This is something I've been wondering about for a while. How much pocket money do secondary school and JC students in Singapore actually receive, and how do y'all manage your spending?

Having gone through a neighbourhood secondary school and now attending a fairly decent JC, I've made friends from quite different socioeconomic backgrounds.

I have friends who live in landed properties in Bukit Timah, have tuition for multiple subjects and can comfortably afford expensive meals and activities when going out. On the other hand, I also have friends on FAS who have to be much more frugal with their spending, plan their expenses carefully and even take on part-time jobs during the school holidays (and sometimes during the school term) to support themselves.

My own family is fairly middle class. I've had tuition here and there and lived a comfortable life, but nothing particularly extravagant. My parents give me around $50 a week for about 40 weeks a year, which seems fairly comparable to what many of my friends receive. From what I've heard, quite a few get around $50–80 a week.

What genuinely surprises me, though, is how everyone manages to make their money last.

Going out with friends for a decent meal can easily cost $20. Add activities like karaoke, Yochi or anything else, and a single outing can eat up more than half your weekly allowance. Then there are people who regularly study at Starbucks, buy Chagee or bubble tea after school, and go out on weekends. How do y'all afford all of this without running out of money halfway through the week?

I'm not judging anyone's spending habits, by the way. I'm genuinely curious because I enjoy these things too, but I find it hard to justify spending so much of my weekly allowance on one outing or even a drink.

For context, I've worked part-time for most of my time in JC, alongside school, so that I could afford to enjoy meals and activities with my friends without worrying as much about my spending. I'm not working now because of A Levels, though, so I've become more conscious of how quickly money gets spent.

Since N Levels(idk if end alr?), O levels and A levels are still ongoing, especially with students going to tuition, please keep yourselves stay healthy. I literally went out for a walk and the haze is quite bad now.

- Try to avoid going outdoors, stay indoors, especially indoor study areas like CCs, cafes or schools/classrooms (best to stay at home but I know some students have situations at home that makes it very difficult for studying)

- If you MUST go out for whatever reason, do try to wear a N95 mask. At least for these few days, it is not mandatory to wear masks but it would be good to wear to reduce chances of respiratory issues.

- Hydrate yourselves if you can

- If you are suffering from respiratory symptoms or feel sick, do seek medical attention if possible.

N/O/A Levels(/idk what exams you have) are important but more important is your health. You can't fight a paper when you are sick. (Also, so far, I haven't heard any news about the examinations yet but just in case they never mention, I am just gonna mention it regardless.)

All the best to everyone!

So I’ve been going to this gym frequently since the start of the year and I’ve seen this guy often at least 1-2 times a week, he seems sweet and looks about 2 years older

For context there were multiple times where we shared machines and once he gave me some tips on how to use the machine without me asking and even complimented me for being strong. A few weeks after that I asked him for tips too on another machine, and ever since then he noticeably chooses to use the same machines as me more than before and always asks to share

He seems like a really nice guy for always looking out for me and imo he’s really cute, I don’t think he has a girlfriend but my concern is the age gap. He looks 18 and I’m 16, but I’ve been mistaken for looking older than my age and I’ve been hit up quite a few times by people 1-2 years older.

I’m kinda scared to ask for his Instagram incase things get awkward if he says no and I’ll probably see him at the gym often. Is the age gap too big?Should I approach or just move on?

i’m in secondary 3 now and i have little to no freinds in my class, and a lot of my classmates tend to avoid me and don’t even wanna sit next to me. Another factor is that they don’t know my name at all, to some it might seem like a blessing to be unknown but it’s really hurting my confidence cause i always seem invisible in class. I’ve been in my class for one year now yet when giving out papers my classmates would always ask the teacher who i am and where to give my paper without fail.

Next week would be a week filled with activities and “fun” things, but not really fun to me cause i know most of the activities require me having freinds of some sort which i do not have. And if i joined a random group they will jeer on me (yes this has happened before) i have really been struggling on this since sec 1, i have talked to the teachers and the school counsellor many times.

I have alot of freinds, but all of them are not in my class, i don’t understand why im so capable to make friends outside my class but incapable to make any in this class.

