KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

Zeal mummy wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 21, 2022 12:54 am

Ask her if she want to do the JC or the poly route?

.. If poly, she a self-directed learner, loves more hands-on work, has ambitions, her interests are clearly in biomedical or sciences? Perhaps you can guide her to evaluate her own decision. She wouldn’t need humanities for poly admission. And these days poly also leads to university.

However, if she is targeting a JC, you would need to guide her and expressively tell her the benefits of having a 2nd humanities. In the event that she finds Geography too hard to score, she has literature/history to fall back on. Upper sec humanities can be quite different from lower sec. She will have a better idea at end of sec 3. Having a 2nd humanities also helps to hedge against certain years where there is killer exam paper for 1 of the 2 humanities subject.

Hope this helps! All the best.

Some poly courses would still need humanities in the ELR2B2 computation

https://www.tp.edu.sg/elr2b2

emoh wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 21, 2022 5:55 am

Some poly courses would still need humanities in the ELR2B2 computation

https://www.tp.edu.sg/elr2b2

For ELR2B2, you get to choose your best subjects which can exclude humanities for most courses. And if she is sure of what she wants to go for, either bio sciences or engineering then triple science will open more doors for her, especially in the poly route.

Ask: What is your child’s interest? If it's related to medical field, it is beneficial to take bio, especially if you're planning to go overseas. I'd suggest looking up entry requirements in poly/ university websites in fields that your child is interested in to check which subject is required. If not sure of the future, physics is more versatile. Taking both history and geography can be pretty taxing.

Some useful videos to decide on subject combination in Sec 3:

https://youtu.be/bS5JhiyWWHY (Pure or Combined Science)

https://youtu.be/2telwrMiO40 (Physics or Biology)

Hi, dd needs to choose pure humanities for her subject combination, either pure history or pure geography. She likes history and knows the content well but exam marks not great because she struggles with skills. Her geog A1, but she has no interest or passion and find it boring. Any advice which to take ?

quackyduck wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 21, 2022 10:23 pm

Hi, dd needs to choose pure humanities for her subject combination, either pure history or pure geography. She likes history and knows the content well but exam marks not great because she struggles with skills. Her geog A1, but she has no interest or passion and find it boring. Any advice which to take ?

In order to help her "own" the problem or decision making,
ask her to

1) walk into any Popular book store, flip through both O-level TYS (Geog & History), decide for herself which subject, she herself prefer to study.

After flipping through TYS, if she find History "over-whelming", because too many dates, historical events happening to remember, eg. What happen to Stalin, Hitler, etc
maybe she won't take up History. She may just take up Geog instead,

Because

Geography is more on understanding the wind, weather, soil condition, resources, etc. Geog is more "Sciency", so to speak, compared to History. Geog : Yes, u still need to remember lots of stuff. But if u can understand Geog, then remembering become easier.


2) repeat the above, with A-level TYS (Geog & History).


3) she must also factor in,
what other subjects is she taking too, besides just merely asking for ( History or Geog ) ?

Example

If she is taking Bio, that's already a very, very memory intensive subject,
then,
ask her -

How is she going to cope with History, another also equally demanding memory intensive subject, besides Bio ?


4) is she taking
Double or Triple Science ?

If is Triple Science,
these 3 Pure Science subjects are already very "siong",

very, very time consuming to revise. Hence,
her Humanities subject selected, cannot be too heavy, must be a "light" one.
Otherwise,
when come to time management, everything become "im-balanced", topple off, thrown everything off course, because she no time to study so many heavy intensive subjects, that demand her time. End up, she may not even do well in some of her Science subjects, if she were to spend so much time, focusing just on Humanities, trying to understand, trying to catch up, most of the time.

Therefore,
her choice of her other subjects are just as equally important too, besides just merely asking for (History or Geog) ?


Don't forget.
If your girl is in the O level track, there is also another compulsory brand new Upper Secondary subject to tackle, called "Social studies" (SS).
And SS : also got lots & lots of stuff,
need to remember !



5) what career options (opening), will she pursue, if she had studied History vs. Geog, in the university ?
Get her,
to think through,
this question, honestly.


TYS : Ten Year series

After gone through above 5 steps, your daughter will know what she want. You don't make the decision for her, because she is the one studying , not you. She will know for herself, what she want and how to cope

quackyduck wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 21, 2022 10:23 pm

Hi, dd needs to choose pure humanities for her subject combination, either pure history or pure geography. She likes history and knows the content well but exam marks not great because she struggles with skills. Her geog A1, but she has no interest or passion and find it boring. Any advice which to take ?

