Subject Combination in JC

[CCCHEEZY]

Hi,


Thanks everyone for your feedbacks. As I have lost touch with JC syllabus, may I know what is the minimum units to take up for JC in order to meet the required entry for Local U. At this point, my son has not decided on his career path but of course is aiming for local U after JC. My son has not opted for Eng Lit as his score for Eng in School is rather weak. He has somehow scored much better during the O Level.

From the feedback, am I right to say he just need to take up H2 for Phy, Chem and Maths and H1 for Econs, Eng and PW should be sufficient?

He is considering of taking H1 MT because he has not done well for MT in O level. Just thinking of re-taking to get better grade. Does this help in anyway?

Would also appreciate if someone can enlighten me more on JC and Uni requirements.

[Quill]

I'm thinking of taking:


H2 Lit, Econs, Math
H1 Bio/Art

I'm not sure if I should put H1 Bio or H1 Art in my first choice. I am interested in the visual arts, but I have not had any formal visual arts education other than art lessons in school and art classes when I was young. I've taken a look at the H1 Art syllabus (http://www.seab.gov.sg/aLevel/2013Syllabus/8879_2013.pdf) and I think I could handle it. On the other hand, because it's a new subject to me, I don't think it's very wise to take 2 completely new subjects at A levels (the other being Econs).

On the other hand, I have taken and enjoyed Biology (pure) in Secondary school, but I am not really keen to relive the whole memorising + graphs shebang. I'm not very good at my sciences.

So, in a nutshell, I'd like someone to advise me on whether I should take H1 Bio or Art.

If it helps, here are my results:

English\tA1
Chinese\tB3
E. Maths\tA2
A. Maths\tB3
Chemistry\tC6
Biology\tB3
Combined Humanities\tB4
Literature (English)\tA1
L1R5\t13

Thank you to everyone in advance.

[365psych]

Take a subject if you will enjoy it, but it is also important to place it in context of what you hope to do in Uni.

[Quill]

365psych:

Take a subject if you will enjoy it, but it is also important to place it in context of what you hope to do in Uni.

I'm interested in courses like Mass Comm, Journalism, Creative Writing, Literature and Anthropology.

Is it risky, though, to take H1 art especially if I don't have an 'O' level Art background?

I think I'll enjoy it, but I'm really not sure >< Bio is the logical choice, but still...

thank you

[tkbd]

CCCHEEZY:

Hi,


Thanks everyone for your feedbacks. As I have lost touch with JC syllabus, may I know what is the minimum units to take up for JC in order to meet the required entry for Local U. At this point, my son has not decided on his career path but of course is aiming for local U after JC. My son has not opted for Eng Lit as his score for Eng in School is rather weak. He has somehow scored much better during the O Level.

From the feedback, am I right to say he just need to take up H2 for Phy, Chem and Maths and H1 for Econs, Eng and PW should be sufficient?

He is considering of taking H1 MT because he has not done well for MT in O level. Just thinking of re-taking to get better grade. Does this help in anyway?

Would also appreciate if someone can enlighten me more on JC and Uni requirements.

The minimum number of units would be 10. That would be: 3 H2 subjects (6 units), one H1 subject (1 unit) H1 GP (1 unit), H1 Chinese (1 unit), H1 Project Work (1 unit).

Your child can choose to replace the H1 Chinese with O Level Higher Chinese which you mentioned he got C5 for. If he's really determined to get a better grade for his Chinese, then by all means go ahead and re-take H1 Chinese at A Level. However, at this stage, I would say it's not necessary because H1 Chinese is not computed in the Rank Points which is used for University Admission. As long as you PASS H1 Chinese / O level Higher Chinese, you're able to go into a local Uni.

On minimum he only needs to take 3 H2 subjects so I would say he should just stick to taking H1 Econs or H1 English Lit. And take H2 Phy, Math, Chem. Depends on whether he's more interested in Econs or English Lit.

For University admission, it is computed on rank points system. Each H2 subject is worth 20 points, each H1 subject is worth 10 points. Hence the 3 H2 subjects, H1 subject, H1 PW and H1 GP would be taken into account. Max rank points is 90. H1 Chinese is not counted in rank points (as mentioned earlier). A pass would do.

How the rank points system work: For a H2 subject, A grade would be 20 points, B grade 17.5 points. With each decreasing grade, it's a decrease of 2.5 points. For a H1 subject, A grade would be 10 points. With each decreasing grade, rank point will reduce by 1.25. i.e. B grade for H1 subject = 8.75 points.

[tkbd]

Your combination for H2 subjects seem perfectly fine and logical. However word of advise: You have to work doubly hard for H2 Maths because you didn’t do exceptionally well for your double Maths in O Level. You need to train up your A Math foundation so start early.


As for your H1 subject, choose a subject which you’re interested in. Because studying for something which you don’t like would really be a torture in the JC system. Since you’re in doubt, talk to one of the Visual Arts teacher in your JC and seek their advice.

[tkbd]

Try to take H1 Math when possible.

Not sure if TS took A Math for O levels? If you did (and did reasonably ok), H1 Math would actually be quite a breeze. In fact the Pure Math syllabus of H1 Math is even simpler than O level A Math.

[Quill]

tkbd:

Your combination for H2 subjects seem perfectly fine and logical. However word of advise: You have to work doubly hard for H2 Maths because you didn't do exceptionally well for your double Maths in O Level. You need to train up your A Math foundation so start early.


As for your H1 subject, choose a subject which you're interested in. Because studying for something which you don't like would really be a torture in the JC system. Since you're in doubt, talk to one of the Visual Arts teacher in your JC and seek their advice.

tkbd, thank you for your response
I will, because I know Math was never (and will probably never be) my strong point. (In fact, I got F9 in my Prelim 2 for Amath...)

Okay, I think I'll speak to a teacher tomorrow.
thank you!!

[tkbd]

Quill:

tkbd:

Your combination for H2 subjects seem perfectly fine and logical. However word of advise: You have to work doubly hard for H2 Maths because you didn't do exceptionally well for your double Maths in O Level. You need to train up your A Math foundation so start early.


As for your H1 subject, choose a subject which you're interested in. Because studying for something which you don't like would really be a torture in the JC system. Since you're in doubt, talk to one of the Visual Arts teacher in your JC and seek their advice.

tkbd, thank you for your response
I will, because I know Math was never (and will probably never be) my strong point. (In fact, I got F9 in my Prelim 2 for Amath...)

Okay, I think I'll speak to a teacher tomorrow.
thank you!!

Oh, haha. Then why don't you take H2 Biology since you said you're interested in Bio (afterall you got the same grade for Bio and A Math)? And then take H1 Art?

Is it because the course you're interested in requires H2 Math as a pre-requisite? Or the subject combinations are fixed in your JC?

[Quill]

^ Unfortunately, it's fixed.

And I do like Bio, but not enough to take H2 Bio ^^

Plus, I just checked the requirements for the university courses that I'm interested in and the courses that actually do make use of H2 Bio don't interest me at all, and practically no courses make use of H1 Bio at all. So, according to your advice earlier, this has really tipped the scale in favour of H1 Arts.

I don't like Math, but the thing about Math is that it's possible to excel in Math through sheer hard work. I may have screwed up in O levels but I'll definitely work harder this time.

Sorry...looks like I went off on a tangent lol.