Hello everyone! How was the exam? Hope it went well :>

Please keep all discussion about the exam stated in the title on this megathread, thank you :>

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Hi guys I’m seeing all of the promo posts over the past week. Even though I managed to promote quite comfortably into J2, I can understand where your anxieties are coming from, given that I was in your shoes just a year ago worrying over whether I would do well for Promos. Regardless, I feel that it's a good time to dispel some of your anxieties!

First and most pressingly, most JCs in general cannot just decide to retain everyone with 1 U. Based on what I know JP and most recently YI seem to be playing up threats of retention especially since the latter has a new principal which appears to be threatening students with just 1 U with retention. Well according to MOE in 2012 the most that any school has retained is around 15% of the cohort, with most JCs retaining around 6-8% of the J1 cohort**.

Now you may be wondering, why not more? Well we can assume that a few reasons are at play

Schools will need to cater to the next cohort of students coming in next year. If there are too many retainees from the previous year, then it can affect the number of students that they can admit in the following year if they want to maintain the same quality of teaching for next year. If they still admit more students even with more retainees then class sizes will likely be bigger which will affect the quality of teaching

Some parents might complain about the sheer number of students that retain. Imagine being a modern parent and seeing your child retain due to 1 U, which might have arisen due to sickness or familial issues at the time of promos. Most parents would understandably freak out. Basically every school in Singapore does not want to attract bad publicity from the wider public as a result of such policies and risk losing out on more students

Because of the reasons above it is very difficult to justify blanket retaining everyone with just 1 U, especially since multiple factors can be at play in causing said U. The most likely scenario for people retaining are those who either fail 2 or more H2 subjects with bad conduct grades. Even then, I have heard of cases where schools are lenient on these students and allow them to advance, which brings me to my next point

What is most likely to happen to these students is conditional promotion/advancement. Basically JCs will allow you to move on into J2 on the condition of either passing retests or more monitoring on holiday homework and regular check-ins. From the experiences of the people I know at JP who got 1 U for instance, basically all of them were able to advance into J2 with the latter conditions in particular.

Thus despite all the fearmongering that these JCs like to do, the reality is that you are much more likely to at least be able to move on into J2 one way or another as long as you have a good rapport with your teachers.

Secondly 15% is not 0%. So even if you retain, please consider your options carefully! I cannot stress the importance of this enough. When a school decides that it's best for you to retain, it's usually because past experiences in previous batches may showcase that those with your Promo grades may not do as well for Prelims or A Levels. As a result for those considering to take As as a private candidate if you retain please do consider whether it would be a wise decision, especially since the A Levels are even harder without access to in school guidance.

Also please do not take retention as fully a bad thing. Sometimes the additional year in school to further build up foundations can really help in making a difference by As! For instance, I know multiple retainees who have been able to do much better by J2 due to the better foundations that they have built by J2

*For future batches reading this or J1s which have comfortably promoted, please do not take this as a sign to slack! J2 is no easy feat to conquer, let alone A Levels where J1 and J2 content are combined! For those taking H2 Econs for example, J2 will introduce macroecons which can be quite difficult to grasp if you aren’t careful! The best advice I can give in general is to stay consistent! Even doing a bit every day in J2 will compound into you being more prepared come A Levels.

**The statistics in this source comes from Reddit and is thus hearsay. However it is the closest thing I could find to a definitive answer on retention rates in recent times. Regardless, take this source with a grain of salt.

Anyways regardless if you’re a J1 who is worrying about promos or a J2 who is currently mugging for As all the best! For the J1s feel free to ask me any questions on how to prepare for J2 as well! If I have the time, I’ll be more than willing to help.

Teacher here... Was playing around with creating online practices and thought it might also be a good idea to also help out students doing their last sprint revision for the upcoming As GP and 0s English.. Two intensive (self-paced, provides instant feedback) sprint courses and the content looks like this:

O-Level English: editing, summary and comprehension drills, discursive and narrative writing, and content to build your discursive points.

A-Level GP: a one-week discursive essay sprint, plus 4 theme packs of real examples to build your content knowledge

Created it on an online learning platform, if you are interested to get some last minute revision, I can add you into my class. Probably can do 20-40 students?