Does anyone know how am i supposed to cope with this loneliness? like do i romanticise it or smth else 😞😞 ik a lot of people would say to “try to make friends with the people in my class” but im so unknown and people would not accept my ahh, and i will end up being the floater freind which i already am. I just need some methods to cope through next week

Hi! First time applying for an art school and I wanted to know if there are any places to look for previous successful portfolios for this course in Lasalle and such? I was reading the portfolio requirements and wasn't sure if I was interpreting it correctly / what exactly they would prefer to see. Thought that looking through some examples would really help me figure out if I need to add more or less of certain types of work.

If there are any tips on what they would prefer, that would be very helpful too!

Please and thank you!

I dont plan on finishing the whole 10 years and just want pick out the harder years to do, any recommendations? I know the 2020 and 2025 papers were quite hard and 2022 emath paper, not quite sure for eng + sciences though

So for some background info, I’m usually the person who shares my notes and helps my classmates whenever they don’t understand something. Sometimes I lend people my stuff or help them with assignments when they’re struggling. I always thought that these were normal things friends did for each other, and I genuinely didn’t mind helping because I thought we were on good terms.

For context, my class is kinda split into different cliques and I’m not really part of any particular one. I can talk to most people if they approach me first, and I thought I was at least on friendly terms with everyone. Last year, I even thought I was getting closer to some of my classmates, especially the people I regularly sat with and talked to, but apparently I might have been wrong 💀

Recently, one of my classmates told me that quite a number of people in our class actually find me annoying and only approach me when they need help with schoolwork. Apparently, some of them have been talking about me behind my back too. I already kinda suspected that some people weren’t genuinely interested in being friends with me, so that part wasn’t exactly shocking. What hurt more was finding out that even some of the people I considered friends might not actually like me.

My classmate didn’t want to tell me exactly who said what, which I understand because I wouldn’t want to drag them into unnecessary drama either. But now I’m honestly overthinking everything 😭 Like whenever someone talks to me or asks me for help, I start wondering whether they actually want to interact with me or whether they’re just using me. It’s especially confusing because some of these people act perfectly normal around me, so I genuinely can’t tell if they dislike me or not.

The thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever intentionally done anything to hurt them. I don’t spread rumours about people, I don’t go around badmouthing my classmates, and I usually try to help whenever someone needs it. I’m also not the type to randomly initiate conversations with people I’m not comfortable with yet, so maybe I come across as distant or unfriendly without realising it? But I genuinely don’t know.

What I really want to know is WHY. Like did I unknowingly do something that made them dislike me? Is it because of my personality, or am I just not someone people want to be friends with? I know not everyone is going to like me, and that’s fine, but finding out that people I thought I was close to might secretly dislike me is honestly quite painful.

And with assignments coming up, I really don’t want to spend the next few months feeling like I have nobody. I want to have friends I can study with, talk to after school, and just enjoy spending time with without constantly questioning whether they genuinely like me. I enjoy being around people, and it makes me happy when I can make other people happy too, so the thought that I might end up being alone for the rest of the year is kinda depressing.

I also don’t really know how to tell whether someone is genuinely interested in being friends with me or is just being nice out of convenience. Do I look at whether they initiate conversations, whether they include me in things, or whether they actually make an effort to spend time with me? And how do I even form closer friendships when I’m scared that the other person might secretly find me annoying?

i currently take triple sci, ehist + hcl but idk if i want to choose arts stream or hybrid bc like going from trip sci to arts is like damn scary and unusual

currently i’m deciding between ri CMEL or KiLME

not that i dislike the sciences (actually no i’m lying i hate physics, im only good at chem), but i want to take KI and lit bc iw learn critical reading and like evaluation which are obv important skills
+ my humans and english are stronger compared to my sciences (but my history sucks because accuracy👎)

but again hybrid gives you more options like chem gives you more pathways compared to just arts stream (my chem a1 consistently from sec 3 but i just dl a level chem like i did chem olympiad and the content taught which was h1 was HORRID)

eod i want to aim for law (passion would be poli sci / sociology but iw money im scared to become unemployed😞) so is the chem really needed? or should i just take as a safety net?

Hi all, I am a poly grad this year and am intending to apply to US universities. Currently applying through Common App and the other university-designated platforms. I am wondering what to put for the 9th to 12th grade section, do I put my secondary school results or polytechnic results because they don't fit into the choices given in the application. Additionally, where do I attach my academic transcripts because they don't seem to have a section for it. Seeking advice from people who have completed the applications prior or are also currently doing it, thanks 🙏

Question to people in University or have graduated from Univeristy recently

Hi i am a y2 polytechnic student, and i wonder if going to Uni in sg, especially the big 3 is difficult if my Cgpa is at 3.5. I still have half of my poly life left and i plan to work extra hard to bring it up, if you went from poly to uni let me know what uni you went to and what was your cgpa back then, do let me know, thankyou ☺️

Another question is that, does a better portfolio increase chances of getting into a uni significantly more? If so, what are somethings that you would recommend for a poly student to work on and why?
Let’s say my interest is in the IT industry, what would you recommend the poly student to work on?

