No. Once quit, cannot go back. Another option is to take private classes which will cost money.

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.

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.

Don't worry. I was from a neighbourhood pri sch and didn't really do any CCAs there. And in the first few months I did feel that the GEP pupils knew a lot more, and of course I ended up in a UG because I had no sports or music background at all. But in the end I got used to it. After some time everyone is on the same footing. Especially at the start, don't think too much about those Euler and Galileo progs (in my time there weren't such things anyway), because time is needed to settle in, and there are still other opportunities (such as RA in Y3). Even so, I did get the feeling that some opportunities especially competitions, are always given only to the same few (i.e. 4 ppl/subj or so) people to do, because the school wants to win so they always send the same people back.


In UG, especially from Y3 onwards, there are a lot of planning and projects to do. NPCC and NCC will get your child fit but from what I know it's quite tough too. In the UG, I learnt a lot about doing things and dealing with people, esp office politics which I suppose will be very useful in life.

firefly38:

Is/are your child/children schooling at RI?

Umm well, I am.

Regarding computer purchase, as a user posted earlier, a good benchmark is the system requirements of Adobe Photoshop (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/tech-specs.html). Adobe Photoshop is quite taxing on the computer (i.e. it will hang easily on slow computers which is very irritating), and Photoshop is often required in Computer Studies lessons, as well as projects (making posters etc). The system requirements for photoshop listed on the website is more or less the minimum but not the optimal.


FYI my computer uses Intel Pentium Dual Core (2GHz) with 2.99 GB of RAM, but generally 1.5 to 2 GB of RAM is sufficient. It runs Photoshop just fine (somtimes a little slow but acceptable enough, though of course I wish it were a little faster). Having a very good graphics card is not important (for schoolwork at least). As for hard disk size, it depends on whether you like to hoard files (I hoard a lot of photoshop files which take up a lot of disk space because I'm kiasu lol). My C Disk (the one where system files and My Documents are stored) is 150GB, and another 1TB internal hard disk for storage of old schoolwork, system backups, etc, of which 400GB is used. For such a purpose an external hard disk could also suffice since I don't touch those files very often.

By the way, a good keyboard is very important for comfort, but no need to get the best one, just don't get the cheapest ones! Around S$30 can get a decent keyboard.

Sorry I don’t know anything about science RAs and English tuition…though from what I’ve heard, a lot of/many people in year 5 & 6 get GP tuition.


Reply to previous questions from other people:
- Getting into Uniform Group for sec 1s isn’t too difficult; if you really want to be sure of getting into a UG, other than listing it as a first choice you could deliberately perform poorly during the CCA tryouts to be safe (so you won’t get poached by sports CCA coaches). UGs don’t need tryouts, they’ll take anyone, so long as they’re not wanted by a music/sport CCA.



I’m choosing subject combi for Year 5 soon, also have some questions:

1) Heard (from teachers, etc) that there are fewer of those who take maths, 2 humans and 1 science, so they are a little bit disadvantaged in terms of timetabling for daily lessons and exams. Was informed that in Year 5, we have to depend on our classmates a lot if we have questions, because there’s not much opportunity for asking questions during lectures and tutorials, unless we schedule an appointment with a teacher or get tuition; also classes are grouped first according to subject combination then GPA. So I’m not so worried about the timetabling, but more worried if those maths, 1 sci and 2 humans classes have more slackers around, making it more difficult to learn from classmates?

2) How is literature like at A levels? I don’t take lit now, but heard from seniors that some who don’t take lit in sec 3 & 4 can also do quite well if they take lit at Year 5-6. Also heard from my friends who take lit now that having good teachers for lit is very important. I tried to apply for HP (HP is given the best humanities teachers of course), so if I don’t get into HP but still take lit, will it be very bad?

Thank you.

There’s only Pure Science i think.


Your son can choose any subject to take, but common combinations are the 3 sciences + 1 humanities, or 2 sciences + 2 humanities. Taking 3 humanities subjects is not allowed.

Most students can choose up to 11 subjects (including third lang, mother tongue, english, etc). But students whose GPA is below 3.6 have more restrictions, if I’m not wrong they can only take up to 10, then those who are below 2.8 can only take up to 9 subjects. The norm is generally 10 subjects. [/quote]

You can find 2009 cohort's A level results here: http://www.ri.edu.sg/bookshelf/2010_Institution_Report_Section1_web.swf (Page 12)

Compare with 2010 cohort: http://www.ri.edu.sg/files/RI_2010_A-Level_Result_Release.pdf

9 distinctions: 2 students (2009), 3 students (2010) (almost the same...)
8 distinctions: 84 students (2009), 73 students (2010). In the 2010 slides, 8 distinctions and above are listed as 76, so we have to deduct the 3 students with 9 distinctions. Drop of 10 students from 2009.
7 distinctions: 217 students (2009), 169 students (2010). In the 2010 slides, 7 distinctions and above are listed as 245, so we have to deduct the 76 students with 8 and 9 distinctions. Drop of 48 students from 20009.
6 distinctions: 303 students (2009), 261 students (2010). Drop of 42 students.

Results are still good, but it has gone down from 2009...

I went to "investigate" again, on the national level, almost 50% get A1 or A2! Uh oh…