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Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 1:01 am
by MS_Daddy
Hi to all parents whose kid is taking psle this year. I writing to share with you my experience of dsa 2020 with my DD and hipefully it can help you in one way or another in your kid journey.

My DD is from a neighbourhood school in the west, in fact it is the most “unwanted” primary school in the neighbourhood, with many many foreigners students, much more than locals.
I never believe in forcing my kids to tution, therefore i will always let them decide if they need to have any extra lesson outside. Happy to say she was “lazy” , helping me save quite abit on tution fees.
Since primary 2 or 3, i have been telling my DD if there is a subject that can acheive full marks, it will definitely going to be maths. These words have big impact to her as her subsequent exam for math has always been full marks, except sometime 1 or 2 careless calculation mistakes where she lost marks. But these carelessness actually motivate her more because her heart feels pain for giving the marks back to the teacher.
An Apple a day keep the doctor away. Since P5 i started to give her a maths problem sum every day for practise, which i pick up from some parents post in the facebook group post. From there slowly we learn together and understand together. Slowly from our learning , i realise her thought and process sometime are different from mine. she will explain her steps to me, and it makes sense. I thought her concept is much better than me. I told my wife about it and we decide why not let her try out Dsa for math domain?
We have our concerns too.
1) Will my DD have lesser chance since she is not from atas pri sch? She is not even the best in her sch.
2) will she be demoralize if kena rejected and affect her mood towards prelim and psle?
3) will the school even shortlist her? Her prior math cert is just a P5 MO which her pri sch made her participate, got a gold which she also dun know how she did it.

After some discussion with her, she decided to try. Her thought “no harm trying”
If get shortlist by sch, can hv free experience for interview. For a 12 year old kid, these opportunity for interview is rare right? We want her to embrace the experience and journey of dsa, while not going to let it affect her preparation for prelim and psle regardless of the outcome.
Next question what school to choose? She say girl school, and after some read up and decision, she chosen nygh and 2 others girl school. I didnt even bother to ask her why not rgs. It her decision, let her enjoy it.
To our surprise, she was shortlisted by all 3 schools. Test and assisgment were done in her pri sch after lesson end, follow by e interview.
From there she roughly can tell which sch she has a feel good feeling ( higher chance of co or wl). She feel she had the least chance for nygh cos she couldnt even finish all the questions in the paper. And she also forgot all the questions for interview. (Guess she must have mess it up). Further more, there were another 2 school mates applying for nygh too. They are always better than her in terms of academy results.
Dsa outcome was released before psle. It was kept away from her till psle was over, she was accepted by 2 schools, and nygh was of them. We dun want complacency to set in.
This dsa journey has actually prompt her to even excel her usual self for psle. We expect her psle result to be around 250-259, in the end her result was way beyond our expectation. She was out to prove the school wrong for not accepting her because she thought no chance for all 3 dsa schools.
End of day , this dsa journey prove to be a good one. We are happy for her and glad we involve her in decision making and embracing the opportunity given to her.
The sec sch teachers in charge have years of experience in dsa , it is definitely not something we as parents know what they are looking for or looking at. What we parents can do is to let our kids make the final decision and reassure them that no matter what the outcome, it is definitely not going to be end of the world. In fact it is just the beginning, the beginning of a new learning journey. Let the kids write their own journey, you be surprised where it is going to lead them to. Let them know it is not how successful they are that define them, it is how fast they can “get up “ when they “fall down” that will define them. So let dsa be an opportunity for them to learn, even though the chance of “falling down” is high.
My best wishes to all P6 in this year psle.

Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 7:54 am
by zac's mum
DSA 2021 portal opens only at 11am. Template (for u to save to computer, then copy & paste your precious text into the online form) will also be available then. Good luck!

Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 8:45 am
by onejett
Thank you so much for sharing! It's so good. I wish more parents can come forth and share their journey!
MS_Daddy wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 1:01 am
Hi to all parents whose kid is taking psle this year. I writing to share with you my experience of dsa 2020 with my DD and hipefully it can help you in one way or another in your kid journey.

My DD is from a neighbourhood school in the west, in fact it is the most “unwanted” primary school in the neighbourhood, with many many foreigners students, much more than locals.
I never believe in forcing my kids to tution, therefore i will always let them decide if they need to have any extra lesson outside. Happy to say she was “lazy” , helping me save quite abit on tution fees.
Since primary 2 or 3, i have been telling my DD if there is a subject that can acheive full marks, it will definitely going to be maths. These words have big impact to her as her subsequent exam for math has always been full marks, except sometime 1 or 2 careless calculation mistakes where she lost marks. But these carelessness actually motivate her more because her heart feels pain for giving the marks back to the teacher.
An Apple a day keep the doctor away. Since P5 i started to give her a maths problem sum every day for practise, which i pick up from some parents post in the facebook group post. From there slowly we learn together and understand together. Slowly from our learning , i realise her thought and process sometime are different from mine. she will explain her steps to me, and it makes sense. I thought her concept is much better than me. I told my wife about it and we decide why not let her try out Dsa for math domain?
We have our concerns too.
1) Will my DD have lesser chance since she is not from atas pri sch? She is not even the best in her sch.
2) will she be demoralize if kena rejected and affect her mood towards prelim and psle?
3) will the school even shortlist her? Her prior math cert is just a P5 MO which her pri sch made her participate, got a gold which she also dun know how she did it.

