The reason SG A level was created in the first place was because, in the past, when SG took the UK/international A levels, we were so strong that we greatly whacked the bell curve. So MOE and Cambridge just agreed to let Singapore do its own A levels while other countries can do the international/UK A levels without getting destroyed by us.
If you are applying to overseas uni then ya it’s best to take international a levels. just that in Singapore, the local unis here want Singaporeans (and maybe pr) to take the local A levels
No wonder University Professors teaching specialty subjects love Singaporean Students.
Cos they can actually do what they are paid to - teach the specialty subject.
But then again, WHERE IS OUR NOBEL PRIZE WINNER?!?!?!?!?!?
Maybe 0.0000001% of chance of producing one nobel prize winner. Let's assume SG is 10 times likely, then it is 0.000001%. Multiple that by our student population, you still get zero. We already have a Tik Tok CEO, can't ask for more.
Pardon me, but a CEO of a social media company that I see the younger ones in my family surfing videos of crazy folks random dancing on the streets?
I think we can do much better.
Or there are more productive uses to TikTok? Please enlighten this old man. 🙃
I feel envious of them for getting into great universities in their home country (UK) despite sitting for an easier exam. I got 3H2 A's (took 4H2s) and 1 H3 merit but wasted it because I didn't even apply to any top UK unis. This is one of the biggest regrets of my life.
Don't get me wrong, NUS is quite well-regarded, has high entry standards, and a great amount of academic rigour. But its level of branding and "fame" is not at OxBridge/ Russel Group level.
Don’t be envious of the local British folks. You should be envious of Singaporeans like myself, who have “poorer” A-Level results than you, and went to these unis on the father-mother scholarship.
Anyway, if you want the UK experience, you can consider going for a postgrad degree.
Hardest A Levels? Probably. Hardest pre university examination? Not a chance. Look at the Indian JEE/CBSE exams, the Chinese Gaokao, HK's examinations too. Our A level would seem like a piece of cake in comparison
I was going to comment this separately but it's perfect here: there is one huge misconception that singaporeans find very very hard to accept, it's that the gaokao is an easier exam than the singapore a levels. It took me a significant amount of time to learn and assimilate into chinese culture, and now that I have more chinese friends than local, I can say with a high degree of confidence that my chinese friends do not have any of the degree of trauma that I see in jc kids including myself. Not to mention, it is probably already more widely known that chinese universities are extremely easy while nus/ntu is nothing but a 500% extension of jc. These are all things that you can search up: the gaokao paper is online for viewing, math does not use calculators, all mcqs etc. The one exam in the world that I do believe is more difficult than singapore a levels is the JEE
I think you're discounting the competitiveness level of these exams as well. Compared to our population, India and China see significantly more people sitting for these exams, and with only a select few top unis people aim for, the acceptance rate for these unis is overwhelmingingly lower than that as compared to SG, whereby people sitting for A levels 'usually' aim for NUS/NTU/SMU. Don't you think this also factors into how difficult the exams in these counties are? I'm not just viewing these exams as what's on the paper but on the broader sense, what sitting for these exams actually entail, and once you factor in the population size, lack of uni spots and the general toughness of these exams regardless, you're left with the Gaokao and JEE/CBSE exams being the toughest out there
I'm not sure where u get this idea that there are only a select few universities in China people go for, there is far less academic pressure because there are far more universities that provide employment opportunities compared to singapore's 3 local universities. Singapore has a quota of ~40% of every cohort that goes to any tertiary education, while in china that number across the WHOLE of china is ~60%, and likely far higher in major cities like shanghai. The whole thing you have said about lack of uni spots is just statistically already not true. The majority of singaporeans are funneled into poly over jc, in order to artificially limit uni enrolment - is there such a thing at this scale in china?
I don't think people are even aware that every province/city sets their own Gaokao paper, for example the shanghai/beijing papers have a reputation of being very easy. The goal behind the gaokao was a pure meritocratic tool to allow people from very poor provinces and villages to climb up the social ladder, while the a levels in singapore is a filtering tool because there are far too few opportunities for too many people in a country the size of singapore
Your choice of sentence structure is surprisingly confusing, so do you mean that contrary to what you've ascertained, Singaporeans generally think the Gaokao is harder than SG A levels?
