DSA 2021

[xanelynn]

Re NUSH, if unsuccessful and still interested you can see if the SIE (Supplementary Intake Exercise) opens after PSLE results are released (SIE will only open if there is vacancy after all of the COs/WLs are taken-up/converted --- it is possible there is no vacancy). In the past, NUSH website said that students who score 250+ and A* for Math and Science are encouraged to apply. They have not updated this section of the website yet, but presumably somewhere around AL 8 total and AL 1 for Math and Science will be the target. More details here.

https://www.nushigh.edu.sg/admissions/y ... admissions
https://www.nushigh.edu.sg/admissions/y ... sions-faqs

As it pertains to portfolio submission, shortlisting, and CO/WL, I think we all need to remember they probably get 2,000+ applications and cull this down to ~400 interviews to fill 170-180 places. I.e. the interview stage itself is ~1% of the primary school cohort and they accept a fraction of that. For reference, there are 186 primary schools in Singapore, so if we take the top 1-2 kids in math/science in each school that is already 372 kids before considering some of the schools that will have boatloads of kids that are great at these two subjects. Net result; it is a battle and there is no universal magic formula on what will get you through (although somethings probably help more than others).

Good luck to all that are still in the running!

Yup I saw that, SIE will look at prelims and PSLE results and portfolio (again!). So if portfolio for DSA cannot make it, then don't know if portfolio for SIE will be treated the same and not taken for selection or not. Regardless, I have told my girl to study hard for prelims at least!

I think no harm of trying if she really wants to study in that school. Jiayou

[xanelynn]

Did your girl take SPSO and/or NMOS last month?

From what I know, a lot of interview notices were given two days after the NMOS. And this year NUSH are using OAS...

Jiayou! All the very best for your daughter!

OAS was also used in 2019 NMOS.

Was it? My apology! Maybe my girl remembered wrongly.

I only recall the question booklet was given back in 2019.

No worries... I remember OAS too and reconfirmed with my DS. According to him, only RIPMWC through online and the rest via OAS.
Did your girl get NUSH interview? When was that?
Thank you in advance.

Best wishes to your DD.

[soul_starry]

Hi, do you mean there was no request on portfolio submission at all and your DS was called for interview directly? Thank you in advance.

Got received email for portfolio submission but we don’t have anything to submit

You mean your DS not attend any competition or project ? So the 10 items in DSA platform is
blank? What you use to apply math domain ? School results only ? Thanks in advance!

[soul_starry]

Hi, do you mean there was no request on portfolio submission at all and your DS was called for interview directly? Thank you in advance.

Got received email for portfolio submission but we don’t have anything to submit

You mean your DS not attend any competition or project ? So the 10 items in DSA platform is
blank? What you use to apply math domain ? School results only ? Thanks in advance!

He got attend competitions for math and science . Science domain

[SG_KP1]

Yup I saw that, SIE will look at prelims and PSLE results and portfolio (again!). So if portfolio for DSA cannot make it, then don't know if portfolio for SIE will be treated the same and not taken for selection or not. Regardless, I have told my girl to study hard for prelims at least!

I think there is no harm to try as mentioned. As for the portfolio, I think it is unlikely a student will apply for SIE if they did not apply for NUSH DSA, so there will be few "new" applicants. One obvious question NUSH could ask is if so interested in math/science and our school, why did you not apply in May-June? Many students that were interested in NUSH may also lose interest if not selected via DSA. When PSLE results are out, some may score well enough to know they can go school X, Y, or Z and will be filled with joy over that. That being said, the SIE is probably only a handful of openings, if any, so the odds are still not great. But if really love NUSH it is worth giving it another shot. Good luck for prelim and PSLE!

[ALJC]

To parents whose child managed to secure an interview with NUS High, would you mind sharing what went into your portfolio please? I think my P6 child doesn't have any chance since we have not received any email asking for portfolio in this late stage of the process so I am just curious as to what constitutes a successful portfolio. Hopefully, this can help my P4 to plan when it is time. If possible, can you please share on

1) whether you child has any Olympiad experience and if so, which subject and what awards? P4, P5 or P6?
2) any science/maths/robotics related CCA or competitions or E2K?
3) scored band 1 for both science and maths since P4?
4) any other achievements to share if possible.

