DSA 2017

[junemum72]

Estéema:

Some info collated for my own tracking. Feel free to add in for others benefit:-


25 Mar 2017
Singapore Sports School
Hwa Chong

1 Apr 9am-1pm
SJI

8 Apr
SOTA
NUS High

22 Apr
ACSI

20 May 2017
Raffles Institution

27 May 2017
SST
Catholic High School
Victoria School

Hwa Chong OH on 27th Mar? So early this year?

[coast]

- deleted -

[coast]

Schools can play a part in identifying and nurturing talents in certain domain areas.


For some Sports (e.g., Basketball, Volleyball), students can become very good players through CCA training especially if the coach and school team have good track record.

If the school provide the right resources and support, school training should be sufficient to develop talents in some non-Sports niche areas too (Robotics?)

I know of some top MO students who don’t attend regular MO enrichment classes with external vendors (that will cost a bomb) but have done well mainly due to their passion in solving challenging Maths problems. There will be more such talents if schools provide the right resources and support.

There is no denying that there are many DSA domains where students from more affluent families would benefit. However, with the increased in DSA places and a variety of niched areas in ALL secondary schools, I believe many more students will benefit from DSA in the new system.

[Imp75]

coast:

Schools can play a part in identifying and nurturing talents in certain domain areas.

in theory yes, in reality, yet to be seen.

For some Sports (e.g., Basketball, Volleyball), students can become very good players through CCA training especially if the coach and school team have good track record.
yes but CCA training only 2x a week. To be a top-notch athlete, you'll need 5-7 days training

If the school provide the right resources and support, school training should be sufficient to develop talents in some non-Sports niche areas too (Robotics?)
Last time, primary schools have \"niche\" CCAs where extra and separate funding are granted. Now, no more niche CCAs, all funds are shared to support the LLP programmes.....

I know of some top MO students who don't attend regular MO enrichment classes with external vendors (that will cost a bomb) but have done well mainly due to their passion in solving challenging Maths problems. There will be more such talents if schools provide the right resources and support. I need to pay for my child to attend school-based vendor conducted MO program

There is no denying that there are many DSA domains where students from more affluent families would benefit. However, with the increased in DSA places and a variety of niched areas in ALL secondary schools, I believe many more students will benefit from DSA in the new system.

[mn_1704]

I suppose we as parents, we just want our DCs to do their best in their PSLE and hopefully (if possible) to apply via DSA to a preferred Sec school. But at the same time even with the DSA in mind, we must always motivate our DCs to focus and concentrate on their preparation for their PSLE (for the COP). At the end of the day, as parents, we want our DCs to enrol in a Sec school best suited for our DCs learning profile, character development, and he or she will be happy in that learning environment to thrive in his/her academic and CCA pursuits.

[yap_susan]

Yngmng:

yap_susan:

Any idea dsa application starts in April or May according to trend?

You can refer to the threads on previous year DSA. I find them quite useful. For DSA via sports or arts, the kid cannot change the cca for the next 4 or 6 years. Hence, need commitment and passion.

Thank you

[iRabbit]

coast:

I agree with you on Maths.

But how about the other 3 subjects? For Science, there is a SO competition held by NUS High for P5.

While winners for SO, EL essay writing, National Debates, Big Spell are exemplary students, the numbers are insufficient considering the number of DSA vacancies … for IP ... 1400 minus Sports/Arts/ … so it seems unlikely that schools will just rely on competitions to identify subject strength talent.

I think schools will likely conduct subject tests and if the number of successful academic applicants (unless IP schools decide to reduce the number of COs under the new system), I think \"general academic abilities\" will likely do well especially if they choose their strongest subject.

I see where you're coming from. For popular MO competitions like NMOS and SMOPS, typically they can have 3-5 thousand participants. There's no way competitions for the other 3 subjects can come close to those numbers.

I agree with you that schools would most likely have to conduct subject specific domain tests for the other 3 subjects. And then there's the all impt interview too.

[zoolet]

Does DSA effective? Student A has no special talent, can’t DSA in any IP school depend on PSLE results. He/she managed to score 258 (so-called borderline cut-off for top IP school). But the new rule stated 20% of the vacancy to keep for DSA talent, thus Student A can’t get into the IP school as all vacancy filled up since there are other students with better scores. Does that mean Student A will be deprived from receiving IP training totally since all vacancy of IP school has filled up? Student B is an average academic results student, all 4 subjects are barely 70 but excellent in sport, entered the IP school via DSA sport. But student B struggled to keep up with his peers in IP school since peers have very strong academics and the style of teaching in the school is to impart advance skill. Student B may have to work harder as he/ she has to self read up on the basic before understanding the advance skill. Is this effective for student B both academic and sport? Is this mentally healthy? Will this student B able to qualify to local university after A Level? (Hopefully, parents will not go and complain about the entry level for local university and they re-look and introduce something like DSA. If start with another type of DSA, this will be very crappy and make our university look so pale off compared to top university in the world.)

[floppy]

zoolet:

Does DSA effective? Student A has no special talent, can't DSA in any IP school depend on PSLE results. He/she managed to score 258 (so-called borderline cut-off for top IP school). But the new rule stated 20% of the vacancy to keep for DSA talent, thus Student A can't get into the IP school as all vacancy filled up since there are other students with better scores. Does that mean Student A will be deprived from receiving IP training totally since all vacancy of IP school has filled up? Student B is an average academic results student, all 4 subjects are barely 70 but excellent in sport, entered the IP school via DSA sport. But student B struggled to keep up with his peers in IP school since peers have very strong academics and the style of teaching in the school is to impart advance skill. Student B may have to work harder as he/ she has to self read up on the basic before understanding the advance skill. Is this effective for student B both academic and sport? Is this mentally healthy? Will this student B able to qualify to local university after A Level? (Hopefully, parents will not go and complain about the entry level for local university and they re-look and introduce something like DSA. If start with another type of DSA, this will be very crappy and make our university look so pale off compared to top university in the world.)

There's a big difference between setting aside 20% for DSA students and raising the cap of DSA students for the school to 20%. The former implies the school die-die must have 20% DSA students while the latter means the school can decide to accept DSA students up to a max of 20% (the latter is the actual change to the policy).

As for your query, yes, the scenario you have painted is healthy because the emphasis is on a shift away from academic excellence. Your assumption is IP track is only meant for the academically brilliant students (which is if based strictly on COP) but I'm not sure that is the case. So, there isn't a need to worry too much about student B.

[pirate]

zoolet:

(Hopefully, parents will not go and complain about the entry level for local university and they re-look and introduce something like DSA. If start with another type of DSA, this will be very crappy and make our university look so pale off compared to top university in the world.)

Top universities look at more than just academics in their admission. They certainly don't have \"cut-off points\". Might as well get used to it earlier.