@EHT

I empathized with your concern as a parent of a GEPer. Now, my kid has long graduated from GEP and is a young adult awaiting uni. But your kid’s experience somewhat mirrored his. He was also not top 3 in his pri sch prior to GEP but did well enough to get invited on stage for some prize presentations. HCL was his only Achilles’ heel; he was comfortably proficient with the other 3 subjects.

So imagine my shock when he came back with his first term GEP Eng test paper and got 23 marks. Now that I looked back, it was quite funny coz upon seeing that figure, I did a quick mental calculation and my initial impression was that it was 70+% and consoled myself that although that reflected a drop, it wasn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things. Later my kid corrected me that it was upon 40, not 30. That represented a drop of more than 30% from P3 to P4! His Eng basically fell off the cliff. My jaw dropped (but I was careful not show it in front of him).

I don’t have all the inputs to your qns but will share some observations that I think are relevant. I feel that the GE selection is by and large accurate as I’ve the benefit of witnessing the progression of some of my kid’s frens, from P4 all the way to A Level. Vast majority (easily > 90%) of them aced PSLE and latter on, A Level. That trend of being academically excellent was unerringly consistent.

With regards to the issue of others prepping themselves for GE selection, I feel that you don’t need to bother yourself with it. Why concern yourself with what others do? With the removal of GEP DSA, it sharpened the focus back to true learning and reduced the pressure to be competitive with other batch mates.

Last of all, you do have the prerogative to remove your kid from the program. However, if I were you, that’s the last thing I’ll do. The reason is this - I don’t want my actions in any way to condition my kid to think that whenever he hits a roadblock, he seeks avoidance and simply capitulates. I think that’s extremely damaging to a kid’s psyche in the long run. I can lower my expectation but he should go thru challenges, as long as his mental health is not affected.

It is early days yet and rereading your post, I perceived that you’re more stressed than your kid while he seems to be enjoying the journey so far. One suggestion you could try is to discuss this issue with him (on the possible reasons for his GEP Sci tr’s comments) and find ways mutually agreeable on the best approach forward to improve the situation. Your kid sounds like a bright child and I suspect that you don’t even need to provide any solutions for him. Just ask the right qns and he’ll be able to come up with the ans himself.

One thing I aware is that it is not easy to give constructive feedback and very often, the provider does it with good intentions. So give the tr the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

Good luck.

@ceeelle

Thanks for confirming that MGS IP intake size is about 1/3 of RGS. Wouldn’t this make MGS IP more competitive to get in?

@blackyv

I’m afraid I wasn’t very clear in my last post. I’m not saying that affiliated MGS students are eligible for IP. What I meant to highlight was that MGS IP intake should be much lesser than RGS since it offers affiliation to students and that is only applicable to the O level track.

Since we’re getting our hands dirty with guesstimates and numbers, here’s my take. Now we know that RGS Y1 intake is roughly 400 and 100% IP. Assuming MGS intake is of similar size and we also know that it offers affiliated students bonus of up to AL 17 (2024 intake), one would assume that the IP intake of the latter to be much smaller.

Having a smaller intake would make it more susceptible to fluctuations in COP. Perhaps we may see the first balloting for AL 5 kids to MGS in future, if there’s an uptake in its popularity.

@templeton

It would be truly seismic if the day comes that students (citizens or not) need to ballot at AL5! That would mean students needing AL4 to be 100% assured of placements in the most popular sch. How many students can do that? I suspect even the avg geppers will have challenges hitting that height.

No one can give you a definitive answer, well, except mabbe certain statistical dept within MOE if there is one.

Still, I would say that the odds are pretty much stacked in your favour. After all, a PR with AL5 is still ranked higher than a citizen with AL6 regardless of their order of sch.

@orangepops

The delta between the 2 sch, perceived or otherwise, is definitely not worth the extra 1+ hr travelling time daily. Free time is premium at sec sch level.

I feel that the complication is deciding which system (A level or IB) is more suitable for your child.

You made some curious pt there; first time hear pple describe MGS gals as conservative and narrow-minded. I think these are just generalizations and a lot of sch are labelled unfairly in that sense.

@bbbay

The cher is right that H3 is only applicable for overseas uni apln, and mostly likely only for the elite UK uni I may add (too many local straight A students applying). I don’t think it matters at all for US ones. Still, there’re other ways to show proof of subject interest besides taking H3 so it’s definitely just an optional item on the bucket list.

The stats from your kid’s class are markedly diff from my kid’s class though. I was told that the vast majority, if not all of them took H3 with some sitting for double H3 upon MOE’s approval. The cher’s advice then was that to take H3 as a personal challenge, nothing more than that. I suppose the class subscribed to his ideals. Having said that, we know that there are lots of academically strong students who declined taking H3 to focus on other interests and priorities in life, and that’s perfectly fine.

I’m aware that I’m gg off tangent from the main topic and will close here.

@jkids

First of all, congrats on your kid’s stellar performance. At AL 6, he can enter almost any IP sch.

My priorities if he were my kid will be as follows:

a) His happiness which will be non-negotiable. Therefore, he’ll be the one who makes the final decision while I only play the guiding role (and I’ll be totally fair and won’t emotionally blackmail him into choosing what I want for him).

b) My assessment of his mental strength - whether he’s confident and self-assured enough to believe in his own abilities even in the company of an academically strong crowd. If not ready yet, then better to be a big fish in a smaller pond.

c) The superior resources that top sch typically provide. Why would I not want my kid access to better resources and support? I recall many eons ago, I attended an open house and the presenter shared on stage that the GCE A level exam was just one of the focus pts of the sch. There are also other priorities and they will groom the student holistically (he painstakingly highlighted that he doesn’t use that word lightly).

My kid is out of the Singapore educational system and I’m unsure if things have changed. But in the past, only the top sch have resources to set up a further education office that will guide graduating students on applying for choice local degree programmes or renowned overseas uni (you’ve to pay for this yourself if you get commercial help and it’s not cheap).

Also in top sch, a larger proportion of students go beyond the A level syllabus to take H3 papers. These 2 examples showed that top sch focus goes beyond A level.

Anyway, good ‘problem’ to have. Good luck in your search!

I understand that the local uni scholars get first bite of the cherry - they've priority applying for internships. How does that work?


Since uni scholarships are largely based on A level results, does that mean competition for uni internships starts at JC level? Due to the integrated program where one's JC can be more or less settled by the time one completes primary sch education, does that imply that the internship rat race starts at PSLE?

OMG! What am I saying! :nailbite:

Jokes aside, as a parent, all I want is for my kid to be happy. He can choose to be an engineer, teacher, lawyer, entrepreneur, whatever. He's not a trophy who needs to be earning big bucks so that I can show off to relatives during CNY gatherings. That's just shallow. I believe most of us here feel the same way.

Nothing personal here but I feel that it’s not nice to share a school’s email reply verbatim in a public forum.


Nothing wrong if we paraphrase the reply and share though. No offence to anyone please.