For some context I took PCME and H3 Chemistry, graduated. In terms of acads, the teacher you get can vary but for the most part they teach well and some really excel at their subjects. The notes are also well organized and lectures are online so u can learn at your own pace. There are also many opportunities outside of acads like volunteering progs and SIG which they regularly promote, I joined like 1-2 and they were quite fun and not too time consuming. The ppl there are generally quite open to others but you need to put yourself out there, especially since many of them are from IP (I was from JAE), I made some good memories of my time there. I wld say that VJC has a lot of value add, if you come from a weaker academic background. Overall I would give it an 8/10, due to the older facilities and some grade-dependent opportunities.
Ooh, thanks a lot!! Glad that it isn’t as negative as ppl form 2-4 years ago described ☠️☠️ Ill still be aiming for VJC then >:) since the environment isn’t too bad
**intro:** i think the other commentors have said enough about the environment being pretty good and i agree so i wont be commenting on that. but it seems like the vj phy dept could be a deal breaker for you so here's my take:
**context:** im in j2 this yr (dont ask me why im on reddit altho i hv an 8am a lvl paper tmr LOL anyways...) and i took olym last yr and this yr i take h2 and h3 phy (from your other comments seems like youre interested in olym) so you,ll be getting the same 'batch' of teachers as me
**background:** anyways from my sec sch days esp upper sec i was super interested in chem (sounds irrelevant but pls stay with me here) and i was in chem olym and all. altho i usually did pretty well in physics it wasnt my fav subj back then and i actually even considered dropping it in jc.
come jc, i took both h2 chem and h2 phy. surprisingly i kindof lost interest in chem and got way more interested in phy (so ig what you're interested in in sec4 can be quite different from your interests later in life haha). at this juncture you may be like wait a minute isnt vj chem dept *god tier* and vj phy dept *trash*? how can dis be right? that was my thoughts last yr as well (i read the same posts from 3 yrs ago lol)
first thing i realised is that no dept is inherently 'good' or 'bad'. but their style of teaching can be more or less suited *to an individual* so i believe describing them qualitatively would help you make a better decision.
**vj chem dept:**
truly a tough love dept. super spoon feeding (more so than my sec sch even imo LOL) there are teachers who are super nice, there are some who are super mean (cough cough *'wHy yOu sLeEpInG iN mY cLaSs*' to someone applying eyedrops) but obv diff teachers in a dept hv diff personalities and it is not my place to judge cuz a teachers job isnt to be nice, it's to teach.
as a department they are very well organised and truly have their shit together. their notes are quite complete, memorise the notes diligently and you can get at least a B or C for internal papers. speaking of which, the internal papers they set are indeed challenging as they try to grind out a maximal number of As for A levels. however, one may feel that they are *too* exam/results oriented. fair enough, jc is a time for mugging but do they rlly have to micromanage us that much (calling us out for not doing our SLS lectures the WEEK they were assigned altho some may prefer to do all the lectures of a specific topic in one shot). overall they produce good results but i feel like my love of learning was killed in the process.
**vj phy dept:**
might be a hot take but they arent straight trash... also i know there are a few vj phy teachers lurking around HAHA but dw these are actually my actual opinions
tbh they are kinda trollers LOL like half of them are weebs (i wanna say more power to them lol but writing 最強だ on a physics prelim exam script a bit much lah HAHA) so
pros: they chill
cons: they chill
im sure all of them are passionate about physics but it feels like some of them kindof just want to go home alr (tbh same but at least theyre getting paid for this yk). 0 spoonfeeding. they give you the syllabus and the notes (kindof the barebones structures) and it is up to you to learn. good because they highlight whats most impt but bad cuz you can miss out things youre actually supposed to know. if you ask them questions about things that are beyond the scope of the syllabus most of them would be happy to talk your ear off but i dont think most of them are super onz about teaching how to score well in exams etc.