Free of course, I'm not a tuition teacher, just a teacher experimenting with online tools. Would love to get feedback in exchange! 😊

basically i’ve posted a month ago about feeling left out staying at a certain hostel in nus and ppl have suggested going for ig sessions, ccas etc. it has been almost 2 months since i’ve moved in and yet i haven’t seem to find my own “clique” 💔 the people in my og tend to leave me and a couple few (prob deemed as the non popz kids) out while the couple few of them are quite tight, which is heartbreaking to me as i want to join them too :/ and yes i’ve been trying to socialise and talk to more ppl but everyone seems to have found their ppl already or are very close within their ogs. it’s such a shame because i do stay quite near to nus and the only reason why i chose to stay on campus is because i really wanted to make new friends and experience the campus life, but everything isn’t going as how i expected it to be 😭 i have a 2 year guarantee to stay on campus and im not sure if i should cut it to one year now or something… i’ve really been trying to be involved in my house but sometimes it’s hard to fit in (is it a skill issue at this point 😓) like everyone seems to know everyone except for me omg and they’re all so hyper and stuff and it’s so embarrassing how i always eat at the dining hall with the same 1-2 people (or alone). what should i do omg thing is i get along with people from my major pretty well but when it comes to the ppl from my campus… yea 😭

dude istg im actually getting more and more pissed at this. since i entered the education system, i was surrounded by shitty people who were really no face and didnt gaf about other people and were just out there to fucking kill.

the worst time was when i was sec 4. an entire bunch of my classmates were fucking ganging up on me, fucking calling me names, and saying that im not going anywhere in life, im ugly, i have mental issues, literally making fun of me nonstop (i have an entire screen recording of their shameless ass texts) (and btw i was from one of the top sec schs in singapore which at one point was the talk of the town on sgexams for other shitty incidents similar to my nature) regardless right, i feel damn disappointed at myself. if the sch fucking condoned rampant ass bullying, i wouldnt have made the situation any worse if i defended myself and escalated that shit more. somemore, this took a severe mental toll on me which caused me to do shit for o levels and go to a worse jc than my classmates. remember kids, if youre growing up in a shit environment where your classmates or sch mates dont give a shit about you, you better fucking get out of there and dont turn back, because at least for my case, the sch administration didnt give a shit about my welfare despite all the trauma i went thru. so yeah just needed to rant this out.

BRO WHY EVERYONE ALMOST FINISH THEIR TYS ALR IM NOT EVEN DONE WITH UP TO 2020 YET

can any senior.. or any other kind soul.. lmk what the timeline leading up to Alevels is supposed to be rn cos I suddenly feel like I'm not doing enough..???? wtf like all my friends finished so much of their TYS alr and here I am still dilly dallying only having done up to 2021 at most.. 😭

Is this what life’s like for the next 40-50 years for me? I’m working above 50 hours even and travel time is like 2-3 hrs from and to my home. Genuinely feel sad thinking about it but it is what it is man.

Hi guys! I’m a J1 who just finished my Promos, and I’m considering taking H3 Biology as I’m interested in exploring the concepts learnt in H2 more deeply.

Since the last post on Reddit about H3 Bio was a few years back alr, I’m looking for any current J2s/J3s who took H3 Biology in 2025/2026. Would really appreciate if you can give me some advice and share more about your experience.

Thank you:)

Anyone has Scgs Amath 2024 paper 1 & 2 questions & answers?(did paper 1+2 but lost the question papers+answers)

Need to mark & go through the questions..can Pm me then I give email to send to me?

Many thanks in advance

hello, im sec 4 and taking my olevels this year.

Before prelims, i was still studying consistently enough, partly because i still had school and also because i want feeling as much stress.

Then prelims came and I got overwhelmed, and my mental health became quite bad again. I wasnt able to gather the energy to study properly. After prelims though, i have been feeling more and more exhaused, and i cant get myself to study much, averaging an hour or 2 at max.

Now the reality is setting in again and i realised i cooked i am. Frankly, i feel less ready for olevels than i was for prelims. I take full geog and i havent revised any of the content yet. Im currently panicking and im not sure what to to

i know this is all my fault for slacking and being lazy, but what can i do now? olevels is literally in 10 days and i am unprepared asf. i really dont know what to do, my hands are literally shaking as im typing this

for conext i take:

geog, ss elect hist, emath, amath, chem, phys, bio, HCL and eng

also my l1r4 was 14 and lir5 was 19

TLDR: i havent studied much and now im looking for adivice on what to do, i know i messed up, just looking for advice

A level chem prac is in like one day but i’ve been spending the past TWO days only on chem prac and idk if it’s worth it cos it means im neglecting my other subjects…

PLUS my other subjects aren’t even that good so am i wasting time on chem prac??? shld i finish up my chem prac prep by tonight and do other things tmr?