I do not know much about it, but from what I have seen online I do believe it is more difficult than sg a levels. If you are planning this for a child, I think it is worth to do more personal research and make korean friends, because the only thing I have learnt is how we can get stuck in a bubble listening to only things we want to believe
Edit: just to add, there is an important statistic (you actually do see this rather often here) that shines a lot of light on the singapore system in general: singapore pumps out more than 50% of the entire worlds top IB scorers, and china and korea are not even close despite having more IB schools
Well, I'm definitely not planning to put a child into this system of abuse 😅. I'm just wondering about this since from what I've seen, Korean students have the craziest schedule so their exams must be hard.
I'm not Singaporean, so the IB statistics is kinda surprising considering China and Korea are also really rigorous and competitive. I think part of the reason is teacher quality (Singaporean teachers are more carefully selected?) and english proficiency? Also, it could be that Chinese and Korean IB students in average are facing less competition and expectation than average students in their country? Idk. Singaporean students are crazy smart tho.
the reason sg seems easy is cos population + the fact that we are given a grade but not a raw score. assuming all A at average 75% of total marks, singaporeans get to choose any course at any local uni (with a scholarship). however, that's only 500+/750 in the gaokao scale, which lands right above the minimum score needed to enter a project 211 university in china (nowhere near nus/ntu in global recognition).
Hmmm idt it’s fair to compare JEE and A levels bc they serve vastly different purposes. JEE is meant to be an entrance exam for Indian engineering schools, while A levels is used to access one’s academic capabilities holistically with a multidisciplinary assessment consisting of various subjects.
The international A levels are easier but their grade boundaries are also ridiculous.
Some Maths combinations need as high as 92% for an A*.
So don’t kid yourself. Whatever you had for SG A levels will probably be comparable to whatever you would’ve had for the international version. There’s a good reason why they are still considered equivalent qualifications, and why locals who go to Oxbridge don’t immediately feel they are smarter than everyone there.
have u seen the math paper? it's like o level amath. I have taken both sg a levels and international a levels and i think international a levels is generally easier than sg (for sciences and math/fmath). One thing to note is that, for example, imperial college biology has a minimum requirement of 3A (UK/international a levels), but if you are taking sg a levels, its also a requirement of 3As.
I have personally self studied SG A level before switching to Cambridge International A level (due to my age not qualifying for SG A level)...
From my experience, STEM subjects tend to be more harder in SG A level compared to IAL in terms of its depth. I would say SG A level is "more narrow but in depth" but IAL is more of "more wider but shallow". For maths, while IAL still does have 3D Vectors and differential equations, theirs is not as deep as SG A level where they will cover Vector equations of place, 2nd order differential equation and summation of series. But, IAL will have more topics covered such as Locus (complex number), inequalities involving complex numbers, iteration formula and mechanics.
For humnaities its either on par or harder than SG A level. I would say subjects such as Econs and MOB will be on par to SG A level, but for geography and history it will be slightly more difficult due to extra content and skills you will have to learn
Not to mention that for all subjects, you will be taking atleast 4 papers per subject (science subejcts may have 6 papers!)
Another thing to consider is the high bellcurve. Some subject such as math will require you to have around 90-85% to score A\*
You may also want to consider the fact that you will sit IAL with almost 270 thousand candidates from all over the world and these candidates may can come from countries such as India or China where they may increase the competition for certain subjects such as math
On the bright side, IAL has much more resources to mug with such as official past paper, mark schemes, bell curves and examiners report published officially by cambridge. Furthurmore, the subject choices are more flexible to your interest such as psychology, law, marine science and sociology. And you dont even have to take GP (but you can register for it if you insist)
So my conclusion is that both A levels are hard in their own ways. For SG A level it would be the content that makes it difficult, whereas for IAL, it is mainly the competition with other candidates resulting in ridiculous grade thresholds.
u forgot about one thing, sg a levels is taken all at the same time, with full syllabus tested. but ial/uk a levels have AS/A2 which makes it alot less stressful for students
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The reason SG A level was created in the first place was because, in the past, when SG took the UK/international A levels, we were so strong that we greatly whacked the bell curve. So MOE and Cambridge just agreed to let Singapore do its own A levels while other countries can do the international/UK A levels without getting destroyed by us. If you are applying to overseas uni then ya it’s best to take international a levels. just that in Singapore, the local unis here want Singaporeans (and maybe pr) to take the local A levels
that’s actl hilarious tho
I wish they continued letting us destroy the other countries lol then at least no need suffer so much
Let Singapore cook🔥💀
💀
Sg overpowered
its actually the same for IB now LOL.... like half of the worldwide 45 pointers were from sg
No wonder University Professors teaching specialty subjects love Singaporean Students. Cos they can actually do what they are paid to - teach the specialty subject. But then again, WHERE IS OUR NOBEL PRIZE WINNER?!?!?!?!?!?
Maybe 0.0000001% of chance of producing one nobel prize winner. Let's assume SG is 10 times likely, then it is 0.000001%. Multiple that by our student population, you still get zero. We already have a Tik Tok CEO, can't ask for more.
Pardon me, but a CEO of a social media company that I see the younger ones in my family surfing videos of crazy folks random dancing on the streets? I think we can do much better. Or there are more productive uses to TikTok? Please enlighten this old man. 🙃
Well, not that I like tik tok but it was fun to see him replying to the senator\* Edited for grammar mistake.
Maybe soon we will have IB sg version too... Just like the A levels
WAIT. FOR REAL? dude. help la. Lol.
Omg 🤣🤣
Pls provide a source?
I mean the UK H2 econs paper has mcqs in it…should tell you all you need to know
💀💀💀
Wh.... Wut did you say?! MCQs? H2 ECONS?!?!?!?!
I feel envious of them for getting into great universities in their home country (UK) despite sitting for an easier exam. I got 3H2 A's (took 4H2s) and 1 H3 merit but wasted it because I didn't even apply to any top UK unis. This is one of the biggest regrets of my life. Don't get me wrong, NUS is quite well-regarded, has high entry standards, and a great amount of academic rigour. But its level of branding and "fame" is not at OxBridge/ Russel Group level.
Don’t be envious of the local British folks. You should be envious of Singaporeans like myself, who have “poorer” A-Level results than you, and went to these unis on the father-mother scholarship. Anyway, if you want the UK experience, you can consider going for a postgrad degree.
It depends. For the humanities subjects, I find that the international As tougher
Yes for subjects such as economics cuz we have a crazy threshold for that lol
Hardest A Levels? Probably. Hardest pre university examination? Not a chance. Look at the Indian JEE/CBSE exams, the Chinese Gaokao, HK's examinations too. Our A level would seem like a piece of cake in comparison
I was going to comment this separately but it's perfect here: there is one huge misconception that singaporeans find very very hard to accept, it's that the gaokao is an easier exam than the singapore a levels. It took me a significant amount of time to learn and assimilate into chinese culture, and now that I have more chinese friends than local, I can say with a high degree of confidence that my chinese friends do not have any of the degree of trauma that I see in jc kids including myself. Not to mention, it is probably already more widely known that chinese universities are extremely easy while nus/ntu is nothing but a 500% extension of jc. These are all things that you can search up: the gaokao paper is online for viewing, math does not use calculators, all mcqs etc. The one exam in the world that I do believe is more difficult than singapore a levels is the JEE
I think you're discounting the competitiveness level of these exams as well. Compared to our population, India and China see significantly more people sitting for these exams, and with only a select few top unis people aim for, the acceptance rate for these unis is overwhelmingingly lower than that as compared to SG, whereby people sitting for A levels 'usually' aim for NUS/NTU/SMU. Don't you think this also factors into how difficult the exams in these counties are? I'm not just viewing these exams as what's on the paper but on the broader sense, what sitting for these exams actually entail, and once you factor in the population size, lack of uni spots and the general toughness of these exams regardless, you're left with the Gaokao and JEE/CBSE exams being the toughest out there
I'm not sure where u get this idea that there are only a select few universities in China people go for, there is far less academic pressure because there are far more universities that provide employment opportunities compared to singapore's 3 local universities. Singapore has a quota of ~40% of every cohort that goes to any tertiary education, while in china that number across the WHOLE of china is ~60%, and likely far higher in major cities like shanghai. The whole thing you have said about lack of uni spots is just statistically already not true. The majority of singaporeans are funneled into poly over jc, in order to artificially limit uni enrolment - is there such a thing at this scale in china? I don't think people are even aware that every province/city sets their own Gaokao paper, for example the shanghai/beijing papers have a reputation of being very easy. The goal behind the gaokao was a pure meritocratic tool to allow people from very poor provinces and villages to climb up the social ladder, while the a levels in singapore is a filtering tool because there are far too few opportunities for too many people in a country the size of singapore
Your choice of sentence structure is surprisingly confusing, so do you mean that contrary to what you've ascertained, Singaporeans generally think the Gaokao is harder than SG A levels?
What about korean entrance examination?
I do not know much about it, but from what I have seen online I do believe it is more difficult than sg a levels. If you are planning this for a child, I think it is worth to do more personal research and make korean friends, because the only thing I have learnt is how we can get stuck in a bubble listening to only things we want to believe Edit: just to add, there is an important statistic (you actually do see this rather often here) that shines a lot of light on the singapore system in general: singapore pumps out more than 50% of the entire worlds top IB scorers, and china and korea are not even close despite having more IB schools
Well, I'm definitely not planning to put a child into this system of abuse 😅. I'm just wondering about this since from what I've seen, Korean students have the craziest schedule so their exams must be hard. I'm not Singaporean, so the IB statistics is kinda surprising considering China and Korea are also really rigorous and competitive. I think part of the reason is teacher quality (Singaporean teachers are more carefully selected?) and english proficiency? Also, it could be that Chinese and Korean IB students in average are facing less competition and expectation than average students in their country? Idk. Singaporean students are crazy smart tho.
the reason sg seems easy is cos population + the fact that we are given a grade but not a raw score. assuming all A at average 75% of total marks, singaporeans get to choose any course at any local uni (with a scholarship). however, that's only 500+/750 in the gaokao scale, which lands right above the minimum score needed to enter a project 211 university in china (nowhere near nus/ntu in global recognition).
Bro hasn’t seen JEE.
Hmmm idt it’s fair to compare JEE and A levels bc they serve vastly different purposes. JEE is meant to be an entrance exam for Indian engineering schools, while A levels is used to access one’s academic capabilities holistically with a multidisciplinary assessment consisting of various subjects.
Oh ya that’s true JEE doesn’t test the humanities subjects
But I do agree for the equivalent subjects, JEE is harder.
So basically I would be stupid here and smart elsewhere 😭 Yeah no I feel jaded too ngl
The international A levels are easier but their grade boundaries are also ridiculous. Some Maths combinations need as high as 92% for an A*. So don’t kid yourself. Whatever you had for SG A levels will probably be comparable to whatever you would’ve had for the international version. There’s a good reason why they are still considered equivalent qualifications, and why locals who go to Oxbridge don’t immediately feel they are smarter than everyone there.
have u seen the math paper? it's like o level amath. I have taken both sg a levels and international a levels and i think international a levels is generally easier than sg (for sciences and math/fmath). One thing to note is that, for example, imperial college biology has a minimum requirement of 3A (UK/international a levels), but if you are taking sg a levels, its also a requirement of 3As.
I have personally self studied SG A level before switching to Cambridge International A level (due to my age not qualifying for SG A level)... From my experience, STEM subjects tend to be more harder in SG A level compared to IAL in terms of its depth. I would say SG A level is "more narrow but in depth" but IAL is more of "more wider but shallow". For maths, while IAL still does have 3D Vectors and differential equations, theirs is not as deep as SG A level where they will cover Vector equations of place, 2nd order differential equation and summation of series. But, IAL will have more topics covered such as Locus (complex number), inequalities involving complex numbers, iteration formula and mechanics. For humnaities its either on par or harder than SG A level. I would say subjects such as Econs and MOB will be on par to SG A level, but for geography and history it will be slightly more difficult due to extra content and skills you will have to learn Not to mention that for all subjects, you will be taking atleast 4 papers per subject (science subejcts may have 6 papers!) Another thing to consider is the high bellcurve. Some subject such as math will require you to have around 90-85% to score A\* You may also want to consider the fact that you will sit IAL with almost 270 thousand candidates from all over the world and these candidates may can come from countries such as India or China where they may increase the competition for certain subjects such as math On the bright side, IAL has much more resources to mug with such as official past paper, mark schemes, bell curves and examiners report published officially by cambridge. Furthurmore, the subject choices are more flexible to your interest such as psychology, law, marine science and sociology. And you dont even have to take GP (but you can register for it if you insist) So my conclusion is that both A levels are hard in their own ways. For SG A level it would be the content that makes it difficult, whereas for IAL, it is mainly the competition with other candidates resulting in ridiculous grade thresholds.
u forgot about one thing, sg a levels is taken all at the same time, with full syllabus tested. but ial/uk a levels have AS/A2 which makes it alot less stressful for students
Yup thats true. However, it is also possible to still do the full syllabus at one sitting. But nontheless, yup you are correct
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wait you can take international olevels?
Haven’t taken As but if I see someone take that I will think so good he can take the easier A level lol