[jtoh]

comfy:

JenniferHJ:

Hi mommyNg, better classes probably include some of your child's classmates, and have more GEP Students. Sometimes tll doesn't have enough space, and may put your child at a less advanced class, where classes will proceed slower and perhaps less efficiently. Not sure about the locations of the lessons now, but in my time (06-08) better classes are situated in New York and not-so-good ones in Geneva.[: (The classrooms are named after cities just fyi)

I didn't do that well for English for PSLE, studied too hard for Science. But PSLE should be fine as long as your marks are above 270.
(Just realised my Pri Sch has added an extra GEP class, haha)

Hi JenniferHJ, since you mentioned your time (06-08) and just like to share with you and my dd did quite well for a math paper in your time but not in the current time. Standard of GEP math has increased quite alot but not dd's gift in math. Sigh... this is fact and I have not consider when putting her in GEP. If she was born 5 or 6 six years ago, then perhaps I might not need to send her for tuition. What to do, now have to play catch up or let her get borderline grade. Common test and exam grades are still very impt in GEP like in mainstream no matter what they said about totally enrichment, projects work etc are relevant. Sometimes I wonder it might be better for the GEP centre just select those top positions in schools for GEP prog. since they value and emphasise so much on grades and don't really teach the kids in my dd's case (assuming they are smart enough). Ps. this is how I feel but not saying all GEP teachers are like that.

comfy, how old is your dd now? I don't think the standard of GEP math has gone up. It's just that some kids are more gifted in math, others in english/science. So you'll find some GEP kids struggling in Math, while others score 100% for every GEP exam. GEP Math has to be set at a higher standard to cater to those who are gifted at it. So it's not surprising to find students who used to score 90-100 in P1-3 suddenly scoring only 80+ in GEP.

[jtoh]

25hr mama:

Hi everyone It is kind of worrying for me after reading all your posts abt tuition. My dd in p4 this year. She did quite ok for the 1st 2 terms(I think), with 90+ for Math, & HMT, SCI, ENG 80+ respectively. Average for all subjects came up to 85%. This term, there isn't any test for SCI, for HMT 85, ENG 70 and Math 74 (all marks here have not included daily work or filing). Pls advise, at what stage or score then we parents should consider tuition. Currently my dd not attending any tuition, hope some parents here could share your experiences to help me with my decision. I wouldn't want to load her with tuitions unless itz really necessary (want her to hv rest n play time too), but also do not want to be over optimistic b4 itz too late. All inputs are most appreciated, thank you.

I would say that in P4, you should be able to score >80% for overall average easily. In P5, grades will drop as the work gets more difficult and the student has to juggle more projects plus competitions, IRS etc. Compare your dd's score against her cohort. If she's below the mean, you might want to consider getting help for her to bring her up to speed before the subjects get more difficult.

[comfy]

jtoh:

comfy:

[quote=\"JenniferHJ\"]Hi mommyNg, better classes probably include some of your child's classmates, and have more GEP Students. Sometimes tll doesn't have enough space, and may put your child at a less advanced class, where classes will proceed slower and perhaps less efficiently. Not sure about the locations of the lessons now, but in my time (06-08) better classes are situated in New York and not-so-good ones in Geneva.[: (The classrooms are named after cities just fyi)

I didn't do that well for English for PSLE, studied too hard for Science. But PSLE should be fine as long as your marks are above 270.
(Just realised my Pri Sch has added an extra GEP class, haha)

Hi JenniferHJ, since you mentioned your time (06-08) and just like to share with you and my dd did quite well for a math paper in your time but not in the current time. Standard of GEP math has increased quite alot but not dd's gift in math. Sigh... this is fact and I have not consider when putting her in GEP. If she was born 5 or 6 six years ago, then perhaps I might not need to send her for tuition. What to do, now have to play catch up or let her get borderline grade. Common test and exam grades are still very impt in GEP like in mainstream no matter what they said about totally enrichment, projects work etc are relevant. Sometimes I wonder it might be better for the GEP centre just select those top positions in schools for GEP prog. since they value and emphasise so much on grades and don't really teach the kids in my dd's case (assuming they are smart enough). Ps. this is how I feel but not saying all GEP teachers are like that.