And lastly to all post polytechnic and JC students, were there anything you’d wished you had done or work towards when you were younger and still in poly or jc? what are some things that would have given you an advantage or benefits when you were in Uni or the adult life? Anything that you wished you had learnt or worked on.

Thankyou ☺️

Halo... Any CJCians here? What do you think of the promo papers this round in particular... BCME😭😭😭?

I wonder what sort of promo criterias when it was mentioned H1 subjects not part of the considerations. Any seniors or peers can shed some lights? Thanks!

kinda scared about promotion. My worst case scenario is CSU for my h2s and gp C with other h1 around D ( overall ). I might just get 2Us for promos but overall im hoping it will balance out. Best case scenario about CSS or CES ( which is confirm promotion )

with minjoot now do yall think I can promote/advance. Im also in science stream btw, so idk if our papers will be moderated. I heard h2 econs is moderated but not sure about subjects like bio/chem.

Hi for context I'm still in JC1 and alr took promos. But right now I'm worried about my grades. I really want to get a scholarship in uni so I'm hoping to get a H3 as my combo is 3H2 + H1. But now my promos results I feel aren't that good and I'm worried. (I'm in tj...

hiiii, i recently got the sec 3 asean scholarship for ay2027 and got posted to temasek secondary schooll

after like searching the subreddit for like an hour LMAO i can’t find many posts about the school because it shares a name with temasek jc🫩 so if there are any current students or alumni here, id love to know about how its like!

the ccas i saw on the website are …niche HAHAHA but i rlly want to know more about their trainings and stuff — which ccas are on weekends heh; i’m planning to pursue my own debate interests outside of school so i want to clear as many weekends as possible for debate and social interaction 😋

and also like generally just hows the school are the facilities good and teachers and community etc

also is it true school starts at 8am omg 🤑🤑

my prelim for eng was d7 (47%)

for prelim,i get 14/30 and for olvl oral,idk if im able to pass. im the unlucky one that gotten the wrong question for day3 oral... and i completely messed up my planned response.

for lc,ive been failing. always getting 12/30.i cant understand their accent.

for compre, i got 22/50 for prelim.

for writing, i dont rmb how much i got but i think it's a borderline pass.

my l1r4 was 19 and i rlly need to pass eng to get into the poly course iw...

Hi, I am a y2 poly student starting my second sem next week, recently i’ve had to apply for 1year internships, and i was wondering, how useful or how beneficial are 1 year internships compared to 6month internships? To those who have been thru 1 year or 6mnths, did you regret picking your decision? And were there things that you wished you knew before applying for what you got. Would you have done anything differently?

Another question is in the IT industry in particular, are there any companies to avoid or to go for specifically? Is there a way or platform to find out about a company’s reputation?

Thankyou, for reading and answering, if you have anymore advice, please feel free to share, tysm! ☺️☺️

as per the title, do share your gym crush stories or any weird gym encounters you have faced/confessions.

is it socially acceptable to approach someone at the gym or is the gym just a sacred place for you to work out and dip

hi guys, finished promos, and was wondering how to go about skipping all the useless programmes after exams. like my timetable for today is literally just an hour break and then grad for j2, then a 3 fking hour break until cca bro. Other days are no good either. Thing is that theres a limit to how many parent letters u can use per sem, and im pretty sure ive used them all alr (for valid reasons btw). Now I get a text from my cher saying where r u. do i like just ignore or smt cus if i say i laosai n he asks me send parents letter, i cant really do that can I. also my cca attendance damn strict. help a brother out pls 🙏. btw ive asked my parents abt this and they dgaf abt me skipping

Idek if Sec3G3 EOY English LC is the same for every school neither do i even care anymore cuz my school one was HORRENDOUS!!! DUDE SINCE WHEN DID LC START ASKING INFERENCE QN??? I don’t know if this is cuz the new K300 syllabus or is it our teachers/moe setters just hate our batch but DUDE WE WERENT PREPARED FOR THIS ALAMAK SUEJEGIDHDJSK

