Burst out laughing after I read that Straits Times article yesterday.


Quite a few graduates of the GEP program are parents nowadays. Likewise some going through it now also post here intermittently.

The final round tests raw intelligence. No amount of "preparatory classes" can give a student more intelligence. You either already have it (in which case you’re wasting money on prep classes), or you don’t (which means you’re also wasting money on prep classes since you won’t get in anyway!). Intelligence can only be built up since infancy, through years of stimulation and environment - NOT in last-minute "prep classes".

The only use I foresee in prep classes is if the child is brilliant, but too lazy to build up Maths/English (and thus, might fail the first round, but pass the final round) - in which case, the prep class may help. In such a case, the only tuition centres that are honestly able to live up to their claims (the rest are just trying to make easy money from kiasu parents) would be those that screen potential candidates FIRST by an IQ test, since the IQ test cannot be trained for. Only the gifted child who passes that, but isn’t so good in Maths/English, would benefit from such "classes".

The GEP program isn’t for the faint of heart, or lacking in ability. "faking" that ability, i.e. hothousing to pass the screening tests, is like smuggling a plastic rod into a nuclear reactor. In the unlikely chance that the rod passes the screening tests, it would still melt instantly once subjected to the high temperatures in the reactor core - it doesn’t have the mettle to withstand the conditions.