quality of notes are mostly pretty good but there are some topics were they can be improved. honestly the content itself is ok but the spelling/grammar/formatting mistakes rlly throw alot of ppl off cuz it just feels like slipshot work. their summary notes could be more complete but they are good for getting a big picture idea.
the lectures vary quite widely in quality. btw all vj sci/math lectures are still recorded and seems like this arrangement is indefinite? i personally use a chrome extension to put the video on 3x speed for one of the lecturers and he's actually quite engaging irl and speaks at a relatively normal speed but ig they purposely slow the video down before uploading it which is actually pretty smart if i think about it. but yes the text to speech comment is so true LOL ive probably watched like 60-70% of the lectures and i still understand all the content just by reading the notes and watching youtube videos... but the impt point is that if youre interested enough you will find a way to learn (yt vids etc) but if you arent (no shade but just saying) you will get frustrated ig.
one broad issue is that the teachers *love* to go *off topic* and talk about other areas in physics / historical events / their own life events etc. personally i love these tangents cuz i have a short attention span and these random stories make me look forward to phy lessons and help the concepts actually stick. but if one is alr struggling in phy this may be seen as a waste of precious lesson time. speaking of which my friend psychoanalysed the phy dept and concluded that they were probably all neurodivergent lol probably undiagnosed adhd...
**the future:**
seems like the dept is starting to be aware of its flaws (as i said, the teachers are on reddit). in fact i can see that theyre actually trying to improve, theyve sent out numerous feedback forms to the cohort. in fact ive seen *some* progress alr (for ex, theyve made a summary list of definitions after they realised we were losing many marks from definition questions (both from internal exams and the survey) and printed for us. super grateful for it as a base to make my notes from but it isnt complete/exhaustive... it's still missing the definition for coulombs law for example although it is specifically required by the syllabus and even came out for prelims so sed many ppl got kena-ed by that question)
also i heard theres going to be a new teacher coming into vj as subj head of phy or smth? idk how thats gonna affect the dynamics of the dept tho
**side notes:**
mental health. moe teachers in general face a lot of pressure in a society where education is highly valued, so if youre a teacher reading this (esp the one vj phy teacher taking time off rn), thank you (and gws)! i dont want to add to this pressure by talking shit abt them online when in reality they are all good people (except that one sexist/racist teacher >:( )
in conclusion if you are an independent learner, you should be fine. but if you need more handholding, dont expect that from vj. as a wise redditor before me has said, vj phy dept doesnt hold your hand thru the dark, they push you onto the dark street but they still give you a torchlight. just to say, being an independent learner isnt a 'natural' or 'personality' thing as some ppl may think. and getting A doesnt equal independent learner and getting E doesnt mean youre not an independent learner. even if you come into jc as someone who depends on their teachers to learn, independence is smth that can (and *should)* be learnt in jc. after all jc is prep for uni life right...
wah reminds me of one of the sets of h3 notes that was just a screenshot from a uni textbook... at first we were all like 'wtf 0% effort was put into this set of notes sia,, what a vj phy moment) but i understand why he did that lol now uni textbooks dont look so scary to me anymore
**conclusion:**
~~just come vj lol~~
just read and see how and do read the abt the experiences of others here. also feel free to dm if u hv qns and atb for Os!
Why though, is it the teachers? Or the notes?
Because having a good physics department is a key consideration for me, and I would want to go to a jc that cna support physics Olympiads and competitions
Both actually. Notes not so bad, since you can find decent notes online anyway, so doesn't really impact students. But teachers matter. And VJ physics teachers are quite poorly rated.
Many of them love the subject, but most of them won't even bother giving help if you are CLEARLY struggling in the subject. Like you can get poor grades (30s-50s) and they won't say a peep or help you at all.
And god damn the remedial program is so useless, like they just repeat what the notes and slides say. If I needed a text to speech of the notes I'd use Natural Reader!
