Secondary 2 Streaming

[Ichigokun]

reddiechan:

Just mentioned your story to my boy and he said you could both give each other tuition...his strengths and weaknesses are the exact opposite of yours.


I took Chinese Lit during my time.Not too difficult during the process, and we had a really inspirational teacher. We loved lesson time... full of colourful stories. But it seems the criteria is A1 for higher Chinese. Rather steep, isn't it?

Hi reddiechan,

Actually many boys are stronger in subjects that are math or science related, and those that require you to apply what you've learnt. I happen to be one of those exceptions that are the direct opposite.

The EOYs are over as of now Who knows, I may be classmates with your DS next year But the school seems to be trying to make us extra worried even after exams by giving us Sec 2 Streaming Talks

The criteria for Chinese literature is actually 65% (B3) in Higher Chinese (only HCL accepted) - but the HOD for Chinese Literature kind of \"upped\" it to A1 in her slides and said we are to have a very strong foundation in the Chinese language.

After the streaming talk I sort of looked for her (as with 4 other people; not surprised at the small amount of people; and also the fact that they are from China and quite good in Chinese).

She says Chinese Literature is actually a very harsh and confusing subject and she does not encourage us to take it mainly because of the difficulty level - many Sec 3s who opted for Chinese Literature failed and she gave us some sample papers and asked us to take a look.

And if you sort of want to drop Chinese Literature and take up another subject, few departments want to have you because you have already wasted one year's worth of time, and O Levels would be close by then.

Let's just say all 5 of us were scared away from the difficulty of the paper. XD Or I would've taken Chinese Lit as well if it was easier, which unfortunately wasn't the case when each of the questions were worth 6 to 13 marks and we were expected to write essay-like answers for each question.
My mind was blown.

[koguma]

Ichigokun:

Hi Koguma,

So... We will still be taking both English and HCL? Because I thought that Chinese Literature is the form of which HCL will turn into. If not, that would actually be better for me if HCL is still here to stay.

And if my L1 is Higher Mother Tongue, can I take one R1 to be English and another R to be normal Mother Tongue?

Here's what I'm planning (currently)

L1 - English Language
R1 - Higher Mother Tongue
R2 - Pure English Literature
R3 - History Elective
R4 - E Maths & A Maths (Compulsory for my school, sadly)
R5 - Combined Science (Physics + Chemistry)

And no, Science is compulsory for my school as well. Whilst I'm in a SAP school that has its motto to make every student \"bilingual\" - I'm seeing that it's largely more Math and Science-oriented. Not what it always appears to be - a more Chinese-oriented school.

One thing strange is that they said the criteria for Combined Science is a pass for Science overall - but what if I fail?

First time taking part in such a streaming myself so it's kind of confusing. Thanks for your help everyone

If you use HCL for your L1R5 computation, you cannot use normal Mother Tongue. This means that you can only use English Lang and HCL or English Lang and normal Chinese Lang. I know of students using HCL + 1 Humanities + 2 Maths + 2 Sciences ( No English) for their L1R5. Anyway MOE will compute for you and print on your \"O\" result slip, hence you don't have to worry which subjects to use.

From the SEAB website, Higher Chinese and Literature in Chinese are 2 different subjects. You may want to check with your teacher on this.

Although the criteria for Combined Science is a pass for Science, but schools still want the students to do at least one science, hence you still need to do the combined science.

I am not sure about your school, but from what I know, some schools will ask the students to drop Pure Sciences and do combined science if the student cannot cope. Similarily if a student did badly for A Maths, he /she maybe ask to drop it during O level.

Hence you may want to give yourself a try to take Pure Sciences? Maybe you can cope with it.

Have you discuss with your parents or teachers? They may be able to give you alternative views. I think you must ask yourself what you want to do in the future and where you want to go after O level, before you decide what subjects to do in Sec 3.

[Jennifer]

Ichigokun, thank you for this post.

