This is a reply to ruyu. You can see that Nanyang Girls' High School at COP 264 and Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) at COP 260 are surpassing both RI and RGS in COP for various reasons. Collectively they are still the Top 4 schools in Singapore as we could see on http://www.edugo.com and http://www.edupoll.org.


Since the birth of Singapore, we have only 2 full female Cabinet ministers - Lim Hwee Hua ( former Cresent Girls' School ) and Grace Fu ( former Nanyang Girls' High School )

Singapore's top-ranking female CEO is Mdm Ho Ching of Temasek Holdings is also from Cresent Girls' School.

No Cabinet ministers from RGS and HCI yet. Just FYI.

Despite its low-profile, Victoria School has been a quiet achiever over the years.

Its most high profile alumni are President S R Nathan and Senior Parliamentary Secretary Teo Ser Luck.
The current Chief of Army Major-General Neo Kian Hong ( a SAF scholar ) is also a VS alumnus. He is also seen as a potential Chief of Defence Forces.
I would put VS in the same league as ACS and SJI.
All their old boys are serving Singapore well in various positions in government, business, community service and the professions.

Yes, Hwa Chong has a strong culture like other schools with a long history and their values-based education is a good model.

The students are smart and are high achievers.
I admire their Track and Field Team.

BTW, ASEAN scholars come in at Secondary Three to HCI and other secondary schools.

Every elite school in Singapore has some form of orientation events for their new students. This follows the tradition of famous boarding schools and top universities in USA and UK. Being elite schools with very bright students, these orientation events are run by the student leaders who have been through similar orientation processes when they joined the schools as new students several years ago.


In Raffles Institution, the Sec One Orientation Camp is part of the tradition of the school. The probable purpose is to induct the students into the Rafflesian lifestyle through a series of experiential activities which stretch them intellectually and physically. Only after the orientation camp, will the Sec Ones earn their RI badge.

As new Sec Ones in a premier school, your boys have to adopt a new mindset - a big shift from a young primary school kid to a confident secondary school boy. For some boys from neighbourhood primary schools, the transition is even more challenging as they need to cope with a new environment where the boys are generally well-behaved. It is like when you are upgraded from Economy Class to Business Class during your flight, you have to upgrade your behaviour as well because you will be seated with a different class of passengers.

As you probably know, RI aims to nurture the Thinker, Leader and Pioneer in your son over the next 6 years.

As part of the Sec One orientation camp, a horror movie is shown every year ( just for fun ) and ghost stories told. The Thinker in most RI boys know how to separate facts from fiction and they know that these movies and stories are not real.

Just like in Harvard University or MIT, there are expectations that the students in RI are a better crop. And RI does things differently from other schools. So you cannot compare what RI does to what a neighbourhood school does.

Being amongst the best of the best in Singapore plus the bright ASEAN scholars who will be joining in Sec 3, your son really have to be " imba " - a commonly-used RI term for " top-notch, excellent, awesome, etc "

It is a BIG change for the new Sec Ones. Few months ago, they were in a primary school and now they are in a top secondary school, with all the pressure and expectations !!

The reality is this: if your son cannot cope with a horror movie, he cannot cope with school life in Raffles Institution. The horror movie is just a smallish atom in a series of interesting challenges that your son will experience in the next 6 years.

The bottomline is this - your son has earned his place in RI. Trust the system which has worked for the last 186 years. Help him to adjust to his new world and he will become a worthy Rafflesian that you will be proud of.

ks2me:

For those parents with PSLE children, here's the much needed indicative guide only for top 10 sec schools (by prestige):



- Raffles Institution ( PSLE cut-off : 263 )

- Raffles Girls Secondary School ( PSLE cut-off : 265 )

- Hwa Chong Institution ( PSLE cut-off : 259 ; SAP School)

- Nanyang Girls High School ( PSLE cut-off : 262 ; SAP School)

- Dunman High School ( PSLE cut-off : 259 ;SAP School)

- Singapore Chinese Girls School ( PSLE cut-off : 254 )

- Methodist Girls School ( PSLE cut-off : 253 )

- Anglo-Chinese School Independent ( PSLE cut-off : 253 )

- NUS High School of Mathematics and Science ( via DSA )

- CHI St Nicholas Girls School ( PSLE cut-off : 250 ;SAP School)

Thanks to user ks2me for copying this interesting information from http://www.edupoll.org and posting them here where the audience is broader for this subject matter.