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Judging from the amount of confusion, misinformation and incomprehension regarding University admission that parents of “potential” University students had vandalise all over the media nowadays, I think that it is perhaps time to properly educate hopeful parents in Singapore the “truth” about University Admission in Singapore. These “truths” as they appear on this blog entry, are actually nothing but my own first-hand thoughts and experience as someone who went through the education system, and managed to slip through the great filtering process by doing the minimal.

1) Project work, a very (in my opinion) primitive way of measuring one’s ability to work in a team and/or lead one, and to bring a project from its initial stage to its finality plays a very crucial role in University Admission. But, unfortunately for us Project Work is (in my opinion) the most inaccurate examination I have ever undergone. I have got friends following every single instruction from their teacher project mentor completely, and getting Band 3, while people who slack around can get a Band 1 or 2. Project Work is also highly prone to sabo-ing from team mates, which often happens in highly competitive schools. If you are lucky and get proficient team mates, you will certainly benefit. If you are unlucky, too bad.

2) General Paper in my opinion is the one subject that can determine if a student lives and die. The high number students getting failures and borderline passes in “above-average” colleges and the low level of GP education provided in many colleges (i.e Anderson Junior College) won’t help students achieve much. To me, getting As for all subjects and then a fail or C6 for GP only shows that that particular student cannot understand or write (create new content), but excels in recalling and memorizing textbooks. Although Universities have nothing against these people (yet), if I were an employer I would not want to hire a University graduate who obviously cannot think, and can only memorize data. Instead of paying 2k per month to hire such a graduate, I would just spend 2k to purchase a personal computer. Unlike a computer, I can’t spell and I can’t do grammar. But I can think. Thats how I get my A2 and maybe thats how I get my SMU.

3) A meritocratic educational system is in fact unfair to many in Singapore. Students who are interested courses like Business and Medicine will find it harder to be admitted as compared to those who are interested in Arts and Social Science and other less popular courses. Meritocracy does not mean fairness in Singapore at all. It only means that those who can perform damn well within the system will get all the choices, while those who couldn’t just lan lan and go grab whatever that is left. Meritocracy is not about rewarding those who can perform! Meritocracy is about leaving out those who couldn’t. Before parents give the green light for their kid to enter a Junior College, they must be confident that their kid won’t be left out by meritocracy, the Great Filtering Process.

4)Universities don’t give a hoot about sports.
The closest thing you can get in Singapore is physiotherapy. And only Polytechnics teach that. Not Universities.

There are more to this of course, enough to write a book with in fact. But I’ll leave it at that for now, as I had grown lazy to write. Maybe I will write everything down and hold a seminar to educate the parents, and make a fortune off it.

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Actually, I have a rather simple solution for all this Not-Enough-University-Places saga. Brainwash all the Kiasu parents in Singapore to make them stop forcing their kids to go into Colleges and Universities. Then only students who want to enter Universities out of freewill will go. Then there will be no more debacle over lack of admission. Then there will be no complains. Then meritocracy will mean fairness. Then I will not be so keen to migrate before I form my own family so as to give my kids proper education.

The point I was trying to make in the above paragraph? Kiasu parents cause the Not-Enough-University-Places themselves.

Go, start complaining to yourself for being too kiasu!

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