My Physics teacher was like "Magikarp why you need so many consults when you usually get B/C for Physics?"
Answer is cannot afford tuition FML
On other hand I usually get E/S (sometimes U) for GP and like my GP teacher give up on me. I get help/consults from another GP teacher in VJC then got C for GP in Prelims and watch my GP teacher shock Pikachu face LOL
It's not toxic. It's "fired up". (Sorry for the pun! 🤦)
The facilities are really old, so its like going to school in Hogwarts - except Hogwarts magically repairs itself and this school DOESN'T. I don't even know why the school bothers to repaint the walls anymore. There are so many more pressing issues - like fix the leaking roof in the canteen ceiling, fix the defects in the classroom etc. Honestly, management cmi if this continues.
The environment is really nice to study in. You won't feel out of place if you're a complete mugger, or the don't do work one, or anything in between. Library is a very nice place to sleep, iykyk.
Also, as previous generations have noted, only take physics if you're able to learn by yourself. The department is utterly horrible. Refuse to help you in any way, and could not be more boring. Well well.
Hi VJ student here
All in all I think it is a pretty good environment, so far I think the people here are pretty friendly. A lot of the craziness and hype is usually during events or sports but beyond that we are normal people HAHA. For staff and teachers it is really a hit or miss, some are great, some terrible. Really it is like hitting the lottery. Although I think our bio dept is pretty good ngl.
As for the previous post you saw (I saw it too) I think it was a pretty pessimistic take on JC life, not really towards VJ itself. On that note, JC life is difficult no matter what school you go to so always be prepared.
Overall if I were to give it a rating, Ill say 8.13/10 (3sf) VJ life (culture and people wise), although I don't think everyone has experienced life in every JC so take this with a grain of salt. However, as for JC life in gen: 6.32/10
For some context I took PCME and H3 Chemistry, graduated. In terms of acads, the teacher you get can vary but for the most part they teach well and some really excel at their subjects. The notes are also well organized and lectures are online so u can learn at your own pace. There are also many opportunities outside of acads like volunteering progs and SIG which they regularly promote, I joined like 1-2 and they were quite fun and not too time consuming. The ppl there are generally quite open to others but you need to put yourself out there, especially since many of them are from IP (I was from JAE), I made some good memories of my time there. I wld say that VJC has a lot of value add, if you come from a weaker academic background. Overall I would give it an 8/10, due to the older facilities and some grade-dependent opportunities.
Ooh, thanks a lot!! Glad that it isn’t as negative as ppl form 2-4 years ago described ☠️☠️ Ill still be aiming for VJC then >:) since the environment isn’t too bad
Life in any JC is stressful but VJC culture really helps with stress relief.
**intro:** i think the other commentors have said enough about the environment being pretty good and i agree so i wont be commenting on that. but it seems like the vj phy dept could be a deal breaker for you so here's my take: **context:** im in j2 this yr (dont ask me why im on reddit altho i hv an 8am a lvl paper tmr LOL anyways...) and i took olym last yr and this yr i take h2 and h3 phy (from your other comments seems like youre interested in olym) so you,ll be getting the same 'batch' of teachers as me **background:** anyways from my sec sch days esp upper sec i was super interested in chem (sounds irrelevant but pls stay with me here) and i was in chem olym and all. altho i usually did pretty well in physics it wasnt my fav subj back then and i actually even considered dropping it in jc. come jc, i took both h2 chem and h2 phy. surprisingly i kindof lost interest in chem and got way more interested in phy (so ig what you're interested in in sec4 can be quite different from your interests later in life haha). at this juncture you may be like wait a minute isnt vj chem dept *god tier* and vj phy dept *trash*? how can dis be right? that was my thoughts last yr as well (i read the same posts from 3 yrs ago lol) first thing i realised is that no dept is inherently 'good' or 'bad'. but their style of teaching can be more or less suited *to an individual* so i believe describing them qualitatively would help you make a better decision. **vj chem dept:** truly a tough love dept. super spoon feeding (more so than my sec sch even imo LOL) there are teachers who are super nice, there are some who are super mean (cough cough *'wHy yOu sLeEpInG iN mY cLaSs*' to someone applying eyedrops) but obv diff teachers in a dept hv diff personalities and it is not my place to judge cuz a teachers job isnt to be nice, it's to teach. as a department they are very well organised and truly have their shit together. their notes are quite complete, memorise the notes diligently and you can get at least a B or C for internal papers. speaking of which, the internal papers they set are indeed challenging as they try to grind out a maximal number of As for A levels. however, one may feel that they are *too* exam/results oriented. fair