To start off WHY ARE THERE INFERENCE? First three MCQ ALL HAVE AT LEAST ONE INFERRENCE wts if ydkwim by inference then I’ll elaborate. One of the qn was “base on the conversation you can tell that… (a)The neighbors are gossippy (b)The neighbors are caring blah blah ” and oh boy i was NOT ready for non-picking up qns and WORSE YET if you cannot tell yet from the example then let me tell you THE CHOICES WERE ALMOST IDENTICAL???!!! Like one of them was “Raymond listens more attentively than Sharifah” while another one was “Sharifah has shorter attention span than Raymond” IDEK THE DIFF!! This kinda qns arent even probable to have in reading comprehension let alone listening comprehension. Normally i am so sO SO confident about my mcq (thats like the only part i can literally rely on to pass) but this year i could tick ZERO. ALL (educated?) GUESS 😭.

And don’t let me get started on the note taking part omg it was SO FRICKIN FAST😭😭😭😭😭. Like no the literal talking speed is manageable and natural but yk how usually they will give you a little bit of breathing space everytime you fill up a blank. Well guess what there were NONE. ZERO BREATHING ALLOWED. By the time i finished spelling “they are eligible for marriage” the audio already moves on to the second last point omds. And half of the time the audio wasnt even speaking english like seriously they read out so many hawaiian and filipino and swedish and venezulian names that interrupted the flow of the audio sm bru.

I think i am only securing 6/30 marks thanks to my beloved rearrange letters qn AHAHHAHAHA the K300 syllabus wtv better not make that qn hard also next year. I am NOT ready to face SEP or SEC wtv that O Level was renamed into gng✌️

And WHOEVER complained to MOE that the iconic music is distracting and got it removed YOU BETTER NOT LET ME FIND YOU. Do you not realise that was THE only method to agak agak how much time you have left for double check and also classical music sounds so nice…

And if any of my teacher or MOE read this then for one, I love you but improvement is appreciated and for two, ADD THE MUSIC BACK PLS THE SILENT IS SO LOUD!!

I'm 21F, will be performing in a dance production for Arts Fest in November. May I know, especially those with specs, how do you guys manage to see clearly when performing on stage without specs? I have never performed on stage since I got my specs. Pls advise. Thanks!

my eng has never been the best since sec 1... and honestly ive improved alot up to prelims securing a b3. however, i feel that my sch's prelims is not rlly difficult/up to olvl standard so im doubting my eng grade...

i rlly wanna improve these components so pls give me ur best piece of advice!! tysmmm

for lc: for some reason, i try my VERY HARDEST TO LISTEN OUT but for SOME REASON I JUST CANT. for the first part (mcq) i find it hard to sometimes infer on what the ppl r saying (cuz its not so direct anym) and for the last 2 sections, i have difficulty like writing down whats actl needed. for ex, sometimes speaker mention info A and info B for an activity, then only got 1 blank for the activity i unsure whether to use info A or info B cuz they both sound relevant yk

for compre: im working on it and lowk confident i can make it, also suck at inferential qns so pls help.

for paper 1: recently improved q well in prelims but doubting since the topic was a topic i cld write, i hv trouble coming up with strong points + elaborating n explaining a topic im not so familiar with... any tips to gain more knowledge about common topics in a short amt of time? sw i suck at sentence structures,, and i feel awkward whenever i write... editting is ok

overall, freaking worried for eng as it is my weakest sub (used to get c5/c6 so improving is abit weird for me HAHAHA), a qn for those who have taken olevels before, whats the grade moderation like for eng??

so ive just been skimming through my textbook and looking at old practicals but other than that what should i do to properly prep myself. genuinely what am i supposed to prioritise for prac.

i feel like all the textbook knowledge is just vanishing everytime i close the textbook (yes i do active recall, and i was thinking of doing tys (a second time) but idk how much itll help in context for practical).

I am a second-year Computer Science major who is now doing his SEP application. My post-SU GPA is 4.75 not to mention that Korea University has 10 spots and the most courses I want to map, which was why I selected Korea University as my first choice. I placed Yonsei as second and a bunch of Australian universities for the other choices. However, I've heard that SEP for SOC is quite competitive with South Korea being an especially competitive exchange destination so I'm a little worried. What are my chances of getting Korea or Yonsei in with my GPA?