The school recommends buying certain guidebooks, but I never bought any, and neither did my friends, and we managed to score just fine. Some people do borrow textbooks or guidebooks from the school library nearing exam periods, either to read the content or do some additional practice questions.
As for past year papers, the school makes us buy them.
Latest posts made by twilight
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RE: All About International Baccalaureate (IB)
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RE: Cedar Girls Secondary School
I have no idea how they calculate CCA points with the new guidelines.
Anyway CCS participates in SYF, and some other competitions like Chinese debate, or Chinese speech or Chinese calligraphy competitions. I’m not sure if the school still have Arts Festival (I forgot what they call it already) but if they still have it, that will be another opportunity for performance. -
RE: All About International Baccalaureate (IB)
Which subjects’ syllabus do you want? I have some. I think you should be able to find them online. I got some from the internet, the rest from my teachers.
In ACSI, we don’t normally use textbooks. Students use textbooks as reference most of the time, not used in class. The school gives notes. I think certain content heavy subjects do use textbooks though, like biology. I bought physics and chemistry textbooks, both of which I never touched in my entire 2 years of IB. -
RE: Networking Group - JCs General
Thank you everyone for the well wishes.
Lynn2010:
There are options to do the courses in English, but I feel it's ridiculous to go to Japan only to be taught in English.Congratulations on the fantastic full pts score!!
Your parents must be very proud of you
So you'll have to live in japan for a while :)... Will the undergraduate course be conducted in Engliah or Japanese? Eg. Physics in Japanese?
All the best and take care -
RE: Networking Group - JCs General
I got 45 points.
The MEXT scholarship is a scholarship provided by the Ministry of Education of Japan to students of many different nationalities (Asia, North America, Europe, Australia, Africa, most countries basically). They have the undergraduate scholarship and postgraduate scholarship. The undergraduate scholarship will pay for the tuition at any national university in Japan and provides a monthly stipend (about 120000yen per month. Accommodation is not provided though so it has to paid out of the monthly stipend). One has to do a year of Japanese language and then according to the results the government will allocate the university to the student. There is no restriction in major at all, just that some courses like medicine will undoubtedly be more competitive. Best part is there is no bond. So there are more options to university besides those in the usual UK, US and Singapore.
I intend to major in materials engineering. -
RE: Networking Group - JCs General
Lynn2010:
I did very well, thank you.
Hi twilight, hope you've done well. What's your plan? Can share? What will you be applying for?
I'll be going to Japan in April under the Japanese Government (MEXT) scholarship. -
RE: Networking Group - JCs General
Lynn2010:
Yup, I just graduated last year.
DD went to ACSI too. Like what twilight said, no issue.
Boys make friends in a different way from girls generally. Girls tend to be more cliquey (in my opinion), so the \"new girls\" who joined ACSI do not have problems mixing around
Twilight... i remember you giving me some advise some time ago. Have you completed your IB? Just completed last year?slmkhoo:
Does school start on reporting day? Or do students just register then go home and start the next day?[/quote]Yeah wear secondary school uniform. It's not only for the first day though. Some schools wear up till about a week, especially for people who are in the midst of appealing.
Should be secondary school uniform I expect. Which JC has your dc decided on?jtoh:
[quote=\"zeemimi\"]When jae students report to school on 6 Feb, so they wear their Secondary school uniform or we have to make a mad rush to buy the new uniform on 5 feb?
School will start on reporting day. The orientation program will start immediately. -
RE: Cedar Girls Secondary School
TLC2013:
Plse advise for AV & Photograph CCA, what is the extra fee to pay? Need to buy camera? Thank u
I was from AV&Photography. During my time, there was no fee to pay, and no need to own a DSLR. They lend out cameras. I think they should still be doing that. -
RE: All About International Baccalaureate (IB)
guaigirl24:
ACSI does not hold open house during the week or the 2 or 3 days after release of O level results (I forgot when is the normal open house period for JC). Their open house is usually some time in May.you can go for the open houses too to find out more about the IB from the schools.
not sure when ACSI's one is , but SJI Senior School (IBDP launched last year) open house is 15 January, 10am-3pm at their Bishan holding site
For ACSI, I am a bit skeptical about the idea that doing the IB curriculum fosters critical thinking in students more strongly than doing the A level curriculum. This is largely due to the teachers we have in the school. There are some very good teachers that try to instil in us the ability to think and reason. The degree of success is of course up to the student's ability/willingness to engage in such guidance.
I think many teachers in ACSI graduated from NIE. They received the same training as teachers who teach in JC, so I don't think there is any difference between their style of teaching and thinking and those of JC teachers. And most of them did the A level as students, as such I think it is difficult for them to deviate from the rigidity of thinking that they have been taught, and hence in turn are unable to teach students to think critically. Subjects like TOK are supposed to foster critical thinking but many TOK teachers are unable to encourage higher order thinking in students. This is actually true for many subjects but its implications are of course felt the worst for TOK, as reflected in the average TOK grade for ACSI. Perhaps C is a good grade already considering TOK is not an easy subject, but relative to the >6.5 MSG for other subjects, C is quite poor.
This is not to say that I do not like the IB curriculum, it's just that the teaching in ACSI is actually no different than in JCs despite doing the IB curriculum, which sort of diminishes the benefits one could receive from doing IB.
Personally, I think an incredibly science inclined student (one who has no interest or aptitude in humanities and would choose ESS as a group 3 subject to avoid doing a real humanities) is better off doing the A levels. IB math and science are really easy compared to A level, and I feel a loss of opportunity in not being able to learn H3 stuff that is only available to A level students.
In addition to the group 3 subject, there is also English Language and Literature or English Literature to contend with. I also think that it's more worth learning a science SL than humanities SL. A science or math SL is really way easier than their HL counterparts, but there is not too much difference between humanities SL and HL. As such, if one only desires a holistic education for the sake of a holistic education but without much interest in humanities, I do not recommend doing IB. If one thinks one can start to think more critically upon doing IB, think carefully before really enrolling in IB. Do take into account the context of a Singapore education system.
For me, I think my greatest gain from doing IB is learning to write lab reports and a science research paper. My teachers didn't really guide me in doing these, so my takeaway is really the result of the IB system itself. My next greatest gain would be improving my communication skills. This I have to attribute to my amazing literature teachers and TOK teacher. If one gets a good teacher, one can really reap much benefits, whether doing A levels or IB. -
RE: Networking Group - JCs General
zeemimi:
I went to ACSI in year 5 and being from O levels wasn't a problem at all. Social wise, in the early OG days, I asked the IP boys a lot about the school (culture, where is this place and that place, how's the teachers, cca etc), so that was mostly the conversation starter, and they were very willing to share. Furthermore, they may not be in the same OG as their year 1-4 clique, so they are also sort of mixed with strangers in the beginning. After the O levels people got the uniforms, I don't think there was any segregation in terms of IP vs non-IP. Mainly we just thought of ourselves as one OG and all our goal was to bond as an OG, make friends and have fun. It's the same after being allocated to our classes. The IP boys will not necessarily be with their clique, so it's not very difficult to befriend them.
Tks jtoh.
Another thing I'm concerned about is whether the jae students generally fit well into ip schools since they are the minority. Wonder if any parents can share about this.
Academic wise, the IP boys had the advantage initially, as for ACSI's case, IB and O level are totally different in terms of coursework and expectations. But again, they were willing to share what knowledge they have of the system and content, some of which they have already learned.
I think as long as one is willing to take the initiative, it is not difficult to befriend the IP people. Of course, there can be some cliques that are very difficult to break into. Well then, there are hundreds of other students around to befriend.