DSA 2011
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Sometimes I really don't quite understand this DSA process. Apart from the other categories of sports or special talent DSA, for GEP, it still \"boils\" down to academic score for Geppers as well (from what I see of the post). If it is based on academic score, why not based on overall PSLE score - be it Geppers or mainstream? If a Gepper can score >80% for most of his CA / SA, I really do not see that he will score badly for PSLE.......so why need DSA?
Must be becos of the hot weather that I blurt out another \"hot\" topic......for discussion only......don't
me!! -
Pen88n:
Well, to me, DSA is very important to geppers.Sometimes I really don't quite understand this DSA process. Apart from the other categories of sports or special talent DSA, for GEP, it still \"boils\" down to academic score for Geppers as well (from what I see of the post). If it is based on academic score, why not based on overall PSLE score - be it Geppers or mainstream? If a Gepper can score >80% for most of his CA / SA, I really do not see that he will score badly for PSLE.......so why need DSA?
Must be becos of the hot weather that I blurt out another \"hot\" topic......for discussion only......don't me!!
First of all geppers have to undergo two and half years of challengings works which include doing projects, assignments and exams. If you were to read the 'all about gep' thread, u would realize tt some of the kids who used to be very good in maths for example from p1-p3, might find themselve unable to cope in the gep curriculum. P6 gep mid year exams is the last and important exams of geppers. However, they still have to settle down to prepare for prelim and psle. For those geppers who are above average in their cohort should not have much problem in getting good psle t-score but still might not be able to out win some of the mainstreamers who have already start their psle preparation since p5( correct me if I am wrong).... As such, without DSA, those geppers who are not able to meet the cop of ip schools due to struggling in gep but might do well if he/she remains in mainstream，will end up in 2nd or lower tier sec schools ..... Under such circumstances, these geppers would be pittyful right and unfair to them .... Jmo ... :roll: -
jtoh:
vlim:
wah...today's weather very hot huh..... :heresmyfish: :siam:
You want to buy popcorn?
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quote=\"Augmum\"]
jtoh:
i have no exact figure for the limit of GEP offers, was told only for the total DSA avail vacancies.
It's true there are some kiasu GEP students who apply to several schools without the intention of taking up the offer. And when DHS makes it so easy for them, why not? The problem is DHS is happy to welcome them. Maybe if DHS made it harder for the students there would be more vacancies available for the mainstreamers. But wait a second, doesn't DHS set a limit on the number of GEP offers they make?Augmum:
That’s where \"the problems\" lies, DHS u heard that ..... :evil:
Most Gep pupils would apply for DSA to DHS, (some even apply to all IP schs, real KS)
even w/o the intention of taking up the offer,
as it’s such a hassle free,
exempted fr GAT and no interviews required, so why not ??
their applications take up the slots of the DSA vacancies,
depriving other applicants who are really keen in their applications.
Shd have brought this issue out to the P’s attention when met him…….
i choose t o believe that the freeing up of slots would make a diff esp for those borderline cases.....
thats' why we heard P of NYGH asking parents to inform her shd the successful applicants not taking up the offer.[/quote]
Yes, few of my DS classmates have applied for 4 top schools, RI/HCI/ASCI/NUSH, and 4 schools awarded CO to them. So what do you think?
3 COs are very common among my DS classmates.
However, DHS is not popular or known among my DS's GEP classmates. Non applied to DHS, instead there are some students applied to SST. -
vlim:
Well, to me, DSA is very important to geppers.Pen88n:
Sometimes I really don't quite understand this DSA process. Apart from the other categories of sports or special talent DSA, for GEP, it still \"boils\" down to academic score for Geppers as well (from what I see of the post). If it is based on academic score, why not based on overall PSLE score - be it Geppers or mainstream? If a Gepper can score >80% for most of his CA / SA, I really do not see that he will score badly for PSLE.......so why need DSA?
Must be becos of the hot weather that I blurt out another \"hot\" topic......for discussion only......don't me!!