comfy, how old is your dd now? I don't think the standard of GEP math has gone up. It's just that some kids are more gifted in math, others in english/science. So you'll find some GEP kids struggling in Math, while others score 100% for every GEP exam. GEP Math has to be set at a higher standard to cater to those who are gifted at it. So it's not surprising to find students who used to score 90-100 in P1-3 suddenly scoring only 80+ in GEP.[/quote]Hi Jtoh, my dd is 10 years old. Why I said that is because I let her try a 2006 papers and a 2011 papers, she said that the 2006 is kind of easy to her. She did well for 2006 but don't well for 2011 papers. Looking at the both papers, some topics has been brought forward from P5 to P4. Hence more challenging as they have more topics to study and practise. Sometimes the brain (in my dd's case) is not develop fast enough or not really to understand such topics ( else why the needs to have certain topics studying in different level in school ). That why I said that dd is born with '2006 math' brain of understanding. I think it is the same of other subjects too but EL and Math keeps on rising. I just heard from a math expert from a Math specialised enrichment centre and he himself said so too. So level of GEP math will continue to be tougher as the years go by, this is reality.

[comfy]

jtoh:

25hr mama:

Hi everyone It is kind of worrying for me after reading all your posts abt tuition. My dd in p4 this year. She did quite ok for the 1st 2 terms(I think), with 90+ for Math, & HMT, SCI, ENG 80+ respectively. Average for all subjects came up to 85%. This term, there isn't any test for SCI, for HMT 85, ENG 70 and Math 74 (all marks here have not included daily work or filing). Pls advise, at what stage or score then we parents should consider tuition. Currently my dd not attending any tuition, hope some parents here could share your experiences to help me with my decision. I wouldn't want to load her with tuitions unless itz really necessary (want her to hv rest n play time too), but also do not want to be over optimistic b4 itz too late. All inputs are most appreciated, thank you.

I would say that in P4, you should be able to score >80% for overall average easily. In P5, grades will drop as the work gets more difficult and the student has to juggle more projects plus competitions, IRS etc. Compare your dd's score against her cohort. If she's below the mean, you might want to consider getting help for her to bring her up to speed before the subjects get more difficult.

Just want to share that not so easy to obtain > 80% for overall average, my dd for example & I have a few friends same situation too. So if your kid is like my dd, take heart and seek help if you are concern about it. Me, has started looking for tutor/enrichment centre etc.

[jtoh]

comfy:

jtoh:

[quote=\"25hr mama\"]Hi everyone It is kind of worrying for me after reading all your posts abt tuition. My dd in p4 this year. She did quite ok for the 1st 2 terms(I think), with 90+ for Math, & HMT, SCI, ENG 80+ respectively. Average for all subjects came up to 85%. This term, there isn't any test for SCI, for HMT 85, ENG 70 and Math 74 (all marks here have not included daily work or filing). Pls advise, at what stage or score then we parents should consider tuition. Currently my dd not attending any tuition, hope some parents here could share your experiences to help me with my decision. I wouldn't want to load her with tuitions unless itz really necessary (want her to hv rest n play time too), but also do not want to be over optimistic b4 itz too late. All inputs are most appreciated, thank you.

I would say that in P4, you should be able to score >80% for overall average easily. In P5, grades will drop as the work gets more difficult and the student has to juggle more projects plus competitions, IRS etc. Compare your dd's score against her cohort. If she's below the mean, you might want to consider getting help for her to bring her up to speed before the subjects get more difficult.

Just want to share that not so easy to obtain > 80% for overall average, my dd for example & I have a few friends same situation too. So if your kid is like my dd, take heart and seek help if you are concern about it. Me, has started looking for tutor/enrichment centre etc.[/quote]Hhhmmm.... >80% in P4 is not that difficult. If you do score <80% in P4 it's wise to get help because P5 is going to get a lot more difficult. Sometimes the kids don't do well not because the work is too difficult but because they're not used to the new pedagogy and they're adjusting to the new school.