After some discussion with her, she decided to try. Her thought “no harm trying”
If get shortlist by sch, can hv free experience for interview. For a 12 year old kid, these opportunity for interview is rare right? We want her to embrace the experience and journey of dsa, while not going to let it affect her preparation for prelim and psle regardless of the outcome.
Next question what school to choose? She say girl school, and after some read up and decision, she chosen nygh and 2 others girl school. I didnt even bother to ask her why not rgs. It her decision, let her enjoy it.
To our surprise, she was shortlisted by all 3 schools. Test and assisgment were done in her pri sch after lesson end, follow by e interview.
From there she roughly can tell which sch she has a feel good feeling ( higher chance of co or wl). She feel she had the least chance for nygh cos she couldnt even finish all the questions in the paper. And she also forgot all the questions for interview. (Guess she must have mess it up). Further more, there were another 2 school mates applying for nygh too. They are always better than her in terms of academy results.
Dsa outcome was released before psle. It was kept away from her till psle was over, she was accepted by 2 schools, and nygh was of them. We dun want complacency to set in.
This dsa journey has actually prompt her to even excel her usual self for psle. We expect her psle result to be around 250-259, in the end her result was way beyond our expectation. She was out to prove the school wrong for not accepting her because she thought no chance for all 3 dsa schools.
End of day , this dsa journey prove to be a good one. We are happy for her and glad we involve her in decision making and embracing the opportunity given to her.
The sec sch teachers in charge have years of experience in dsa , it is definitely not something we as parents know what they are looking for or looking at. What we parents can do is to let our kids make the final decision and reassure them that no matter what the outcome, it is definitely not going to be end of the world. In fact it is just the beginning, the beginning of a new learning journey. Let the kids write their own journey, you be surprised where it is going to lead them to. Let them know it is not how successful they are that define them, it is how fast they can “get up “ when they “fall down” that will define them. So let dsa be an opportunity for them to learn, even though the chance of “falling down” is high.
My best wishes to all P6 in this year psle.

Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 9:00 am
by Luxedream
coast wrote:
Tue May 04, 2021 1:35 pm
Some statistics on last year DSA. I think this is the first year that MOE is releasing such details like total applicants, % admitted for different categories, ...

While many schools usually indicate that there is no fixed quota, the % across talent areas seem consistent with my observation of a few IP schools (note that it may differ from year to year):-
Big percentage admitted via Sports
Few admitted via Leadership
Few admitted via Languages (compared to Maths & Science)

The success rate (about 30%) is quite impressive (all applicants admitted via DSA to IP and non-IP schools).

All the best to parents with kids applying for DSA this year! :rahrah:

DSA 2020 (Sec 1 2021)
3,600 admitted via DSA (around 30% of 11,900 applicants)
- About 33 per cent to IP
- About 67 per cent to non-IP
- 40 % via sports and games
- 20 % via performing arts
- 20 % via STEM
- Nearly 10 % via leadership skills and uniformed groups
- About 10 % across other 3 talent areas - entrepreneurship and innovation; languages and humanities; and visual arts, design and media.

Source:-
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ ... -last-year
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ ... ect-school
30% success rate is based on total applications across all schools.

For top/popular IP schools, success rate would be closer to 10%, based on past year observations and sharing by other ksp members.

Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 11:15 am
by coast
Luxedream wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 9:00 am
coast wrote:
Tue May 04, 2021 1:35 pm
Some statistics on last year DSA. I think this is the first year that MOE is releasing such details like total applicants, % admitted for different categories, ...

While many schools usually indicate that there is no fixed quota, the % across talent areas seem consistent with my observation of a few IP schools (note that it may differ from year to year):-
Big percentage admitted via Sports
Few admitted via Leadership
Few admitted via Languages (compared to Maths & Science)

The success rate (about 30%) is quite impressive (all applicants admitted via DSA to IP and non-IP schools).