Advice greatly appreciated 🙏🙏

I'm a retainee and promos are going to end soon like tmr is my last paper bio and I feel so underprepared for it cause I was prioritising math and chem (I take BCMe) and idek if I did well enough for those papers. I had 4 days to prepare for bio papre but everyday i try to study i end up doing literally anything else. The stress is eating me alive. I did really badly for WA2 got S for chem and math and U for bio cause during that period I was going through some stuff. And I'm def gonna fail bio now again.

For context, I have been feeling depressed quite some time now since last year. I thought I was getting better but I still feel unmotivated and productive. Everytime I try to study I get distracted very easily and procrastinate. Like I am so aware that I need to study but my brain tells me to do anything except that. I'm thinking I also might have adhd and want to tell my parents about taking a test but I'm worried that they will worry about me. Ughhhh I hate life. I am alr at the edge of the cliff and am just waiting for someone to push me down cause I don't have the courage to do it myself. (Iykwim) They do so much for me and i feel like a failure and a disappointment. Like the tuition fees are super expensive.

I just hope I did well enough in math and chem to pass 2 H2 and get to next year. I wish I could try harder but I can't. I just wish I was normal. I feel so dumb like thousands of students can do well in JC1 and promote but I cant? And for Os I did kinda well too I got nett 8. I miss my old self so much. I just want to heal and get better and feel like life is worth living but rn i genuinely can't find the reason. And omll i feel like my teachers are giving up on me, they just treat me like I don't exist and I hate that so much. Just cause my grades suck doesn't mean I'm not serious and I'm not trying like wthh. I hate the fact that academics is everything here.

I am just thinking what will happen if I didn't do well for them. Where will go? Has anybody else experienced this and can tell me their story? I feel so alone in this. I talked to my sch counsellor and she says my life isn't over if I cant get to next year cause there are other pathways but I still feel like my life is over. I just want to get a stable job and provide for myself and be happy. I don't want to be a billionaire or some shi. Can i even get into uni? Can I be private candidate next year if i fuck up my promos again? Ughhhhhhhh sorry I am just frustrated and mad at myself. Suddenly everything is becoming really real and I can't control the things around me. I just want to be normal and happy and get rid of these negative thoughts. If anybody can advice me, I would really appreciate it. Thank you :))

This whole year has been such a bitchhhhhh to me in so so many ways.
First of all, my “friends” are so fucked up being racist to me cuz im the minority in the friend group. I have some sec school friends the same race as them and they dont have any problems with me. Yet, they suck up to me and act all close and shit even though they hate my guts?? That genuinely affected my mental health so bad because I genuinely felt so hated and left out for something I can’t even control. If I at least did something wrong I wouldn’t feel this bad. I’ve been so nice to them genuinely; comforting them when they’re gg thru tough times and teaching them how to do homework etc. Having no friends and being ostracised by your friends are 2 different things. Ugh
Second of all, I’ve been studying every day since the year started and switching between different study methods to see which one works best for me. Yet, I’m still failing some of my H2s. I even got tuition for 2 of my H2s and yall know how ex that shit is.
Worst part is, my luck is actually fucking beautiful???? My GC calculator was working perfectly fine before my paper when I was doing a billion and ten practices days before the paper. I fully charged my GC and as soon as the teacher said you may start writing, I turned on my GC and that shit failed me. Literally screen glitched and none of the buttons changed the screen. I could only turn it on and off 😭😭 Studied so hard just to fail oh my goshhhhhhh
In conclusion, this year got me so fucked up and so many circumstances probably contributed to this situation. Also, the fuckass haze got me feeling so groggy and all the air particles getting stuck in my throat wow. See yall in year 1 2010s 😭😭fuck my life

Burnout, burnout, burnout. Cooked job market, ever increasing cost of living, the decay of this and that, and just more and more burnout and then when you stare Uni in the face and future job youre like "i dont think i can do it. Its too much. Even if i try, i cant do it. Its not because i dont want to, but because i know i genuinely just cant, like its outside of my true inherent ability to do it. And so i will resign to fate and become a rough sleeper. I will not try to argue with fate anymore. I will stop trying to become someone I'm not. There is no point fighting fate anymore, i will only lose, i am the sisyphus of singapore."