[Ichigokun]

koguma:

Ichigokun:

Hi Koguma,

So... We will still be taking both English and HCL? Because I thought that Chinese Literature is the form of which HCL will turn into. If not, that would actually be better for me if HCL is still here to stay.

And if my L1 is Higher Mother Tongue, can I take one R1 to be English and another R to be normal Mother Tongue?

Here's what I'm planning (currently)

L1 - English Language
R1 - Higher Mother Tongue
R2 - Pure English Literature
R3 - History Elective
R4 - E Maths & A Maths (Compulsory for my school, sadly)
R5 - Combined Science (Physics + Chemistry)

And no, Science is compulsory for my school as well. Whilst I'm in a SAP school that has its motto to make every student \"bilingual\" - I'm seeing that it's largely more Math and Science-oriented. Not what it always appears to be - a more Chinese-oriented school.

One thing strange is that they said the criteria for Combined Science is a pass for Science overall - but what if I fail?

First time taking part in such a streaming myself so it's kind of confusing. Thanks for your help everyone

If you use HCL for your L1R5 computation, you cannot use normal Mother Tongue. This means that you can only use English Lang and HCL or English Lang and normal Chinese Lang. I know of students using HCL + 1 Humanities + 2 Maths + 2 Sciences ( No English) for their L1R5. Anyway MOE will compute for you and print on your \"O\" result slip, hence you don't have to worry which subjects to use.

From the SEAB website, Higher Chinese and Literature in Chinese are 2 different subjects. You may want to check with your teacher on this.

Although the criteria for Combined Science is a pass for Science, but schools still want the students to do at least one science, hence you still need to do the combined science.

I am not sure about your school, but from what I know, some schools will ask the students to drop Pure Sciences and do combined science if the student cannot cope. Similarily if a student did badly for A Maths, he /she maybe ask to drop it during O level.

Hence you may want to give yourself a try to take Pure Sciences? Maybe you can cope with it.

Have you discuss with your parents or teachers? They may be able to give you alternative views. I think you must ask yourself what you want to do in the future and where you want to go after O level, before you decide what subjects to do in Sec 3.

Hi Koguma,

I've checked. Higher Chinese and Chinese Literature are two separate subjects :phew: that leaves me more space to breathe :boogie:

Science is definitely required for my school. I would like a shot at pure sciences but likely thing is that I will not meet the requirement of 60% - maybe I can appeal? :xedfingers:

Hmm.. My parents sort of think its better to go for the Sciences and Math route - as there are plenty of courses available and there is a bright future for Science students (supposedly) and that the career choices for Humanities is likely being a teacher or something - but I sort of explained that there are many other paths in Humanities such as Sociology, Politics etc. (Being a translator would be good, but in Singapore, I don't think we need any more Chinese-English translators, right..? :lightrod: )

Like, for Sciences and Math, you can take up jobs such as Bankers, Accountants, Engineers etc.;

I'm created for humanities from the start I guess. I'm very, very interested in East Asian history, linguistics and ancestry - I even do some researching and posting on forums for my free time. Besides that, I also like studying languages - I've studied some Korean and Japanese so far.

When I see the A-Math paper for Secondary 4, my mind is just like \"&$@%^€£¥?!\" with the formulas. I also get tired and bored with Math and Physics very easily but I can put up with Shakespearean Old English for even longer.

I mean, I haven't seen much Singaporeans become historians or something like that, so I really have no idea am I just delusional with my future :?:

Thanks once again though for your help :thankyou:

[Ichigokun]

Jennifer:

Ichigokun, thank you for this post.

Hi Jennifer, you're welcome I also needed some help anyway ^^

[reddiechan]

Oh, you’ll be surprised about the translators part.

[sharonkhoo]

Ichigokun:

...