All the best to parents with kids applying for DSA this year! :rahrah:

DSA 2020 (Sec 1 2021)
3,600 admitted via DSA (around 30% of 11,900 applicants)
- About 33 per cent to IP
- About 67 per cent to non-IP
- 40 % via sports and games
- 20 % via performing arts
- 20 % via STEM
- Nearly 10 % via leadership skills and uniformed groups
- About 10 % across other 3 talent areas - entrepreneurship and innovation; languages and humanities; and visual arts, design and media.

Source:-
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ ... -last-year
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ ... ect-school
30% success rate is based on total applications across all schools.

For top/popular IP schools, success rate would be closer to 10%, based on past year observations and sharing by other ksp members.
Yes, it is 30% of all applicants admitted via DSA.

About 1,188 were admitted via DSA to IP schools.

If we take a rough Sec 1 IP Intake of 4,000, then about 30% of IP intake were admitted via DSA.

This is in line with "around 30% to 35% of S1 IP intake through DSA-Sec" mentioned by some IP schools.

As for IP DSA success rate, I have posted the following a few days ago. However, take it as a very rough guide as it varies from year to year and is likely different from one IP school to another.
coast wrote:
Fri Apr 30, 2021 3:53 pm
If your child has strong talent/potential/passion for a talent area (though not many secondary schools look at potential), just go for it as long as both you and your child manage your expectations. In general, take it as a 10% chance for IP schools (if your child is outstanding at national/ international level, then the chance is higher). Try not to DSA with a “sure get in” or “most likely will get” mindset. I have seen quite a number of students with outstanding achievements but not successful in their DSA. But the students were not affected negatively (they were disappointed initially for sure) and eventually entered the same secondary school via PSLE results.

Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 12:34 pm
by IHs Mum
Hi, Wondering is the O level in IP/dual track school better than normal secondary school?

Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 1:00 pm
by floppy
IHs Mum wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 12:34 pm
Hi, Wondering is the O level in IP/dual track school better than normal secondary school?
Define better.
The paper you sit for O level is the same in every school.

Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 1:09 pm
by coast
IHs Mum wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 12:34 pm
Hi, Wondering is the O level in IP/dual track school better than normal secondary school?
Can't generalise.

Affiliated primary students of dual track schools (CHS, MGS, SCGS, St Nicks, ...) may be in a better position to choose (or don't choose) their affiliated secondary school as they are better informed about the school’s culture, environment, academic standards, ... bearing in mind that each student is unique in his strength, interests, ...

Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 1:12 pm
by YJMum
Hi Anyone has experience dsa to SCGS tennis?
my girl takes part in regular competitions every school holidays, won a couple of doubles medals, team champions one of main players in school team (top 3 schools in tennis in NSG)....
does her chances stand good?
how were the selections conducted last year?

Re: DSA 2021

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 1:38 pm
by phtthp
IHs Mum wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 12:34 pm
Hi, Wondering is the O level in IP/dual track school better than normal secondary school?
Your word, "better", is for which subject?

1) for St Nick
OP Sec 1 subject "Maths", last year 2020 -

our Teachers pulled down some Sec 2 Maths topics from MOE syllabus, taught the class in advance. Other Secondary Catholic missionary schools' Sec 1 students not yet been taught, on these topics.
But our OP girls were already taught, first.


2) for Sec 2 OP subject "Science " -

St Nick observed & followed closely to what the IP Science topics have been covered & taught, in each Term.

Example

For this mid-year 2021 "Sec 2 " mid-year May month exam , which is starting tomorrow Thursday (6 May 2021), our O-level curriculum Science exam topics tested are 2 topics lesser (fewer), compared to our Year 2 IP Science exam topics. Apart from these two topics lesser, the rest of the remaining Science topics tested are the same, in both track. The exam topics tested may be identical, but the content questions tested may differ.


3) for subject "Higher Chinese" -
whether IP or OP track, our Sec 2 students take the same common exam HCL paper 2.

Example

Initially, our 2021 Sec 2 OP students supposed to test 4 HCL chapters, for this mid-year exam, same as what happened in previous Term 1 test.

But after hearing that Year 2 IP students are tested Total of 6 chapters, from dan yuan (4 and 7), from HCL textbooks 2A and 2B, after a meeting held by Chinese Teachers, decision changed ! Everyone, including OP students: now all follow IP track students, also tested Total 6 chapters, for mid-year exam. Not 1 chapter less. Not 4 chapters, anymore.


4) for subject Sec 2 "Geography", 2021 Year 2 IP students are tested more topics, than Sec 2 OP students


OP : O-level program curriculum


5) for subject Sec 2 Literature -

IP and OP used different Literature text. So exam content differ naturally.

===========================

Overall, IP track is the driver, because year-end this year, some of our OP students will cross over to the IP track, starting Y3 IP next year.

(I often talked about Sec 2, not other level, because of the year end streaming exercise held, to select next year Sec 3 subject combination. Sorry )