First of all geppers have to undergo two and half years of challengings works which include doing projects, assignments and exams. If you were to read the 'all about gep' thread, u would realize tt some of the kids who used to be very good in maths for example from p1-p3, might find themselve unable to cope in the gep curriculum. P6 gep mid year exams is the last and important exams of geppers. However, they still have to settle down to prepare for prelim and psle. For those geppers who are above average in their cohort should not have much problem in getting good psle t-score but still might not be able to out win some of the mainstreamers who have already start their psle preparation since p5( correct me if I am wrong).... As such, without DSA, those geppers who are not able to meet the cop of ip schools due to struggling in gep but might do well if he/she remains in mainstream，will end up in 2nd or lower tier sec schools ..... Under such circumstances, these geppers would be pittyful right and unfair to them .... Jmo ... :roll:
Yes, agreed. DSA is important for GEPers. Good for those who scored more then 80% and able to get 3 or 4 COs from all the top schools. But, but there are some GEPers like my DS, not here nor there. Trying to squeeze into the dream schools via DSA, but end up with the neck full of blood and empty handed. Still have to complete with those mainstreamers who have started preparing PSLE since P4/P5. What a joke.....
Does anyone know why MOE has started the DSA program? Anyone can share?
Cheers
Thank you -
Augmum:
think what phankao was saying is that \"discounted\" in terms of the absolute percentage figure.....
It's not discounted. The GEP exams are centralized and generally tougher to score than a mainstream school's paper.jtoh:
[quote=\"phankao\"]
GEP always gets discounted entry criteria.
extracted fr DHS website
Students who attained 85% or higher score
(or 75% or higher score for Gifted Education Programme students) for average of P5 Overall and P6 Mid-Year Examination or its equivalent.[/quote]Yes, that's what I mean.
Afterall, they shouldn't just state an 85% there just like that. At least for GEPpers, the 75% is standardised, right? But for mainstream, some schools' 85% is not equal to other schools' 85%. So then, it's really not fair to those from more competitive schools whose exam standards are set rather high. So a student from that school with 80% might be at similar standard or even better than a student from a school with lower standard but with 85%.
In any case, can see they just want the GEPpers, lah -
DHS seems to be the one that makes life easiest for GEP students during DSA among all schools.
How is their SBGE like ? -
Blur Dad:
Well, to me, DSA is very important to geppers.vlim:
[quote=\"Pen88n\"]Sometimes I really don't quite understand this DSA process. Apart from the other categories of sports or special talent DSA, for GEP, it still \"boils\" down to academic score for Geppers as well (from what I see of the post). If it is based on academic score, why not based on overall PSLE score - be it Geppers or mainstream? If a Gepper can score >80% for most of his CA / SA, I really do not see that he will score badly for PSLE.......so why need DSA?
Must be becos of the hot weather that I blurt out another \"hot\" topic......for discussion only......don't me!!
First of all geppers have to undergo two and half years of challengings works which include doing projects, assignments and exams. If you were to read the 'all about gep' thread, u would realize tt some of the kids who used to be very good in maths for example from p1-p3, might find themselve unable to cope in the gep curriculum. P6 gep mid year exams is the last and important exams of geppers. However, they still have to settle down to prepare for prelim and psle. For those geppers who are above average in their cohort should not have much problem in getting good psle t-score but still might not be able to out win some of the mainstreamers who have already start their psle preparation since p5( correct me if I am wrong).... As such, without DSA, those geppers who are not able to meet the cop of ip schools due to struggling in gep but might do well if he/she remains in mainstream，will end up in 2nd or lower tier sec schools ..... Under such circumstances, these geppers would be pittyful right and unfair to them .... Jmo ... :roll:
Yes, agreed. DSA is important for GEPers. Good for those who scored more then 80% and able to get 3 or 4 COs from all the top schools. But, but there are some GEPers like my DS, not here nor there. Trying to squeeze into the dream schools via DSA, but end up with the neck full of blood and empty handed. Still have to complete with those mainstreamers who have started preparing PSLE since P4/P5. What a joke.....
Does anyone know why MOE has started the DSA program? Anyone can share?
Cheers
Thank you[/quote]Years ago, GEP students used to have direct admission to GEP secondary schools, so it was a through train from P4 to RI/RGS/HCI/NYGH/ACSI/DHS etc. Then beginning with the GEP intake of 2007, MOE scrapped this direct admission to GEP secondary and GEP students had to compete together with mainstreamers at DSA. I guess the reason was that people deemed it unfair and also not all GEP students were of the same high calibre. So DSA was introduced and the weaker GEP students were denied the thru train. So DSA actually made it tougher for GEPpers to get into the top schools because now they had to compete (and score >80%) to get into these top schools when previously it was a thru train.
