edupod:aren't there sec 1 scholars anymore? During my time there were 2 intakes in sec sch- sec 1 n sec 3.
BTW, ASEAN scholars come in at Secondary Three to HCI and other secondary schools.
I used to take my bike over by ferry from Changi and bike to PEngerrang for seafood and bike back to the jetty to take the bumboat/ferry back. Great fun. TOo bad my bike’s up in Penang with my friend:-(
verykiasu2010:It is a nightmare, and many parents are parked along Coronation Road by 12.30!! We've decided to walk to school in the mornings, and I pick him up at 2 to avoid the jam. If the weather were more pleasant I'd walk to school too to pick him up but it's just way too scorching.U are really very considerate. Not many parents are like u.
But anyway, I have communicated many times with the school management with photo evidence. They are actually having regular feedback with TP and so the current traffic looping and drop off in school is a result of many discussions. Certain roads were changed to one-way traffic permanently or for certain hours. Worse conditions were during dismissal time and worst was when the kindergarten was using the NYPS premises (now they have moved back to their own newly rebuilt premises, phew !). There are also parents who park outside the residents and clean their car there, leaving their rubbish behind, there are also parents who damage the residents' property and just drive away (hit and run)
VitoRelax:Farrer Road? There are some flats at Queen's Road/Empress Road.Jennifer:Or Jalan Jurong Kechil? Bt Panjang? Commonwealth? Queenstown? Still got plenty of HDB flats around
But which HDB estates is the fastest & most convenient to goto NJC ?
Thanks
micko07:Very helpful, thanks:-)Some of my Lit books over the years:
Sec 1 - Animal Farm
Sec 2 - Romeo and Juliet, To Kill A Mockingbird
Sec 3 - Emma
Sec 4 - Pride and Prejudice, Julius Caesar
J1/ J2 - Wuthering Heights, Hamlet, Selected Poetry by John Donne, Songs and Sonnets by Shakespeare, Proof
I'm sure I missed out on some though ...
My impression is appreciating Literature cannot be \"taught\". It's a skill you acquire through practice over time. I'm actually quite bad at it (my poetry analysis is dreadful!) but my tutors have instilled a great respect in me for the subject. I never appreciated Literature until I studied it this year (NYGH offers Language Arts from Sec 1 -4, which is a combination of both Lit and EL, but I didn't take Pure Lit in Sec 3/4).
Some of my personal tips:
1) Google/ Sparknote/ Popular, whatever. Go and read as much as you can on the books. Essays, background of the authors, the era of literature etc will help you in your overall understanding of the text. Don't be lazy; do notes!
2) READ YOUR TEXTS. Yes, it's annoying to read the authentic, unabridged copy of Shakespeare because you need to keep referring to the annotations. READ IT. Even in open book exams, knowing your text well helps you to select the relevant extracts quickly. If it's closed book, better memorize quotes.
3) Pace yourself. Make sure you have sufficient time for all the questions.
4) In exams, read the question, underlining key instructions. Then read the extract. Refer to the requirements of the question and annotate accordingly. Make sure you answer the question (this is the most important factor and a huge reason why I didn't do well in Humanities for a long time)
5) If you don't get the poem/ prose the first time round, nevermind. Read again and stay calm. Don't rush into answering the question because woe betide you if you realize that your analysis is wrong only midway through the answer. Teachers KNOW if you made a mistake initially.
6) Be organized. Group your response based on the question. For example, if a question asks you to compare and contrast two poems, decide how you want to do it. By theme? By rhyme scheme? By tone? Literary devices? Choice of words? Persona? Poem Structure? This makes your answer clearer and also makes sure that you don't repeat yourself.
7) Practice, practice, practice. (I find this works well for poems especially). Borrow model answers from your friends. Read literature guides. Speak to your teachers if you need help/ advice.Teachers do not want to see you copy and paste whole chunks of extracts. What they want is insights and analysis. If you want to quote something, make sure you're not quoting for the sake of quoting, which is ultimately a waste of time.
9) Dont impose your views/ opinions/ prejudices on the poem/ prose. Analyze it for what it is, not what you think it is. Never assume. (Said by my tutor)
10) Appreciate Literature for what it is. For all the times I spend fretting about my grades, literature truly imparts critical thinking skills that no other subject can. It teaches you to think and really question, down to the subtleties and little nuances in tone and language.
11) Think positive. If you've already decided you don't like it, chances are you wouldn't like it at all. Give Literature a chance. Even if your grades sux like mine did, there's still something to gain from it all. Might as well milk it for all it's worth and enjoy it as much as you can!
12) A good command of the English language and good vocabulary is helpful in Literature because it helps you to express yourself and your ideas better. At the very least, teachers wouldn't be so annoyed picking out grammatical and spelling mistakes! (I know I drove my HCL teacher mad with all my cuo zi :oops:)
Hehe just my 2cts worth. I'm not good at Lit but I'm trying to enjoy it. My tutors are absolutely awesome though (they can analyze so much from just one page that it puts us all to shame), which helps tremendously.
micko07:Very helpful, thanks:-)Some of my Lit books over the years:
Sec 1 - Animal Farm
Sec 2 - Romeo and Juliet, To Kill A Mockingbird
Sec 3 - Emma
Sec 4 - Pride and Prejudice, Julius Caesar
J1/ J2 - Wuthering Heights, Hamlet, Selected Poetry by John Donne, Songs and Sonnets by Shakespeare, Proof
I'm sure I missed out on some though ...
My impression is appreciating Literature cannot be \"taught\". It's a skill you acquire through practice over time. I'm actually quite bad at it (my poetry analysis is dreadful!) but my tutors have instilled a great respect in me for the subject. I never appreciated Literature until I studied it this year (NYGH offers Language Arts from Sec 1 -4, which is a combination of both Lit and EL, but I didn't take Pure Lit in Sec 3/4).
