@zac-s-mum said in New L1R4 system for JC entry: @SG_KP1 Not sure if A level History would be suitable for those who didn’t take O level History. The learning curve would be particularly steep (compared to Literature - I think). Secondary school History has changed since our time, when there was only the structured essay component - just memorize the content & you can score well. Nowadays in lower sec, memorizing content will only get u 50% of the marks. The other half is from answering source-based inferential questions. Many Science-inclined students struggle with those. In upper sec History (O levels), it gets even tougher: the structured essays are no longer simple memorized content. The questions are Argumentative-type essay questions, ie. “(Opinion statement on X historical event.) How far do you agree (with this statement)?” So the student needs to (within exam time limit), formulate the For and Against arguments, and conclude with his own opinion (agree or disagree) and why. Again, there are students weaker in English who do not even choose this essay type in their English O level compositions (preferring Narrative type like PSLE style, where they can memorize flowery descriptive phrases). They would fail both the History structured essay AND the source-based essay (which moves on to an even wider variety of qn types at upper sec). It’s perfectly okay to read A level History without taking O level History. A good number of A level History students did not take History at O levels / upper sec.

Came across this documentary on YouTube by SBS Dateline (an Australian broadcaster akin to Channelnewsasia Insider).“Dateline travels to Singapore to find out why its education system tops the global leader board. We look at high-stakes testing, and ask if the culture of competition puts too much pressure on kids.This documentary first aired in 2019.”https://youtu.be/eoelS0XIhSg?si=0_3LjW2OdAGafEbs

I feel for some of the kids this year. IMO, the key was to understand the intake sizes at many of the schools from 2020 onwards. Based on some of the COP fluctuations throughout the years (especially the 2022 PSLE with the Tiger batch) and a rough indication of balloting (nothing official though), there were some warning signs of what might happen. The other factor is with every year that goes by, parents/students are more in tune with optimizing the AL score (i.e. don’t allow one subject to drag down your total). Of course, no one could say for sure exactly what was going to happen. Anyways, life goes on. With an open mind, most kids will be happy and find good opportunities wherever they ended up.