DSA is important to GEPpers bec they don't prepare for PSLE until Term 3 of P6, unlike mainstreamers who start preparing from early P5, even P4. As blurdad pointed out, it's not exactly fair competition. -
Hi Blur Dad
I can really emphatise with you
Being a father of 2 GEP kids who had gone thru the GEP Programmes and DSA in the past couple of years, I feel that there’s a lack of understanding of GEP programme and why DSA is a necessary & important path for GEP kids.
Let me put it this way.
I do not think my 2 kids who went through GEP programme necessarily any more intelligent nor any more deserving to go to the TOP IP schools than the kids from mainstream. The only difference is that for some reason ( which till today I also do not fully understand ) they were somehow selected for the GEP programme…
DSA to GEP kids is not and should never be an entitlement, but I would dare say that DSA to GEP kids is a very very important lifeline.
Why?
The GEP programme is like a Decathlon Training & Exposure Programme ( 10 events - long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, 110m, discus, pole vault, javelin, 1500m )
Whilst the PSLE is a Nationwide 400m race …
So whilst the mainstream kids are prepared in a very focused manner for the 400m race ( PSLE ) from as early as P4 all the way to P6. The GEP kids are instead being focused on being ‘exposed’ to all the different Decathlon events.
I know my kids’ GEP teachers even constantly remind parents not to prepare their kids for PSLE but to support them and focus on allowing the kids to be exposed to as many things as possible, they assure us that they will start to seriously prepare our kids for PSLE from May/June of the PSLE year onwards… )
Imagine … A GEP kid not getting a DSA to any of the IP schools that offer School Based Gifted Programme & knowing that only in August/September of PSLE year… they wld then hv to intensively prepare for the Nationwide 400m race ( PSLE ) in a short few months in P6 against a whole cohort of excellent athletes ( equally if not more intelligent & academically inclined students in mainstream )
There are many GEP kids ( I would venture, say 10%? of 500 = abt 50? ) without any CO/WL from any of the TOP IP schools after the DSA exercise.
It’s also really not easy for them to really focus on preparing intensively for the PSLE ( when 90% of the classmates hv already gotten a DSA CO ). Put yrself in their shoes…. If I were them, I know I wld be really demoralised and find it difficult to ‘chiong’ when the other kids with DSA are not chionging to the same level. I know if I am a PSLE kid and I have a DSA CO, I wld not be chionging at the same level as I wld if I do not have a DSA CO, I am only human…. And I am an adult, what more a 12 yr old kid ??….
It’s also not easy for them to compete against the mainstreamers in the PSLE ( A kid trained for decathlon having to compete in a nationwide 400m race with less than half a year of focused intensive training in the event against a whole bunch of just as able/more able kids who have been trained for the 400m race over 2-3 years )
Many of the GEP kids who find themselves in such a situation wld ‘survive’ at the end of the day ( get to a desired IP school via PSLE )
But there are also those who do not manage to do so… ( but whom I believe they wld be able to do so if only they had been as prepared and focused on the PSLE over P4-P6 like kids in the mainstream … )
My heart really goes out to them …
So that is why I personally feel that DSA is really an important lifeline for GEP kids…. It is not their entitlement… but a real important lifeline…
My own personal 2cts worth … -
phankao:
Yes, that's what I mean.
think what phankao was saying is that \"discounted\" in terms of the absolute percentage figure.....Augmum:
[quote=\"phankao\"]
GEP always gets discounted entry criteria.
extracted fr DHS website
Students who attained 85% or higher score
(or 75% or higher score for Gifted Education Programme students) for average of P5 Overall and P6 Mid-Year Examination or its equivalent.
Afterall, they shouldn't just state an 85% there just like that. At least for GEPpers, the 75% is standardised, right? But for mainstream, some schools' 85% is not equal to other schools' 85%. So then, it's really not fair to those from more competitive schools whose exam standards are set rather high. So a student from that school with 80% might be at similar standard or even better than a student from a school with lower standard but with 85%.
In any case, can see they just want the GEPpers, lah[/quote]I agree that the figure of 85% for mainstreamers is not fair. But it's not correct to say that GEPpers get a discount bec it implies that GEPpers have it easier than mainstreamers because they get a 10% discount, and we all know that GEP exams are harder to score in than mainstream exams.
The school should just put down a criteria for GEPpers bec it's a standardised exam, and not put down a percentage for the mainstream. No one from my dd's school applied to DHS, with everyone gunning for RGS/NYGH. But distance also plays a part I suppose.
Given that a lot of parents have shared that hardly any GEPpers apply to DHS, I wonder how many actually end up there.
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