Student taking pure humanity subject will also need to take elective humanity subject (SS+ humanity), because SS is compulsory for all students. That would mean your DD will still get to study both History and Geography, and it is a matter of study which one more (pure) which one less (elective humanity).

If prioritise interest over scores, then choose History as pure humanity subject and Geo as elective humanity subject. If score is priority, then the other way round.

Since she is keen in History and is doing poorly because of skill, can that skill be brushed up with tuition?

In L1R5 aggregate score , student only need include 1 compulsory humanity subject. For this consideration, it will be good to plan towards at least 1 humanity subject can score well confidently.

SS can be tricky too and if not doing well it can pull down overall elective humanity score. So which humanity subject pair with SS may affect the overall score too

bbbay wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:00 am

Student taking pure humanity subject will also need to take elective humanity subject (SS+ humanity), because SS is compulsory for all students. That would mean your DD will still get to study both History and Geography, and it is a matter of study which one more (pure) which one less (elective humanity).

If prioritise interest over scores, then choose History as pure humanity subject and Geo as elective humanity subject. If score is priority, then the other way round.

Since she is keen in History and is doing poorly because of skill, can that skill be brushed up with tuition?

In L1R5 aggregate score , student only need include 1 compulsory humanity subject. For this consideration, it will be good to plan towards at least 1 humanity subject can score well confidently.

SS can be tricky too and if not doing well it can pull down overall elective humanity score. So which humanity subject pair with SS may affect the overall score too

Some schools offer Elective Literature as well with SS

quackyduck wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 21, 2022 10:23 pm

Hi, dd needs to choose pure humanities for her subject combination, either pure history or pure geography. She likes history and knows the content well but exam marks not great because she struggles with skills. Her geog A1, but she has no interest or passion and find it boring. Any advice which to take ?

bbbay wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:00 am

Student taking pure humanity subject will also need to take elective humanity subject (SS+ humanity), because SS is compulsory for all students. That would mean your DD will still get to study both History and Geography, and it is a matter of study which one more (pure) which one less (elective humanity).

The last sentence in bold is not entirely right.

Maybe the child is in O levels and has already decided on Elective Literature, and is asking for opinions on the 2nd humanities subject, choosing between History and Geography.

Maybe the child is in IP and only wants to study one humanities subject (choosing between H and G) or in IP and has decided on the first humanities subject, and is now asking how to choose between History and Geography for the 2nd humanities subject.

bbbay wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:00 am

Student taking pure humanity subject will also need to take elective humanity subject (SS+ humanity), because SS is compulsory for all students. That would mean your DD will still get to study both History and Geography, and it is a matter of study which one more (pure) which one less (elective humanity).

If prioritise interest over scores, then choose History as pure humanity subject and Geo as elective humanity subject. If score is priority, then the other way round.

Since she is keen in History and is doing poorly because of skill, can that skill be brushed up with tuition?

In L1R5 aggregate score , student only need include 1 compulsory humanity subject. For this consideration, it will be good to plan towards at least 1 humanity subject can score well confidently.

SS can be tricky too and if not doing well it can pull down overall elective humanity score. So which humanity subject pair with SS may affect the overall score too

maybe your son's Secondary Chung Cheng High (Main) school
don't offer any
Elective "Literature", together with SS ?

A lot of Secondary school boys don't like "Literature". Often, they prefer to choose (study) History or Geog.

That's why
u keep harping on (History & Geog), be it a "Half" subject that goes together with SS
OR
a Full subject, on its own ?

SS : Social Studies


However,
in other Secondary schools,

example (All Girls school)
in PLMGS (Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' Secondary),

1) the Lit Teachers in PLMGS are very strong, very good. The Teachers here have been teaching Lit for many years, to several batches of PLMGS girls. Thus, they are very experienced in teaching Lit.

Hence,
many PLMGS girls offered Literature, in their Sec 3 subject combination, be they take it up as their "HALF Lit"
or
as their "FULL Lit" subject.


2) So,
there do exist Secondary schools after all, that still offer Literature, besides (History & Geog).

quackyduck wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 21, 2022 10:23 pm

Hi, dd needs to choose pure humanities for her subject combination, either pure history or pure geography. She likes history and knows the content well but exam marks not great because she struggles with skills. Her geog A1, but she has no interest or passion and find it boring. Any advice which to take ?

Option 1: Since skills can be learnt, go with her interest. (If she is willing to put in the time and effort to learn.) Take History.

Option 2. Be pragmatic and take geography. (Especially if she is taking O-levels, competition for popular courses are cut-throat.)