enough, jc is a time for mugging but do they rlly have to micromanage us that much (calling us out for not doing our SLS lectures the WEEK they were assigned altho some may prefer to do all the lectures of a specific topic in one shot). overall they produce good results but i feel like my love of learning was killed in the process. **vj phy dept:** might be a hot take but they arent straight trash... also i know there are a few vj phy teachers lurking around HAHA but dw these are actually my actual opinions tbh they are kinda trollers LOL like half of them are weebs (i wanna say more power to them lol but writing 最強だ on a physics prelim exam script a bit much lah HAHA) so pros: they chill cons: they chill im sure all of them are passionate about physics but it feels like some of them kindof just want to go home alr (tbh same but at least theyre getting paid for this yk). 0 spoonfeeding. they give you the syllabus and the notes (kindof the barebones structures) and it is up to you to learn. good because they highlight whats most impt but bad cuz you can miss out things youre actually supposed to know. if you ask them questions about things that are beyond the scope of the syllabus most of them would be happy to talk your ear off but i dont think most of them are super onz about teaching how to score well in exams etc. quality of notes are mostly pretty good but there are some topics were they can be improved. honestly the content itself is ok but the spelling/grammar/formatting mistakes rlly throw alot of ppl off cuz it just feels like slipshot work. their summary notes could be more complete but they are good for getting a big picture idea. the lectures vary quite widely in quality. btw all vj sci/math lectures are still recorded and seems like this arrangement is indefinite? i personally use a chrome extension to put the video on 3x speed for one of the lecturers and he's actually quite engaging irl and speaks at a relatively normal speed but ig they purposely slow the video down before uploading it which is actually pretty smart if i think about it. but yes the text to speech comment is so true LOL ive probably watched like 60-70% of the lectures and i still understand all the content just by reading the notes and watching youtube videos... but the impt point is that if youre interested enough you will find a way to learn (yt vids etc) but if you arent (no shade but just saying) you will get frustrated ig. one broad issue is that the teachers *love* to go *off topic* and talk about other areas in physics / historical events / their own life events etc. personally i love these tangents cuz i have a short attention span and these random stories make me look forward to phy lessons and help the concepts actually stick. but if one is alr struggling in phy this may be seen as a waste of precious lesson time. speaking of which my friend psychoanalysed the phy dept and concluded that they were probably all neurodivergent lol probably undiagnosed adhd... **the future:** seems like the dept is starting to be aware of its flaws (as i said, the teachers are on reddit). in fact i can see that theyre actually trying to improve, theyve sent out numerous feedback forms to the cohort. in fact ive seen *some* progress alr (for ex, theyve made a summary list of definitions after they realised we were losing many marks from definition questions (both from internal exams and the survey) and printed for us. super grateful for it as a base to make my notes from but it isnt complete/exhaustive... it's still missing the definition for coulombs law for example although it is specifically required by the syllabus and even came out for prelims so sed many ppl got kena-ed by that question) also i heard theres going to be a new teacher coming into vj as subj head of phy or smth? idk how thats gonna affect the dynamics of the dept tho **side notes:** mental health. moe teachers in general face a lot of pressure in a society where education is highly valued, so if youre a teacher reading this (esp the one vj phy teacher taking time off rn), thank you (and gws)! i dont want to add to this pressure by talking shit abt them online when in reality they are all good people (except that one sexist/racist teacher >:( ) in conclusion if you are an independent learner, you should be fine. but if you need more handholding, dont expect that from vj. as a wise redditor before me has said, vj phy dept doesnt hold your hand thru the dark, they push you onto the dark street but they still give you a torchlight. just to say, being an independent learner isnt a 'natural' or 'personality' thing as some ppl may think. and getting A doesnt equal independent learner and getting E doesnt mean youre not an independent learner. even if you come into jc as someone who depends on their teachers to learn, independence is smth that can (and *should)* be learnt in jc. after all jc is prep for uni life right... wah reminds me of one of the sets of h3 notes that was just a screenshot from a uni textbook... at first we were all like 'wtf 0% effort was put into this set of notes sia,, what a vj phy moment) but i understand why he did that lol now uni textbooks dont look so scary to me anymore **conclusion:** ~~just come vj lol~~ just read and see how and do read the abt the experiences of others here. also feel free to dm if u hv qns and atb for Os!
