UNSW Competition / Paper

[lee_yl]

Same here. Be it top schools or neighbourhood schools, I have not heard any of them training the kids for UNSW paper.

Roughly about 10 children opted out in dd's class.

For the UNSW science paper, the teacher asked the class to read up on Australian Science syllabus online at home and my daughter diligently followed her instruction She found it interesting.

For science, we didn't practice, let's see how she fare.

Australia primary school Science easier or harder than our Sg Science ?

any Science topics Aussie teach in their primary schools, not taught in our Sg syllabus ?

My daughter said ICAS more difficult but I guess it's due to unfamiliarity of the format. Personally, i have not seen the Science paper yet.

She studied on her own and told me the P4 Australian syllabus covers different topics like Volcanoes, core of the earth - magma, human reproduction system (which is covered in P5/P6 here) etc..

[lee_yl]

Hv no idea whether aussie or sg science is more difficult but after going through the whole science paper with my ds, I notice more than 50% of the questions, clues can be found in the question. Just have to read carefully.
That's how my ds got a hd for science.

Steady lah!

Should have asked how to study for Science in April and maybe could advise my daughter to look out for clues & to read carefully. Aiya, too late now.

[Steadyberry]

No worries. Still have icas nx yr, yr aft nx... Yr dd will get her question booklet back later & you can run through with her. I think not that difficult to get d but maybe a bit difficult to get hd bec there are usually a few questions that you might need to guess. For maths, yes, some of them are tricky. My ds said not enough time for him. He was slow. He got 3 questions incorrect & didn't complete the last 3 que. He got d. His friend finished all que and got 5 que wrong. He got hd.

[lee_yl]

No worries. Still have icas nx yr, yr aft nx... Yr dd will get her question booklet back later & you can run through with her. I think not that difficult to get d but maybe a bit difficult to get hd bec there are usually a few questions that you might need to guess. For maths, yes, some of them are tricky. My ds said not enough time for him. He was slow. He got 3 questions incorrect & didn't complete the last 3 que. He got d. His friend finished all que and got 5 que wrong. He got hd.

Ahh... What a waste!

So I think can conclude 5 qns wrong - High Dist
6 qns wrong - Dist

Anyway, I must say that your son has done well for both Maths and Science!

[Steadyberry]

Can't conclude 5 que wrong can get hd but it is around there. U never know, maybe this yr many kids get lesser than 4 que incorrect. So u need to get max 3 que wrong to get hd. Think hd is top 1% or 5%, can't really rem. But not exactly useful in applying for dsa as some parents mentioned. So no prep as in reading & no stress at all for my ds when he sat for icas. Think 28 July is maths icas. Gd luck

[zbear]

Is it necessary to study or prepare for this paper?

I remembered my kids just go in n take the papers when it comes.

BTW, Sec Schools also hv such competitions but my kids never study or prepare anything.

[phtthp]

What advantage or benefit does student have, if they scored merit, distinction or HD in ICAS papers for the 3 subjects ?

[lee_yl]

What advantage or benefit does student have, if they scored merit, distinction or HD in ICAS papers for the 3 subjects ?

From the earlier posts in this thread, I think only getting a HD is useful in padding up the portfolio for DSA, that's all.

Other benefits I see is the exposure to another education system how the questions can be posted in other ways.

[Steadyberry]

Lee_yl is right. For my ds, no benefit except exposure. For those who can get hd or medal for the same subject ie. Maths fr p4-6, can add in yr dsa appli tog with yr nmos/smops. Sorry

[iRabbit]

Lee_yl is right. For my ds, no benefit except exposure. For those who can get hd or medal for the same subject ie. Maths fr p4-6, can add in yr dsa appli tog with yr nmos/smops. Sorry

Since there are only 2 national exams at primary level (even then, not everyone takes GEP screening tests), ICAS is useful in the sense we can have a rough gauge where our kids stand relative to cohort.

I mean since it's graded relatively with percentile thrown in, if one consistently gets a D or HD, it's an assurance that he is doing well.

I just recall it seems that some top schs may require all students to choose a subject domain for DSA. In this case, I feel that having HD in a subject like Eng whereby there're lesser opprotunities to express one's ability, is more useful than math, whereby it's competition galore.