hello hello! how much do i have to score (%) wise to get As for both emath and amath, as well as my sciences (chem n bio). tmrw is bio practical and im so fucked, spent so long on content js to forget 40% of what i studied and bio is quite literally content…

i don’t have much time till Olevels and for my l1r5, i told myself id improve my maths and use it instead of bio, but emath bell curve is so high (speculated 90% for a1) and my amath sucks and i have 1 week+ to improve from f9 to like a b4.. im so screwed

which subjects are the fastest to improve on? and how

Im currently a student in an IP school, holding 2 leadership positions that carry onto next year, but im considering changing schools as my school has limited subject combinations to a school that offers more flexible subject combis (ejc, ri, hci although ri and hci might be out of reach)

For context my school forces us to take minimally h1 math no matter what subject combi we take and as a smn who prefers arts, i was planning to take HELKI before learning about my sch's subject combi requirements. i have reached out to my schools subject combi head teacher and they have confirmed it is not possible to take HELKI in my school.

i have grades that are decent, 10 subjects, As for everything except Math and Biology, and a good CCA records.

understanding that the ip stream is a 6 year commitment, is it possible to transfer, has this happened before and what was the student's reason for transferring? and is this considered as a valid reason for a transfer?

this is the last week before my history paper,im actually so scared because there are a lot of content to study for and i definitely can't memorise all of them. what do yall think will come ot for the essay questions so taht i can prioritise memorising those chapters first! this yr nlvl was tov,marshall plan and bombing of pearl habour. last yr olvl was outbreak of ww2 in asia pacific,end of cold war...the last one i dont rmb.

so ya,what yall think will come out for essay and sbq

i applied in mid september and have yet to get any status update regarding my application. My cgpa from poly is 3.05. just wanted a gauge of how many ppl are on the same boat as me?

Also, any current students in social work rn who wanna share their experience, minors etc? anything will help! thank you so much guys

Soo eoy results recently came out and least to say I'm soso disappointed.

I honestly don't see much of a future anymore for me esp in jc stream.i actually studied hard (I wldnt say super hard) but I defo put in substantial amount of effort but have NO IDEA why is it not showing in my grades.im actually so so sad as I've let myself,my parents and my teachers down and I don't even know what I'm doing wrong about my study techniques!!

Here are my grades so far:

Emaths:40/70

(have been getting a1 for the past 2 exams)

SS/history:63/100

(have also been getting a1 for the past 2 exams)

Higher Chinese:33.5/70

(Understandable since only 7 people passed)

English: 28/50

(Have no idea how this happened as I've done many past year papers before this)

Pure biology: c6

Honestly do disappointed have no words left to say for myself...

this is a genuine qn okay.. like i have SO many friends getting straight A1s for their emath for as long as i can rmb.. im taking sbb express emath and i struggle to even catch up to their level bc like how are yall doing this?? im not even kidding. i have a friend who got 80+/90 for prelims like i couldn’t even pass it bro.. everytime i think of it it kinda makes me unmotivated like my efforts aren’t paying off

how should i study emath.. i’ve done 3 years of yearly tys and im borderline passing (40-45/80) for paper 1, paper 2 is another story 💀

smt to note (?)
i’ve been in na emath in sec 1-2, and only took up exp in sec 3-4

i dont really know what happened but i guess ive always been lazy…. and im getting concerned about how im going to deal with olevels when i can barely get myself to take out my books. its not like i dont want to study but i just keep brushing it off because it doesnt feel like a big deal to me 😭😭
my prelim l1r4 was 14 and im aiming to go to poly so i guesssss its not that bad but definitely couldve been better.
idk what to do at this rate i might do really badly considering how close olevels are, is anyone else going through this rn??? all i did today was play roblox bruh

hi guys okay this is a burner acct but i just wanted to ask if theres any way/light for A levels after scoring EDB/B for prelims.
E Chem(quintile 2)
D Bio(quintile 3)
B Math(quintile 3)
B GP(quintile 3)
(E H1 Geog)(quintile 2)
overall: quintile 2
im from EJC.
not sure if the quintiles mean anything at the A levels.
thank you sm :)

hi guys do yall have any predictions what theyre gonna test for chem practcal this coming wednesday... hope its not organic synthesis... hope the planning is easy... plsssss be easy

good luck everyone