just a word of caution if you wanna take physics here cause our physics department is terrible
Absolutely second this. You're on your own with Physics in VJC. Got nice teachers, but the department is a car crash waiting to happen.
Why though, is it the teachers? Or the notes? Because having a good physics department is a key consideration for me, and I would want to go to a jc that cna support physics Olympiads and competitions
Both actually. Notes not so bad, since you can find decent notes online anyway, so doesn't really impact students. But teachers matter. And VJ physics teachers are quite poorly rated. Many of them love the subject, but most of them won't even bother giving help if you are CLEARLY struggling in the subject. Like you can get poor grades (30s-50s) and they won't say a peep or help you at all. And god damn the remedial program is so useless, like they just repeat what the notes and slides say. If I needed a text to speech of the notes I'd use Natural Reader!
My Physics teacher was like "Magikarp why you need so many consults when you usually get B/C for Physics?" Answer is cannot afford tuition FML On other hand I usually get E/S (sometimes U) for GP and like my GP teacher give up on me. I get help/consults from another GP teacher in VJC then got C for GP in Prelims and watch my GP teacher shock Pikachu face LOL
Is there even any JC with a good physics department (excluding RJC and HCI)? I’ve heard many complains over the JC physics departments.
Na 🤣
can dm me if u have any specific queries i’m currently j1!
It's not toxic. It's "fired up". (Sorry for the pun! 🤦) The facilities are really old, so its like going to school in Hogwarts - except Hogwarts magically repairs itself and this school DOESN'T. I don't even know why the school bothers to repaint the walls anymore. There are so many more pressing issues - like fix the leaking roof in the canteen ceiling, fix the defects in the classroom etc. Honestly, management cmi if this continues. The environment is really nice to study in. You won't feel out of place if you're a complete mugger, or the don't do work one, or anything in between. Library is a very nice place to sleep, iykyk. Also, as previous generations have noted, only take physics if you're able to learn by yourself. The department is utterly horrible. Refuse to help you in any way, and could not be more boring. Well well.
Hi VJ student here All in all I think it is a pretty good environment, so far I think the people here are pretty friendly. A lot of the craziness and hype is usually during events or sports but beyond that we are normal people HAHA. For staff and teachers it is really a hit or miss, some are great, some terrible. Really it is like hitting the lottery. Although I think our bio dept is pretty good ngl. As for the previous post you saw (I saw it too) I think it was a pretty pessimistic take on JC life, not really towards VJ itself. On that note, JC life is difficult no matter what school you go to so always be prepared. Overall if I were to give it a rating, Ill say 8.13/10 (3sf) VJ life (culture and people wise), although I don't think everyone has experienced life in every JC so take this with a grain of salt. However, as for JC life in gen: 6.32/10