Secondary 2 Streaming

[janet88]

phtthp:

POA is useful and important, because provide the basic & foundation theory & understanding, towards Accounting background. Not many Secondary schools offer POA, unfortunately.

I'm worried about her taking on a new subject when she flunked math and science.

[sharonkhoo]

nms1:

But at primary school level you can't 'drop' anything so allowing her to just pass may be risky if she is aiming for Express. It means she has to be confident of very high scores in the other subjects.

I don't think hercules means \"drop\" as in \"don't take the subject at all\", but meaning \"don't spend too much effort on it and accept poor results\". And for some kids, maybe aiming for Express is already too high? For those aiming for Express, they probably should be able to cope with 4 subjects without too much stress.

The issue arises more for sec school where most students take 8 subjects but really only need 6, and it may be wiser to focus strongly on 6 or 7 and less on 1-2. The student will still have to attend the classes and take the exams for those other subjects, but the aim should be to put in some effort and accept whatever they get, rather than to work extremely hard knowing that the results are unlikely to be good anyway.

[ngl2010]

janet88:

phtthp:

POA is useful and important, because provide the basic & foundation theory & understanding, towards Accounting background. Not many Secondary schools offer POA, unfortunately.

I'm worried about her taking on a new subject when she flunked math and science.

I remember you said you want her to do nursing. Does she want to do nursing?

[hercules]

slmkhoo:

The issue arises more for sec school where most students take 8 subjects but really only need 6, and it may be wiser to focus strongly on 6 or 7 and less on 1-2. The student will still have to attend the classes and take the exams for those other subjects, but the aim should be to put in some effort and accept whatever they get, rather than to work extremely hard knowing that the results are unlikely to be good anyway.

Yes, it's a 有得有失，有失有得 logical strategy of if want to score higher for core then may have to give up the secondary.

This strategy also will work for PSLE. Though cannot drop Math and Science completely, but can drop topic/s (I have already in mind that if necessary, I will drop the Ratio topic completely for my grand niece when the time comes. Save the unproductive time trying to explain such complex and tricky problem sums, losing maybe 4 marks and focus on angles/areas/parameters kind of problems to help her to score about 70. It's usually a win-win situation to boost her overall confidence in Math while 'saving my breathe' at the same time.).

[sharonkhoo]

hercules:

slmkhoo:

The issue arises more for sec school where most students take 8 subjects but really only need 6, and it may be wiser to focus strongly on 6 or 7 and less on 1-2. The student will still have to attend the classes and take the exams for those other subjects, but the aim should be to put in some effort and accept whatever they get, rather than to work extremely hard knowing that the results are unlikely to be good anyway.

Yes, it's a 有得有失，有失有得 logical strategy of if want to score higher for core then may have to give up the secondary.

This strategy also will work for PSLE. Though cannot drop Math and Science completely, but can drop topic/s (I have already in mind that if necessary, I will drop the Ratio topic completely for my grand niece when the time comes. Save the unproductive time trying to explain such complex and tricky problem sums, losing maybe 4 marks and focus on angles/areas/parameters kind of problems to help her to score about 70. It's usually a win-win situation to boost her overall confidence in Math while 'saving my breathe' at the same time.).

My older girl is also not that strong in Maths. She flunked H1 Maths for most of the time in PreU. My husband coached her in for the last few months leading to the H1 exam, and selected a few topics and types of questions that she should simply ignore. He had the same reasoning as hercules - that she should focus on the topics she was more likely to get some marks for, and not bother with those which she really couldn't grasp. Of course, we didn't tell her that right from the beginning, and she did give it her best shot. But by 6 mths before the exam, we reckoned that working on the stuff she could understand (and she didn't always do those well as it was) was better use of her time. She got a C in the end, after getting mainly S and E up to then, so we were all very happy.

[lego]

janet88:

supposing daughter's subject combination are English, math, physics/chem, geography/ss, food & nutrition, POA.

if taking the poly route, all these subjects are important.

For admission to Poly, they are looking at 5 subjects.
English language, Relevant 2 subjects (to the course that the child is taking) and another 2 best subjects.
Your girl will be taking 6 subjects if she choose above combi.

If your child has a course that she is interested in, u might want to take a look and see what are the 'Relevant subjects' for it.
Mathematics is a 'Relevant subject' for many courses but you can do what hercules suggested - focusing on those manageable topics.

Don't worry too much about the POA.
Since the school makes it a compulsory subject, I guess chances are it should be a manageable subject for them.
Let her results help you make the decision.
If she is doing well in POA, it can be one of the ' 2 best subjects' or 'relevant subject' if it happens to be in the group of relevant subjects.
If she is not doing well in it, then let it be and focus on the other subjects?

[fwdr0203]

Hello! Seeking advice for subject combo. I’m thinking of taking the double science route, 2 sciences (pure) and 2 humanities, 1 core and 1 elective.


For the sciences, Biology or Physics? I’ve heard that biology is more memory based, while physics is more of understanding and applying, plus lots of practice. Don’t really have a preference for any. On one hand, I feel bio is slightly easier in terms of workload, and I’ve heard people say physics is hard, as in the difficulty grasping the concepts, and very 麻烦 (troublesome/inconvenient). On the other hand, I hate memorising, and prefer understanding and applying. My opinion is likely biased though, since I learnt bio last year and physics this year, so I sort of forgot how bio was like, and I put in more effort last year than this.

Now for the humanities: Core History + Elect Literature or Core Literature + Elect History? Or something else? I’m interested both hist and lit, more so for lit and seeing the deeper meanings, but I’m not good at it. Core hist + elect lit would be the so called ‘safer’ or ‘rational’ choice, while core lit + elect hist would be much more risky, but more enjoyable.

Thanks for reading, appreciate all your comments and suggestions!

[MyPillow]

Wmc, u forget abt SOcial studies , it’s mandatory subject - governance of Spore …must take as elective

So far I dunno which Sch just offer bio n phy pure? These two cant really match - phy chem - engineering based ; ChemBio - Lab / clinical based .
Can share abt which Sch & combi available?

[sharonkhoo]

Bio vs Physics - if you are good at Maths, go for Physics if you want to save effort (that was the advice my husband gave my daughter for A levels, but it should apply to O levels too). But if your Maths is not strong, Physics could be hard. A 2nd consideration is which you are more interested in. Remember that whichever you drop now, you cannot take at A level.


As for the Lit/History decision - again, interest is important as you are likely to be more willing to work at something you are intrinsically interested in. I can’t advise beyond that as both subjects have their difficulties.

[janet88]

ngl2010:

I remember you said you want her to do nursing. Does she want to do nursing?

she isn't keen at all.