Raffles Institution (Year 1-4)

[RVTenor]

katherina:

thanks vlim. i know it shdnot matter. but ds very quiet altho usually very noisy. and his friens parents have also said to me they have to spend time encouraging their Ds not to be down. on cca - ds went so many tryouts, 6 already, and hes abv average for some (even play for school but guess not so good) also told cannot get in. some of the tryouts have 60 to 80 boys for 10 places. then for mep/aep/csp/msp also so hard. class com also cannot. subj rep also didn't get. very worreid.

Hi Katherina, for class CEC positions, don't worry too much, they are still new to each other when they elect their chairman, vice-chairs etc. etc. so may not exactly vote those they dont really know. Your son will be in the same class for 2 years (sec 1 and sec 2), so next year still have chance to be part of CEC/subject rep. And about the ccas, I guess it's like that for many schools, they want to win, so they want the best in their first team. If your son doesn't meet their standard, still can apply, but cannot guarantee will play for school, don't quote me on this. But lax, I'm pretty sure that your son will find a cca that he enjoys. Cheers and good luck to your son. Just remember if he needs any help, his PSLs are only a call away

[iFirefly]

RVTenor:

Okay hi, having gone through this whole sec 1 RE shenanigan, I feel that I will be able to answer your question.

Basically the teacher wont care that much about the word limit imo, just that having a shorter and more concise preliminary idea will help your son to communicate his ideas better to the team when they decide on what the whole group is doing for their RE project. A 10000 word essay with so much added information that it becomes cluttered and unreadable is no better than a short and sweet proposal detailing the rationale behind doing the project and how they are going to go about do it. In secondary one, word limits are not going to be king of anything, but as you progress through the years, your son will realise that the limitation will be enforced more severely, e.g. teachers not reading anything past the word limit in essays during examinations, sometimes costing conclusion marks. In a
nutshell, your son should try his best to adhere to the word limit, give a take a few *cough*hundred*cough* words will not matter that much, and really, the pros outweigh the cons.

p.s. this is my first post so yeah, please forgive me if I make any mistakes and can anyone tell me what do \"ds\" and \"dm\" refer to?

Hi RVTenor.. DS=Dear Son, DD=Dear Daughter, DM=Dear Mummies, DH=Dear Husband, DW=Dear Wife.
Maybe next time can have DT=Dear Teacher, DP=Dear Principal, DF=Dear Friend... Haha!

[RVTenor]

Kay thanks!

[Verysuperkiasu]

RVTenor:

Okay hi, having gone through this whole sec 1 RE shenanigan, I feel that I will be able to answer your question.
Basically the teacher wont care that much about the word limit imo, just that having a shorter and more concise preliminary idea will help your son to communicate his ideas better to the team when they decide on what the whole group is doing for their RE project. A 10000 word essay with so much added information that it becomes cluttered and unreadable is no better than a short and sweet proposal detailing the rationale behind doing the project and how they are going to go about do it. In secondary one, word limits are not going to be king of anything, but as you progress through the years, your son will realise that the limitation will be enforced more severely, e.g. teachers not reading anything past the word limit in essays during examinations, sometimes costing conclusion marks. In a nutshell, your son should try his best to adhere to the word limit, give a take a few *cough*hundred*cough* words will not matter that much, and really, the pros outweigh the cons.

p.s. this is my first post so yeah, please forgive me if I make any mistakes and can anyone tell me what do \"ds\" and \"dm\" refer to?

Thank you. Noted and much appreciated.

[kittycat01]

I have visited the RI website. For the additional subjects like Philosophy and Research, are they examinable subjects?


How is the test/exam like in RI? Is it mid year and final year? Do they hv to pass all the subjects to be promoted to year 2?

[kittycat01]

How about third language? Does third language help in total GPA?

[limpeh]

Subjects like PE, Philosophy and Research are graded (i.e. given a grade like A, B, C), but do not count towards GPA. For these subjects there are no exams but are graded according to tests, projects, etc.


For normal subjects there is a Mid Year Exam and End Of Year exam.

I’m not quite sure about promotion criteria but it is not difficult to pass everything so long as you work hard and don’t overstretch (in terms of other commitments like CCAs).

Third language may or may not help in GPA. The old formula takes the average of all subjects and the new formula takes the main few subjects (for upper sec I think it was 5) plus the next (3 for upper sec) best performing subjects. The higher one of the old and new formula is taken. For third language students take the O level in sec 4 unless they quit earlier.

[kittycat01]

limpeh:

Subjects like PE, Philosophy and Research are graded (i.e. given a grade like A, B, C), but do not count towards GPA. For these subjects there are no exams but are graded according to tests, projects, etc.


For normal subjects there is a Mid Year Exam and End Of Year exam.

I'm not quite sure about promotion criteria but it is not difficult to pass everything so long as you work hard and don't overstretch (in terms of other commitments like CCAs).

Third language may or may not help in GPA. The old formula takes the average of all subjects and the new formula takes the main few subjects (for upper sec I think it was 5) plus the next (3 for upper sec) best performing subjects. The higher one of the old and new formula is taken. For third language students take the O level in sec 4 unless they quit earlier.

Thank you.... So, is the child at a disadvantage if he doesn't take a third lang then?

[limpeh]

Whether there is a disadvantage depends. If the child wants a scholarship in future then taking Malay might help; if the child intends to go overseas to study or just wants to have something extra on his CV then a third lang would help; if the child is good with languages (even new languages) and bad at science/math then a third language may pull up the GPA.


On the other hand if the child cannot handle all the commitments then a third language would probably add too much pressure to him. Still, one can quit the third language at any time.

[kittycat01]

limpeh:

Still, one can quit the third language at any time.

But can one take it up later like in 2nd year? I doubt so. He would have missed one year and might not be able to catch up. Anyway, thank you very much for clarifying my doubts.