raffles2001\" post_id=\"2120748\" time=\"1697359971\" user_id=\"203063:

The top maths olympiad training centre is OTE - they claim 80% of the Top 20 of NMOS 2023 are their students. Maths Hub used to dominate, but they stopped performing suddenly in the past few years.

However, if you are not from China, best not to waste your time and money signing up with Chinese-owned maths Olympiad training centres, especially those who claim their students are top performers in NMOS, APMOPS etc.

The award-winning top performing kids you see featured on their website do not pay to train with these centres. Instead, the centres give these selected kids free training (may even pay them to train with the centre) so that they can claim on their websites that these top performers are from their centres. These selected top performing kids get special training / questions in classes separate from paying students. Also the top tier Maths Olympiad training may not be in English, e.g. it is conducted in Mandarin.

With these top performers' names and testimonials on their websites, these centres use them as the hook to get more business from the large population of unsuspecting and hopeful lower/average performing kids and their parents.

Go read the reviews on these centres. The good reviews (if any) are from parents with PRC-sounding names. It is common practice for these centres to offer freebies, access to talks, learning materials etc if the parents leave good online reviews. The bad reviews are from everyone else.

These centres do not provide the same service to parents and kids who are not from China and/or are average performing. You are just wasting your money and setting your kid and yourself up for heartache, believing that -- by paying for the packages that could cost thousands, sending your kid to and fro, and making your kid put in the hours -- you are buying the same quality coaching that those top performers have benefitted from, for your kid to also have a good shot at doing well at the competitions.

After going through all that, your kid will be inevitably gaslighted into thinking that he is not good enough at Maths, when this may not be true.

So, think through properly whether you want to put your kid through this. Do your own research and find out more about the primary level Maths Olympiad scene, who are the winners, who are the losers... It is not as simple as before.

Other more established Maths Olympiad training centres in SG have not been able to produce top performers in these maths olympiad competitions since these Chinese-owned centres came into the picture in the past few years. Why do you think this is happening?

You unerringly described my experiences with Oxx.

lee_yl\" post_id=\"2092032\" time=\"1670914083\" user_id=\"17023:

There was an article sometime back that mentioned about children starting enrichment classes/tuition at an earlier age as compared to a decade ago.
Don’t think rat race will be over.

Not sure about Singaporean kids but I was outside United Sq TLL couple of weeks ago and among the kids who rushed out after lesson, I noticed a good proportion of PRCs and South Asian kids, so scary.
If only Singaporeans chill-lax while PRCs/South Asians are more kiasu than us, then good luck to the next generation.

Another thing is, for experienced parents, we know that only after a P5 major exam then we wake up, it’s gonna be too late and super stressful to try to catch up work. So for newbie 1st time parents, or FTWMs, whose kids will have no major exam till upper Pri, it’s goona be painful lesson.

Point 2 resonate very well with what I experienced. I did not come across any PRC parents that does not send their children for GEP training. Most would have received at least two years of GEP coaching and some 3 years or even more. I do not know how true this is; in the Chinese forums and local school’s WeChat groups (not at class or cohort but entire school), PRC parents shared sizeable portion of GEP are Chinese kids. If Singapore is devoted to groom the geppers to be future leaders or significant members of our future society, then, as what @lee_yl mentioned, it’s really “a good luck” to the next generation.

How’s PSLE result this year? Any updates for other parents here?

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rambutan77\" post_id=\"1404092\" time=\"1414115819\" user_id=\"49813:

Hi,

Just curious, does any primary school offer Spanish language lessons for students?

:scratchhead: Thanks.

most likely irrelevant to TS but for the benefit of other parents, NYPS does offers Spanish, French and Japanese under its Foreign Language Programme for P3 students and onwards.

happydaddy\" post_id=\"2054454\" time=\"1641173579\" user_id=\"5470:

Anyway, for appeal case, I believe the principal did not look at nationality. Purely AL score and merit. It is not transparent and any decision is final.

Good for the PR and foreigner who lose out in the S1 posting.

Its the same for those who weren't eligible and donated into top primary schools after 1-2 years.

This year’s GEP selection only 2 bus-loads?