While choosing Sec 3 subjects for my niece this year, I have checked out few schools on their subjects combination. Below info is from XinMin Sec .
1) Triple Science
Must be very strong in all sciences.
(Triple sciences is no longer offered in JCs)
2) Pure Physics & Chemistry
Foundation for engineering-type courses.
Chemistry is the main science that is required in most higher education courses. “O”Level Biology is not required for many biology related courses. (E.g Medical studies in NUS)
3) Pure Biology and Chemistry
For those who are interested in, and good at life sciences but find Physics concepts hard to grasp
Most schools offer option 1 and option 2. Not many schools offer option 3, (surprisingly most Girls School offer this option, on top of option 1 and 2).
Currently, most schools break down the Sec 1 and 2 Science curriculum based on the three components. Based on their Sec 1 and 2 results, the students will know which Science components they are good at and hence choose the best Science option (Triple Pure or Double Pure or even combined Science) that suits them.
From what I read from some JCs websites,
1) If you do combined science (phy/chem), you must get A1 or A2 in order to do H2 Physics and H2 Chemistry in JC.
2) You can only do the Science components which you did in Sec 3 and 4. Example if you did not do Biology (Pure or combined), high chance you cannot do Biology in JC. (unless you can convince the principal).
3) If you are in the Science stream in JC, you MUST have one Art Subject (contrast subject). Because of this reason, it is rare but possible to find a student in JC doing Triple Science and Maths (consider Science subj). You need to convince the principal that you are good enough to cope with 4 Science subject s and 1 Art subject in JC.
4) If you prefer to do Arts in JC, you don't need to use Science subjects to be in the L1R5 computation. Example you can use the following subjects only: English, 2nd Lang, EMaths, AMaths, Pure Lit, SS/Geog elective.
Below is the briefing slides for the Sec 2 students from Bukit panjang for your reference. You can go to Xinmin and Anderson websites to check out their slides.
http://www.bpghs.moe.edu.sg/press_relea ... 001142.pdf
Your daughter score of 246 is a good score. If she likes Science and wants to be “stretched”, you should choose those schools which allow students to do 9 ‘O’ level subjects: 2 Lang, 2 Maths, 3 Sciences, 2 Humanities.
Humanities is a MUST for L1B5 computation, hence it is advisable to do 2 Humanities than 1. Most schools only offer 1 Humanities for Triple Science classes.
Alternatively if your daughter prefers Humanities than Science, then let her do 2 Pure Science and 2 Humanities or 1 science and 2 Humanities.
Looking at your choices, I cannot comment much on Cedar and Cresent as I cannot get the sec 3 subjects info from the schools website. But I know that Bukit panjang, Anderson and Xinmin allow their better students to do 9 ‘O’ level subjects (or even 10 if the student do two 1st Lang). In addition, they also allow students to do other subjects like Arts, Design and Technology, Music, Economics, 3rd Lang, on top of the 2 Pure Sciences/combined Science. This is to cater for students who don’t like Science.
Hope the info is useful for you.