Can anyone give info on the RI Humanities Program in Y5/6? When does selection for this happen, and does Raffles determine this and seperately MOE?

Not sure about a maths test. There was a free response test, which covered general current affairs/common sense topics. e.g. environment etc.

Last year they asked the general questions about why HC, what subjects you want to specialise in, etc. It was in English. It may vary among interviewers and cohort.

marvic:

Hi, can anyone please enlighten me about DSA? What is the actual purpose of having this DSA while children still have to go through the PSLE? What are the pros and cons? And should it be a good thing to go ahead and apply for DSA? Is this only for P6 pupils?


Thanks in advance.

I think it depends which school your kid plans on applying to. For boys, places like RI, HCI, ACS, NUSH you will generally find the DSA is for the atheletes or the GEP boys, and for the GEP applicants, even then, it depends what their grades are, whether the primary school has been preparing them for DSA - i.e whether they have been attending competitions, taking on leadership roles, accumulating all the other things that will make their application look good. Blur me, when my DS applied last year, we realised so many things we hadn't done, and not sure why DS didn't know or we were not informed by pschool. So like taking part in competitions, getting at least 80% for p6 half year, having show piece project work , etc DS didn't have. We then found that his cohort of pschool, only a handful in GEP made it through DSA to some of the choice schools, compared with other schools where almost the whole GEP class got through. So its all about preparation for DSA. The whole expereince was nerve wrecking, and worse than applying for uni. Looking back, we wish we had known that we needed to prepare from as early as p4 (which is what other parents seemed to know). Then there is the disapointment of not getting into the school of choice during DSA, and accepting what is not your first choice, because you have a CO from that school. After PSLE they are cases of boys who regret having accepted the CO they are given even if its not their ideal choice, since they could have made it to their school of choice with their PSLE results. But by then, cannot change.

that’s hard to answer, because the results are relative to what everyone does. In the 2011 exams, the national standard for pupils scoring A in the four subjects below is as follows - how you score within these bands, or outside these bands, relative to everyone else, has the ability to take your score up or down.

EL - 44.3% A and A*
CL - 80.6% A and A*
Maths - 43.5% A and A*
Science - 43.5% A and A*

The PSLE results are based on the T-score and not the Raw Score. So weightage of subject is a consideration, but the relativity of how a child performs compared to others is probably more important. The child’s final PSLE score is calculated by reference to how he or she performs relative to his/her peers, and the standard deviation or spread of marks around the average mark of the cohort. So the final psle score aims to show how the pupil stands relative to his or her peers. So where you are in the curve for a subject and how easy it is to be ahead or at the top of the curve becomes important, imho. A number of schools post the method for calculation on their website with good explanations.

Based on personal experience. I think it probably makes sense to be ahead of the curve on all subjects including languages if you’re looking at a very high psle score. Its probably easier to be ahead of the curve on maths and science if the kid is already doing very well in those subjects and its probably more challenging to be ahead of the curve on languages since that is more subjective (so hence more effort). Just my personal view from personal experience; may not necessarily apply to everyone. Think also you need to see the emphasis of different schools and then judge how the curve will turn out. If I could do it all over again, I would have asked kiddy to swot the languages more and also to take HCL!

My own experience - spend time on the languages. That pays off.

katherine you should not worry so much. its 6 years - this is only sec 1. the boys will grow up, and figure out what they are good at. it may seem unfair on the face of it that the psle and what you the boys did in primary school should be the determinant of what they get to do in sec one (and maybe there could be a better selection method e.g. after CA/SA sec 1 tests or making merit cca spots more available). However, if you think about it, there’s still time for the boys to do well in school over a wide variety of subjects. if they do well in the secondary school tests and exams, or in the merit cca - there’s no reason why the boy shouldn’t be able to put his hand up and ask RI to reconsider him for the core cca or special programs, competitions etc. Quite sure they should be fair about it. Also, i think if you think hard - you probably won’t remember much about your primary school or lower sec days… and imho it does not have as significant a consequence on adult life, as say, A levels, university or when you first started working. So let DS know - its okay.

vk2010 - you are a wealth of info! Thank you very much. One more question - other than for form filing, buying books, and uniform, and maybe a speech by P, nothing else? Just two three hours at most?