Should I/my child switch from pure to combined science?

Many students and parents have asked me the question posed in the title of this post. In fact, even without being asked, I have sometimes advised students to drop his/her pure science subjects and switch to combined science instead. I understand that this issue can be an emotionally clouded topic for most people, because there is a misguided perception that having to drop from pure to combined science is always a bad thing. I hope that with my years of experience of being a teacher and tutor, I can help some students and parents gain a clearer perspective on this issue.

In my opinion, there is no point in taking pure sciences if you are only going to score a B4 or worse.

• Firstly, it increases your overall aggregate points of your O levels, which immediately puts you at a disadvantage when competing for a place at the institute/course of your choice.
• Secondly, many JCs do not allow the student to take H2 level of a science subject if he or she scores a B4 or worse in that subject at the O levels. Therefore, if you want to do a pure science because you want to pursue it as a H2 science at A levels, but you are not able to score B3 or better at the O levels for this subject, then for all intents and purposes, you would have slogged through that pure science subject in vain.

It is true that few JCs also do not allow students to take H2 level of a science subject if the student only did that subject as combined science at O levels.Please check with the JCs you are interested,usually information can be found on their websites. However, as between scoring a distinction for combined science versus scoring a B4 or worse for a pure science, my opinion is that the first option is much more preferable, because every L1R5 point matters in the O levels. Just 1 point could be the difference between being qualified or disqualified to enter the JC/polytechnic course that you want.

The O level examination results are based on a bell curve, which means how you fare depends how badly or how well others can do in the same cohort. To be able to get distinctions is more difficult today than in the past because our education system is now much more competitive with the increased number of overseas scholars taking the same national exams as the local students. In assessing their ability to achieve a distinction in the O levels, students should bear in mind that it is not only how well they can do, but how much better they can do compared to other people taking the same exam.

Some students think that going to a polytechnic is a poorer choice than going to a JC. I would have agreed with this concern two decades ago. However, polytechnics have evolved over the years and now offer good courses and opportunities. Furthermore, overseas scholars from secondary schools are unable to apply for polytechnics, which means that local students have a better chance of getting good grades in polytechnic.

Do note that this blog post expresses my personal opinion of the best course of action for a student to take in particular circumstances. My opinions are based on my own experience as a tutor and schoolteacher of many years, and are in no way expressly supported or shared by any other institutions. I cannot guarantee the decisions made by any educational institutions, whether such decisions pertain to the admission of students to any institutions/courses or otherwise. 
In the end, it depends entirely on the student's objectives and assessment of what he/she wants and is likely to achieve.

Introduction to Ms Leong (Physics tutor)

I am currently a full time Physics tutor with approximately 10 years of tutoring experience, and have tutored students from a range of schools, including schools such as St Nicholas Girls' Secondary School, and IP schools such as Raffles Girls' Secondary School. I graduated from NUS with an Honours degree in Law, and practiced as a lawyer for a few years before deciding to go full-time into my real area of interest, which is helping secondary school students to ‘get’ Physics.

If you’re not doing well in your upper secondary Physics right now despite having read through your textbook, done your school homework and perhaps even chugged your way through some assessment books, it’s mainly because of one thing- you don’t understand the key concepts of the subject. I can understand this because I used to be a borderline-pass Physics student myself a long time ago, back in my early secondary 3 days in Raffles Girls’ Secondary. But once I understood the key concepts to the subject, Physics was no longer alien gibberish to me, and I went on to score As in O level and A level Physics, with a Merit in A level Physics S Paper (the equivalent of today’s JC H3 level).

The wonderful thing about secondary school level Physics is that once you ‘get’ it, you realize that logic and some measure of sensible math skills are all you need to handle the subject. Of course, there are a few key points that you have to commit to memory and you would also have to put in the necessary grunt work to retain and sharpen the skills you learn, but this applies to everything you do and not just Physics.

Every student can be guided to understand the key concepts of secondary school Physics. My job is to enable all my students to grasp the key concepts in the fastest and most direct way possible. In my years of teaching, I have yet to meet a student who could not understand and immediately apply the key concepts I teach in each class. The major difference between my students who do well and those who do not lies in their retention of the skills taught to them, because having a good tutor is unfortunately not a magic pill that gives you photographic memory.

If you are a secondary school student struggling with Physics, and you are willing to put in at least 10 to 15 minutes a day to hone your Physics skills, I know that once you learn Physics using the concepts I teach, your struggle with Physics will end.

 

**Ms Leong’s fees for one-on-one tuition range between $60/h to $70/h. Classes normally last 1.5hr, although weaker students may require 2hrs per class. There are currently no group tuition classes available, but a group class may be started if at least 2 students from the same level are able to co-ordinate to form a class. Ms Leong’s fee for group tuition is $35-40/h/pax.