Secondary School Selection 2012

[wonderm]

Pen88n:

Nebbermind:

with 80% A for chinese, how does the bell curve look like??

Is it still a bell curve?

It is a bell curve, shifted to the right, and probably a little irregular in shape??? :rotflmao:

The % for A and A* for Chinese has been around 80% for quite long already, at least since 2008 when my ds1 took his PSLE. I was quite surprised then because so many parents complained about Chinese dragging down their DC T-score, yet the statistics show so many kids score A and A*.

[Pen88n]

wonderm:

Pen88n:

[quote=\"Nebbermind\"]with 80% A for chinese, how does the bell curve look like??

Is it still a bell curve?

It is a bell curve, shifted to the right, and probably a little irregular in shape??? :rotflmao:

The % for A and A* for Chinese has been around 80% for quite long already, at least since 2008 when my ds1 took his PSLE. I was quite surprised then because so many parents complained about Chinese dragging down their DC T-score, yet the statistics show so many kids score A and A*.[/quote]Wonderm,

Getting a A or A* for Chinese does not guarantee the kid a high T-score for that subject. Imagine, if the mean is 80% and your kid score 81%, he will still get a A, but T-score for that subject is only 50.x even if it is a A. And yes, that means those with less than A will be scoring less than 50 for T-score for that subject. Sad and scary :nailbite: right???

[Nebbermind]

But I thought the grades (A*, A etc) are allocated after the fitting into the bell curve and so the % should be roughly the same as the rest of the subjects. No meh?

[ks2011]

slmkhoo:

ks2011:

[quote=\"alng\"]I am not trying to scare anyone here.


If a student gets average score for all the 4 subjects, his/her T-score will be exactly 200. If the average of 4 subjects is 75% (which I doubt for some subjects like Maths), then one really needs 4A to get a T score of 200!

I dont think the national average for any subject will be 75%.

Based on the statistics provided by wonderm, it must be for Chinese if 80% score A and above. But bear in mind that an A in school may be harder to score (if the school sets harder papers) than an A in PSLE.[/quote]But A does not mean above 75 and A* does not mean above 90. Last yr, my dd said she would not get above 91 in MT based on her performance but got an A* in all subjects including MT.

[ks2011]

Nebbermind:

But I thought the grades (A*, A etc) are allocated after the fitting into the bell curve and so the % should be roughly the same as the rest of the subjects. No meh?

Thats my understanding as well.

[Chenonceau]

Nebbermind:

But I thought the grades (A*, A etc) are allocated after the fitting into the bell curve and so the % should be roughly the same as the rest of the subjects. No meh?

It was a Minister who revealed that 80% of kids score A in Chinese. If this 80% is fact then the A are not fitted into bell curve. In essence, the A reflects raw score only. Uninformative. It would seem then that the A and B banding are stable 75 to 90 is A. No?

[Nebbermind]

The % for the rest of the subjects @ 43~44% seem to indicate that they are fitted into some models. But 80%...double!! Exempted from 'bell-curving'?

:scratchhead:

Some conspiracy theory? :scratchhead:

[wonderm]

Pen88n:

Getting a A or A* for Chinese does not guarantee the kid a high T-score for that subject. Imagine, if the mean is 80% and your kid score 81%, he will still get a A, but T-score for that subject is only 50.x even if it is a A. And yes, that means those with less than A will be scoring less than 50 for T-score for that subject. Sad and scary :nailbite: right???

You are right, A or A* does not represent high T-score. I also think even the A and A* marks are not fixed judging from the mistakes my ds told me about and their PSLE grades. At the end of the day, we just need to know T-score shows their relative position within their cohort, it doesn't really matter how hard are the papers. Don't be scared

[wonderm]

Chenonceau:

Nebbermind:

But I thought the grades (A*, A etc) are allocated after the fitting into the bell curve and so the % should be roughly the same as the rest of the subjects. No meh?

It was a Minister who revealed that 80% of kids score A in Chinese. If this 80% is fact then the A are not fitted into bell curve. In essence, the A reflects raw score only. Uninformative. It would seem then that the A and B banding are stable 75 to 90 is A. No?

I don't think the marks for A and A* are fixed. Despite the difference in difficulty levels of the papers over the years, the national % of A and A* for all subjects do not seem to change much. It is public information as it is shown on school websites every year.

http://www.nanhuapri.moe.edu.sg/cos/o.x?c=/wbn/pagetree&func=view&rid=32331

http://www.henryparkpri.moe.edu.sg/cos/o.x?c=/wbn/pagetree&func=view&rid=41039

Still, I don't know why Chinese has a much higher % of A and A*. In any case, T-score for each subject will still have a mean of 50.

[Chenonceau]

wonderm:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"Nebbermind\"]But I thought the grades (A*, A etc) are allocated after the fitting into the bell curve and so the % should be roughly the same as the rest of the subjects. No meh?

It was a Minister who revealed that 80% of kids score A in Chinese. If this 80% is fact then the A are not fitted into bell curve. In essence, the A reflects raw score only. Uninformative. It would seem then that the A and B banding are stable 75 to 90 is A. No?

I don't think the marks for A and A* are fixed. Despite the difference in difficulty levels of the papers over the years, the national % of A and A* for all subjects do not seem to change much. It is public information as it is shown on school websites every year.

http://www.nanhuapri.moe.edu.sg/cos/o.x?c=/wbn/pagetree&func=view&rid=32331

http://www.henryparkpri.moe.edu.sg/cos/o.x?c=/wbn/pagetree&func=view&rid=41039

Still, I don't know why Chinese has a much higher % of A and A*. In any case, T-score for each subject will still have a mean of 50.[/quote]Yeah... I agree. Though still stumped by the proportion for Chinese.