Hmm.. My parents sort of think its better to go for the Sciences and Math route - as there are plenty of courses available and there is a bright future for Science students (supposedly) and that the career choices for Humanities is likely being a teacher or something - but I sort of explained that there are many other paths in Humanities such as Sociology, Politics etc. (Being a translator would be good, but in Singapore, I don't think we need any more Chinese-English translators, right..? :lightrod: )

Like, for Sciences and Math, you can take up jobs such as Bankers, Accountants, Engineers etc.;

I'm created for humanities from the start I guess. I'm very, very interested in East Asian history, linguistics and ancestry - I even do some researching and posting on forums for my free time. Besides that, I also like studying languages - I've studied some Korean and Japanese so far.

When I see the A-Math paper for Secondary 4, my mind is just like \"&$@%^€£¥?!\" with the formulas. I also get tired and bored with Math and Physics very easily but I can put up with Shakespearean Old English for even longer.

I mean, I haven't seen much Singaporeans become historians or something like that, so I really have no idea am I just delusional with my future :?:

Thanks once again though for your help :thankyou:

If you think that way about maths and science, then I think it would be a mistake to go that route. The best academic decision I made was switching to humanities. It's definitely better to have good results in humanities subjects than weak results in maths and science. Your career is for decades, and if you become an engineer or go into some science field, do you really want to handle that kind of maths and science for decades? My father and I had an incredible row when I was applying to university - my first choice was Law (we agreed on that) but he wanted me to put Accountancy as the 2nd choice and I wanted to put a humanities. Looking back, I am so glad I never did Accountancy - I am really horrible at numbers, and can't imagine surviving the course, let alone working in a field that involves numbers all day!

Humanities is not a dead end, it just doesn't have a nice-sounding 'professional' name to most jobs. Translating is a huge field now with increasing internationalisation, and China needs a lot of stuff put into decent English. Publishing is another big field. So is mass communications, public relations etc. Many corporations need managers, and they need not just come from science backgrounds. Those with good grades in humanities would also stand a chance. For many areas, the quality of the grades matters more than the subject. The reason why it seems that many who do well in Singapore have science backgrounds is that many good students go the science route. Look at other countries and you will see that those with degrees in history, politics, English etc also do well. That's my stand, anyway.

Just found a few links which may interest you:
http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-liberal-arts-majors-2012-12?op=1
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130625075243-2259773-why-learning-the-humanities-is-a-key-to-success
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~janzb/humanities/humcareers.htm
http://www.uwo.ca/english/pages/ceos.html

[reddiechan]

simkhoo: totally agree with you. but I must admit I held the same view as ichigokun when I was in school when ranking within the school is based on how well you do in the Sciences and Maths. Once you pass this stage, JC is more of a free choice (although allocation of spaces is still based on Sci/Math performance - is it still this way?). And then when I reach NUS, I hear people saying it was harder getting into the Art faculty than Science.

[sharonkhoo]

reddiechan:

simkhoo: totally agree with you. but I must admit I held the same view as ichigokun when I was in school when ranking within the school is based on how well you do in the Sciences and Maths. Once you pass this stage, JC is more of a free choice (although allocation of spaces is still based on Sci/Math performance - is it still this way?). And then when I reach NUS, I hear people saying it was harder getting into the Art faculty than Science.

I thought like him at sec 2, but thankfully, when I reached sec 4, the precursor of the Humanities scheme had just been launched. Even so, my parents would not have considered it if not for someone I knew who was one year older and had joined the scheme. He strongly encouraged me to go for it since he knew how I felt about sciences vs humanities, and since it was strongly promoted at the time, my parents finally agreed. I have never regretted that decision.

I think selection of course at JC for Science and Arts is separate - if you apply to Arts, you compete only with the others who applied to Arts, not the others who applied for Science.

At university level, pure sciences are even less popular than Arts because they are perceived to be tougher and also seen as not leading to an obvious route other than teacher or researcher (for which you probably need to think about eventually getting a PhD). Most science students seem to head to Medicine, Law (not considered 'humanities' although it actually is!), Engineering and Accountancy.

[janet88]

after a major competition last year, son will be streamed again next year...seems to have no end of streaming in schools :nailbite: