Singapore Maths Tuition - University and Junior College

Two Singapore students graduated from the May International Baccalaureate session with flying colours

July 17, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

17 July 2020

This year’s May International Baccalaureate (IB) exams were cancelled globally and final scores were based on students’ coursework, including projects, assignments and presentations.

But this did not stop Singaporean students from excelling in the May IB exams this year.

Two students here graduated from the May IB session, instead of the November sitting for most local students, because they were granted extensions due to their sports commitments.

These students are from the Singapore Sports School, which is currently one of 25 schools worldwide, as well as the only school in Singapore, to offer such an extended programme.

Ms Kimberly Quek, one of the two Singapore students, attained a score of 40 out of 45, while her schoolmate and rhythmic gymnast Lyn Yeo, achieved a near-perfect score of 44.

Ms Quek, who has a hearing loss from young, has represented Singapore in bowling at global competitions such as the 2017 Deaflympics, where she won a bronze medal. She also took part in the World Deaf Bowling Championships last year, where she was placed 12th and 9th for the singles and doubles events respectively.

Ms Yeo hopes to pursue a related course at the Singapore Institute of Technology. In February, she did a three-week stint shadowing a physiotherapist at the National Youth Sports Institute.

Students returning from abroad can start applying for admission under the School Placement Exercise for Returning Singaporeans scheme

July 16, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

16 July 2020

Singaporean students returning from overseas who plan to enrol in secondary schools or junior colleges here next year can start sending in their applications to the Ministry of Education.

They will apply under the School Placement Exercise for Returning Singaporeans (Spers) scheme, which comprises of a set of centralised tests for Singaporean students seeking admission into a local school after having lived or studied abroad.

The tests for those seeking admission to Secondary 1 to 3 will be held from Sept 22 to 24, while the tests for Pre-University 1 will be held on Nov 12. No tests will be conducted for students at the Secondary 4 and Pre-University 2 levels, as these are national examination years.

Applicants will receive their school placement results in December and will be able to join their school at the start of the first school term next year.

“MOE would encourage (returning Singaporean) children who are seeking a place in any suitable school near their Singapore residence to make use of MOE’s Assured School Placement service,” said a ministry spokesman. The Assured School Placement service secures admission for returning Singaporean children into a school with vacancies near their residence before they return. Students who make use of this service do not have to sit any centralised tests.

Fair assessment for students who missed parts of national exam paper due to valid reasons

July 13, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

13 July 2020

The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) has said that students who missed parts of the O-and A-level mother tongue language examinations last month will be fairly assessed,.

A spokesman for SEAB said that special consideration can be applied to the affected candidates, provided that they sit the remaining oral and listening comprehension examinations scheduled this month.

SEAB said it will award affected candidates a grade by projecting their marks for the missed papers “based on multiple sources of evidence”, including the candidate’s performance in the other papers for the affected subject in the national examination, such as oral and listening comprehension; the school cohort’s performance in the same examination; as well as the candidate’s school-based assessment.

Every year, there is a second round of written examinations at the end of the year. Based on their mid-year results, affected candidates can decide if they wish to sit the year-end paper.

The number of special consideration applications differs from year to year but, on average, about 2 per cent to 3 per cent of GCE O-level candidates are granted it each year, SEAB said.

Home-based learning and home schooling could become part and parcel of the lives of Singapore students

July 11, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

11 July 2020

Home-based learning (HBL) could become part and parcel of the lives of Singapore students.

There have been ideas floated around that schools could set aside several days every month for online learning.

Indeed in recent months, teachers, students and parents have come to terms quickly with the possibility that digital technology could replicate much of the school experience at home.

Teachers delivered online lessons, parents created learning spaces at home, and students adjusted to the new learning environment.

But to make HBL work, all students must possess the means of access to digital technology. While this access exists for most of them, some from less fortunate backgrounds do not enjoy it.

The authorities also recognise that online learning cannot totally replace the school environment. Schools are socialising institutions which bring together students from every conceivable background and put them through commonly structured regimes of study, play and social interaction.

Still, there is a place for online learning, and the broader concept of home schooling.

Most families of home schooled students adopt a structured regime of study, and there are different homeschool programmes that cater to different needs.

The Ministry of Education’s Compulsory Education Board screens all families who register a desire to homeschool their children, and closely monitors primary school-age children to ensure adherence to guidelines, educational progress and that national education is taught to a homeschooled child.

There is also no lack of social interaction in homeschooling as well. Some programmes such as Classical Education gather small groups on a weekly basis, while parents of other programmes gather on an ad hoc basis.

Singapore’s six government-funded universities are increasing the number of available slots for prospective students

July 10, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

10 July 2020

Singapore’s six government-funded universities are offering around 2,000 more places to prospective students this year.

Some of the offers will go to Singaporeans whose overseas study plans have to be put on hold because of the global human malware situation. Local universities held a second admissions exercise in May to cater to this group of students.

Other spots have also been allocated to polytechnic diploma holders who had previously intended to join the workforce but are now opting to further their studies because of the weak job market.

Because of the additional effort made their year to increase the number of university places, the Ministry of Education said it expects the cohort participation rate (CPR) to increase slightly this year, by up to 2 percentage points, from the originally planned 40 per cent.

The MOE said that Singaporean students who are midway through their degree studies overseas, but who now wish to switch to studying locally, can write directly to the autonomous universities. Their applications will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. This includes a review of whether credit transfers can be granted.

Some students have indicated that they are planning to defer their studies by three to six months. They can sign up for continuing education and training modular courses offered by the universities during this period.

Some undergraduates have become more resourceful in searching for internship opportunities

July 8, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

08 July 2020

Some undergraduates have become more resourceful in searching for internship opportunities, as companies withdraw offers and overseas programmes slow down significantly.

For example, Yale-NUS College student Adriel Yong created a spreadsheet of about 300 internship listings, each offering two or three places. The online document was subsequently circulated to Singaporean students overseas colleges.

Mr Yong, 22, who has just completed his first year of university, also asked some start-up contacts in a WhatsApp group if they were keen to hire interns, and also approached friends for help. He estimated that employers filled about 80 positions through the spreadsheet.

Similarly, the Nanyang Technological University Students’ Union created an internship portal in April to help students. Its president Bryan Chiew and his team contacted over 100 companies, ranging from small and medium-sized enterprises to large corporations and government agencies.

At the National University of Singapore, its students’ union engaged the university’s Centre for Future-ready Graduates to increase the number of internship and job opportunities available for students. The union also started a new $200,000 fund for up to 800 needy full-time undergraduates. Eligible students will receive a one-time financial aid of $250.

University students in Singapore are scrambling for internships

July 7, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

07 July 2020

University students in Singapore are scrambling for internships at a time when the hiring activity of businesses has slowed considerably.

Internship positions have dwindled drastically as mainline jobs are being cut and staff excised.

The Singapore Management University has infrastructure to assist students in this regard. The SMU Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship has a Global Innovation Immersion programme which aims to matches aspiring student-entrepreneurs with firms worldwide.

However, increased demand from local students to take on short-term projects and part-time jobs has affected overall internship opportunities.

Local universities are actively monitoring the internship and employment situation for its students and graduates.

Ms Joan Tay, director of the Centre for Future-ready Graduates at the National University of Singapore, said it anticipates that sectors like retail and hospitality, transport and aerospace, as well as SMEs to be most affected by the current downdraft.

Meanwhile, NUS has placed over 7,000 students on internships in its current academic year. NUS is also seeking remote internships with overseas partners, and several in countries such as Chile, China and Switzerland have started to offer such positions.

No student to be left behind in the push toward digitization as well as home-based learning

July 5, 2020 by Maths Statistics Science Tutor

05 July 2020

The Ministry of Education has stated that every secondary school student will receive a personal laptop or tablet by next year.

Thus, no student will be left behind in the push toward digitization as well as home-based learning, and social mobility will be kept alive. Each student will have equal opportunity to do well, regardless of his or her starting point.

Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is also the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, said that social mobility is an integral part of Singapore’s identity.

Indeed, every successful country has found that it gets more difficult to sustain social mobility with time. The gap widens when parents with higher education or who have become better off invest more in their children, moving them further ahead of the rest.

In this respect, Mr Tharman said the Government and its partners have been working to equalise opportunities for Singaporeans.

The Ministry of Education has also been allocating extra resources to schools for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. They will be given more support in the coming years, with the hiring of more teachers, allied educators, student welfare officers and teacher-counsellors.

These efforts complement the ministry’s Uplift (Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce) programme, in which schools and the community collaborate to support students from disadvantaged families. The additional resources thus pooled together will help students to go as far as they can through the full subject-based banding system in secondary schools, which allows students to take subjects at varying levels of difficulty based on their strengths.

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