If you do not wish to share publicly, please PM me. Thank you in advance.

All the best to your child for the selection process and PSLE!

Hi Pegasus08,

My son applied NUSH Math domain.
1. P5 Mathlympic - Silver, P6 SMOPS - Gold, RIPMWC - 56% (only these 3 non-school based achievement that i submitted). I did recd email for submission of portfolio.

Oh ya, joined this yr NMOS & SPSO but result not out yet.

2. No math/science/robotic related CCA.

3. Math always abv 90%, science P4 - 78%, P5 - 88%.

4. GEP student n no other achievement.


Selected for NUSH interview next week.

[xanelynn]

To parents whose child managed to secure an interview with NUS High, would you mind sharing what went into your portfolio please? I think my P6 child doesn't have any chance since we have not received any email asking for portfolio in this late stage of the process so I am just curious as to what constitutes a successful portfolio. Hopefully, this can help my P4 to plan when it is time. If possible, can you please share on

1) whether you child has any Olympiad experience and if so, which subject and what awards? P4, P5 or P6?
2) any science/maths/robotics related CCA or competitions or E2K?
3) scored band 1 for both science and maths since P4?
4) any other achievements to share if possible.

If you do not wish to share publicly, please PM me. Thank you in advance.

All the best to your child for the selection process and PSLE!

Hi Pegasus08,

My son applied NUSH Math domain.
1. P5 Mathlympic - Silver, P6 SMOPS - Gold, RIPMWC - 56% (only these 3 non-school based achievement that i submitted). I did recd email for submission of portfolio.

Oh ya, joined this yr NMOS & SPSO but result not out yet.

2. No math/science/robotic related CCA.

3. Math always abv 90%, science P4 - 78%, P5 - 88%.

4. GEP student n no other achievement.


Selected for NUSH interview next week.

Can I know when did you receive the interview notification? from primary school or direct from NUSH?
Thank you in advance.

All the best for the interview, prelims, PSLE to your DS.

[ALJC]

To parents whose child managed to secure an interview with NUS High, would you mind sharing what went into your portfolio please? I think my P6 child doesn't have any chance since we have not received any email asking for portfolio in this late stage of the process so I am just curious as to what constitutes a successful portfolio. Hopefully, this can help my P4 to plan when it is time. If possible, can you please share on

1) whether you child has any Olympiad experience and if so, which subject and what awards? P4, P5 or P6?
2) any science/maths/robotics related CCA or competitions or E2K?
3) scored band 1 for both science and maths since P4?
4) any other achievements to share if possible.

If you do not wish to share publicly, please PM me. Thank you in advance.

All the best to your child for the selection process and PSLE!

Hi Pegasus08,

My son applied NUSH Math domain.
1. P5 Mathlympic - Silver, P6 SMOPS - Gold, RIPMWC - 56% (only these 3 non-school based achievement that i submitted). I did recd email for submission of portfolio.

Oh ya, joined this yr NMOS & SPSO but result not out yet.

2. No math/science/robotic related CCA.

3. Math always abv 90%, science P4 - 78%, P5 - 88%.

4. GEP student n no other achievement.


Selected for NUSH interview next week.

Can I know when did you receive the interview notification? from primary school or direct from NUSH?
Thank you in advance.

All the best for the interview, prelims, PSLE to your DS.

Recd email on 19/7 direct frm NUSH, school letter on 22/7.

All the best for prelim & PSLE too, fighting!!

[librandips]

Hi bbcxd,

Yup my girl gave both nmos n spso, but no idea how she did yet!
Anyways just asking her to focus on psle now, all the best to your child for psle too

Did your girl take SPSO and/or NMOS last month?

From what I know, a lot of interview notices were given two days after the NMOS. And this year NUSH are using OAS...

Jiayou! All the very best for your daughter!

