Raffles Institution (Year 1-4)

[mathsparks]

Dharma:

RI/RGS places a lot of emphasis on CCAs and child needs to be committed to CCA he/she is involved in terms of practices and trainings. These sessions can last 2 ~3 days. If the child is doing 3rd lang, that’s another evening gone. Just before competitions, the CCA practices can be a daily affair.

at least mine doesnt hv to worry abt 3rd lang. he's not strong in lang.

[mathsparks]

lowmama:

Hi all

Am new here but have been following the forums for a month plus. Would like to share the experience of my elder boy who is in RI Sec 2 this year. He was from a mediocre neighbourhood primary school and got into RI thru DSA (Science) but didn’t do fantastically well in PSLE (<250 :x ). In RI, he’s just an average student (great at science, sucks in Chinese), participates in only 1 CCA but I can see that he really enjoyed himself there. I’ve seen him become more sociable & motivated. He doesn’t study terribly hard (I think most of his studying is done during his 40 mins bus journey in the morning and before in classroom b4 morning assembly), sleeps at decent hours (in bed by 10pm), plays computer games when I’m at work (I suspect), and I just have to supervise him to practice his math on weekends and memorise his Chinese ciyu a couple of weeks before CCT/exams, and to check occasionally that he finishes his projects/PTs on timr. I would think Sec 1 was a year of adjusting (first term results was terrible!) and this year, he did pretty well (good enough to qualify for one RA subject next yr). I really think that RI is a great school for boys (this is also becos I’m an ex-Rafflesian :lol: ) and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my younger boy will do well enough in this year’s PSLE to qualify.

Thanks lowmama for sharing. Congrats on qualifying for RA! Hope mine can do just as well.

[mathsparks]

Fairy:

Most boys take up merit CCAs. Of course, there will be some who signed up but were not regular in their attendance due to crashes with their core CCAs or lack of discipline. They may be ''expelled'\". According to the head of sports during the year 1 CCA briefing for parents, participation in CCAs in RI is not recreational, got it? :roll:


I strongly feel that taking up a merit CCA should be out of interest/passion, not peer pressure! Otherwise, life at RI will be miserable, what with core CCA commitments, projects, assignments, compulsory match support activities, tests, exams & time spent preparing for competitions.....

I guess the muggers will spend minimum time on what is not compulsory to free up time for their studies so as to continue to achieve sterling results. Those who is more particular about enjoying their journey at the instituion will busy themselves with activities they love, spending just enough time in their studies to get by. I'm not condoning such behavior, but they are usually the happier boys with fond memories of their school life!

Class size is around 30.

Hi Fairy, hope my boy won't be miserable. He loves Maths so would like to sign up for it but at the same time I'm worried it's too much for him to cope. And I do hope that he'll enjoy life in RI rather than dreading the days ahead.

[mathsparks]

vlim:

thanks lowmama...what if the student is no gd in any sport cca and can't manage to get into any cca???

hi vlim, core ccas include uniformed and music groups. so there're alternatives. no worries.

[mathsparks]

CrazyDad:

Some bad thing about RI...Chinese will de-prove...

Hi crazydad,
I'm not unduly worried about that. To enter local U, only need a subpass in A level normal chinese. For overseas U, unless going to chinese Us, I doubt your marks in chinese matters.

[lowmama]

mathsparks:

vlim:

thanks lowmama...what if the student is no gd in any sport cca and can't manage to get into any cca???

hi vlim, core ccas include uniformed and music groups. so there're alternatives. no worries.

that's right. my son managed to get into a uniformed grp altho he was never in one during pri sch.

[vlim]

mathsparks:

vlim:

thanks lowmama...what if the student is no gd in any sport cca and can't manage to get into any cca???

hi vlim, core ccas include uniformed and music groups. so there're alternatives. no worries.

but i wouldn't want him to join uniformed nor music groups as they take up a lot of time..

[mjl]

Just to check, how does RI calculate the overall GPA? Is it based on the average GPA of all subjects or only selected x number of subjects?


RGS used to calculate the GPA based on average GPA of all subjects, but from this year onwards, it is based on the best of the two - Average GPA of all 9 subjects, Average GPA of 7 selected subjects. Due to this change, the mean & median overall GPA of the girls is now much higher, as compared to previous years. For this year’s Sec 3, the mean GPA is about 3.6x which means more than 50% has GPA of above 3.6, as compared to previous years when only 10-20% having GPA of above 3.6.

[Dharma]

mjl:

Just to check, how does RI calculate the overall GPA? Is it based on the average GPA of all subjects or only selected x number of subjects?


RGS used to calculate the GPA based on average GPA of all subjects, but from this year onwards, it is based on the best of the two - Average GPA of all 9 subjects, Average GPA of 7 selected subjects. Due to this change, the mean & median overall GPA of the girls is now much higher, as compared to previous years. For this year's Sec 3, the mean GPA is about 3.6x which means more than 50% has GPA of above 3.6, as compared to previous years when only 10-20% having GPA of above 3.6.

Hi mjl,

From what I understand, both RI and RGS have agreed to the revised computation of GPA (i.e. the better of GPA of all subjects or the 5 core + 2 best subjects) from this year and old computation will be phased out in 1 ~2 years time. Also, I’ve noticed in RI website last month where list of names of boys called for RA interview showed that their GPAs already following the revised computation.

Just curious where you managed to get the info on the mean GPA of abt 3.6 (is it based on MYA or EYA). Median and mean GPA for MYA was flashed during SPM but where can I find the scores for EYA.

TIA.

[sleeping beauty]

mjl:

RGS used to calculate the GPA based on average GPA of all subjects, but from this year onwards, it is based on the best of the two - Average GPA of all 9 subjects, Average GPA of 7 selected subjects.

Hi mjl,

Pardon my ignorance but you mentioned 9 subjects in RGS. How many compulsory subjects do RGS girls have to take in Sec 1? I can think of only 7 - EL/MT/Maths/Science/History/Geography/Literature. 8 if one takes a third language. Can ANY ONE please advise what I am missing ? :?

Thanks!