Some of my personal tips:
1) Google/ Sparknote/ Popular, whatever. Go and read as much as you can on the books. Essays, background of the authors, the era of literature etc will help you in your overall understanding of the text. Don't be lazy; do notes!
2) READ YOUR TEXTS. Yes, it's annoying to read the authentic, unabridged copy of Shakespeare because you need to keep referring to the annotations. READ IT. Even in open book exams, knowing your text well helps you to select the relevant extracts quickly. If it's closed book, better memorize quotes.
3) Pace yourself. Make sure you have sufficient time for all the questions.
4) In exams, read the question, underlining key instructions. Then read the extract. Refer to the requirements of the question and annotate accordingly. Make sure you answer the question (this is the most important factor and a huge reason why I didn't do well in Humanities for a long time)
5) If you don't get the poem/ prose the first time round, nevermind. Read again and stay calm. Don't rush into answering the question because woe betide you if you realize that your analysis is wrong only midway through the answer. Teachers KNOW if you made a mistake initially.
6) Be organized. Group your response based on the question. For example, if a question asks you to compare and contrast two poems, decide how you want to do it. By theme? By rhyme scheme? By tone? Literary devices? Choice of words? Persona? Poem Structure? This makes your answer clearer and also makes sure that you don't repeat yourself.
7) Practice, practice, practice. (I find this works well for poems especially). Borrow model answers from your friends. Read literature guides. Speak to your teachers if you need help/ advice.
9) Dont impose your views/ opinions/ prejudices on the poem/ prose. Analyze it for what it is, not what you think it is. Never assume. (Said by my tutor)
10) Appreciate Literature for what it is. For all the times I spend fretting about my grades, literature truly imparts critical thinking skills that no other subject can. It teaches you to think and really question, down to the subtleties and little nuances in tone and language.
11) Think positive. If you've already decided you don't like it, chances are you wouldn't like it at all. Give Literature a chance. Even if your grades sux like mine did, there's still something to gain from it all. Might as well milk it for all it's worth and enjoy it as much as you can!
12) A good command of the English language and good vocabulary is helpful in Literature because it helps you to express yourself and your ideas better. At the very least, teachers wouldn't be so annoyed picking out grammatical and spelling mistakes! (I know I drove my HCL teacher mad with all my cuo zi :oops:)
Hehe just my 2cts worth. I'm not good at Lit but I'm trying to enjoy it. My tutors are absolutely awesome though (they can analyze so much from just one page that it puts us all to shame), which helps tremendously.
daisyt:Her teacher told them, a good piece of writing is not one that contains all the chim chim words. Its one that is simple but yet strong. Easy to understand, yet transfer the message clear. Sing to the Dawn is such.[/quote]Absolutely! Just take Margery William's nursery classic \"The Velveteen Rabbit\" as an example - so simple but so touching and so deep in meaning...autumnbronze:[quote=\"daisyt\"]My dd told me, Sing to the Dawn context and lanugage use, can be very simple and the book itself is very thin. However, the morale of the story is very strong. I open up my dd's Sing to the Dawn and suprise, so many highlights, notes scribble everywhere. This book alone, they read at least 3 to 4 times, repeat and repeat.
Hi daisyt,
You DD is so SPOT on !!!
Way2GO:Yes, my son was in pri GEP. He said that apart from the pri GEPers, there was one boy he knew from his pri school who had a platinum in Math Olympiad. He said there were quite a few Malaysian scholars too but I don't remember if they were in iSpark too. WHat are these Malaysian scholars? Are they the Asean Scholars?This coming Friday is a break for S1 students. School starts on 11th Jan.
Ah, so your son is in Isparks - this is the consortium for SBGEP in HCI. Your son was from GEP in primary school?
S1 students are grouped in 4 consortiums - Aphelion, Isparks, Ortus ans Pro-Ed.
My DS is in Aphelion.
Except for Isparks which is the consortium for GEP and some other students, I don't know how they are selected for the other 3 consortiums.
Anyone knows the criteria?
Mandarin:Ds1's in canoeing and in year 2 this year as well, in addition to Philharmonic Orchestra and NCC(Sea). He's got CCA every day of the week but he loves them all and won't drop anything. He's back late everyday around 6.30-7 so you need to be very disciplined. He's a lot more buff than last year :-), and is also very motivated to go for canoeing in spite of blisters, aches and scrapes:-) Know that canoeing practice is at MacRitchie Reservoir except for one session in the gym in school per week. It includes dragon boating too with practices at Kallang. He's also been to Bedok reservoir and loves it there. THe school is very strong in canoeing and dragon boating and i believe they made a pretty clean sweep of the medals last year.Hi, my son is in Year 2 this year. He is taking Canoeing as his CCA, perhaps I can shed a little light so that you can make a informed decision.
The CCA started with 3 times a week from 3pm to 6pm. It was extended to Sat morning from 7am to 10am from April/May last year onwards. So, it is a total of 4 sessions per week. with his UYO on every Friday, I am seeing him home early only once a week. Effectively, his hours out in school is as long as any working person. The same commitment of 4 times weekly is expected throughout June and Nov/Dec holiday with 2 weeks break towards the year-end. I understand that some sports are considered core sports (ie school expects medal in inter-school) and these CCAs require greater time commitments. Having said that, my son is very motivated to go for every session, despite the aches and blisters that he gets. I think the coaches/teachers are doing something right. He has also grown to be much more athletic in this last 1 year.
If your son is taking 3rd language, RSP or MEP, i strongly suggest that you consider sports CCA carefully. There may not be enough time for all these activities.
My son’s been posted to 1i4- anyone else with boys in the same class?
Also, does anyone know if Friday’s a school day?