Hi Pegasu and other parents here,
My girl also did not get an email for even portfolio submission from NUSH. Even I'm wondering what went wrong. Science is her favourite subject and hence I was expecting she gets a chance to interview at the least.
Below is a list of the things I put in for her dsa:
-Gold P6 Vanda science international competition
-Silver P5 Vanda science international competition
-Silver P5 Kangaroo maths Olympiad
-Bronze P6 Hwa Chong Math olympiad
-Environmental science CCA in P4 and P5 where they had even participated in a green wave competition.
- She is a GEP student with consistently decent marks in science, 80-86 till P5 SA2. P6 SA1 she got 88. Even Maths her marks have been decent, 80+ in all SA1 and SA2. Only P4 SA1 she got 65+ because it was a big jump and she took sometime to adjust to the difficulty level and maths was not her favourite subject. P6 Maths SA2 she got an 87. She has not even been very hardworking. On hindsight maybe she should have aimed for 90+?
-Gep students go for an IRS competition in P5 yearly and she got a Silver medal for her project and presentation. (It was a science related project).
- There were no school related science olympiads last year, thus we had just Vanda competition certificate to show. I do not know of any other science competitions I could have got her to participate in.
Honestly I thought she should have atleast got
a chance to interview for NUSH but clearly that's not the case and hence I am wondering what else I could have done.
She has applied for RGS Science too but nothing so far. RGS I know that there would be very few applicants selected for interview as they take such a small percentage for Science dsa, but honestly I thought securing an interview at RGS also would be possible, but im way off hence wanted to know what I may have missed out on
Pls do PM me if you do not want to reply on the public forum.
Thank you

[librandips]

Hi Pegasu and other parents here,
My girl also did not get an email for even portfolio submission from NUSH. Even I'm wondering what went wrong. Science is her favourite subject and hence I was expecting she gets a chance to interview at the least.
Below is a list of the things I put in for her dsa:
-Gold P6 Vanda science international competition
-Silver P5 Vanda science international competition
-Silver P5 Kangaroo maths Olympiad
-Bronze P6 Hwa Chong Math olympiad
-Environmental science CCA in P4 and P5 where they had even participated in a green wave competition.
- She is a GEP student with consistently decent marks in science, 80-86 till P5 SA2. P6 SA1 she got 88. Even Maths her marks have been decent, 80+ in all SA1 and SA2. Only P4 SA1 she got 65+ because it was a big jump and she took sometime to adjust to the difficulty level and maths was not her favourite subject. P6 Maths SA2 she got an 87. She has not even been very hardworking. On hindsight maybe she should have aimed for 90+?
-Gep students go for an IRS competition in P5 yearly and she got a Silver medal for her project and presentation. (It was a science related project).
- There were no school related science olympiads last year, thus we had just Vanda competition certificate to show. I do not know of any other science competitions I could have got her to participate in.
Honestly I thought she should have atleast got
a chance to interview for NUSH but clearly that's not the case and hence I am wondering what else I could have done.
She has applied for RGS Science too but nothing so far. RGS I know that there would be very few applicants selected for interview as they take such a small percentage for Science dsa, but honestly I thought securing an interview at RGS also would be possible, but im way off hence wanted to know what I may have missed out on
Pls do PM me if you do not want to reply on the public forum.
Thank you

Wow! You did so much for your girl, I am just a clueless mummy, not even sure what is out there for my girl. The only time I knew about Olympiads is when my girl is in P6 and got the parent gateway letter on the HCI maths Olympiad (she got participation, no formal training classes) and for SPSO (waiting for results to be out). Nothing in P4 (except for E2K) and P5. Not in GEP and school is not a GEP school so I'm guessing there isn't much opportunities like those in the GEP school, but I read that NUS High would also take in non-GEP people too (at least that's my impression from the previous DSA forums). So I did not have much to write and I did tell my girl her chances not very high but just try and see since DSA is the only way into NUS high. My girl loves science too, always band 1, maths is band 1 or 2. Reads a lot and likes to do science projects. I buy those science related kits for her to do, but how to write those in the non-academic achievement right. I also don't know how to show her "passion" for these subjects, not even sure how NUS High assess people with passion. Now I'm also clueless how to prep my P4 for NUS High if Olympiads does not necessarily equate a chance at portfolio

Also applied to DHS STEAM, did not get selection email from them. But that one I guess they also want Infocomm/robotics experience so can't be helped there.

Thanks for your reply, hopefully the selection round is still ongoing and your girl still has a chance! All the best!

Hi Pegasu,
I'm equally clueless frankly, my girl also did not have any tuitions for olympiads etc, just gave them for fun. Both me and my hubby are super laid back parents
All the best to our girls for the psle