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SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Education has released a range of secondary school entrance scores for pupils taking the Primary School Completion Exam (PSLE) under the new scoring system in 2021.
The indicative cut-off scores, based on last year’s 6th grade data, will help guide students in their school choices and indicate which schools may be within reach.
Schools are broadly divided into three categories: government and government-assisted, autonomous and independent.
This year’s 5th grade cohort will be graded next year using the new PSLE scoring system, first announced in 2016, which assesses them based on their individual performance in subjects, regardless of the performance of their peers.
Students will receive achievement levels (AL) 1 through 8 for each subject, instead of grades like A * to E.
A student’s total PSLE score will be the sum of the AL for each of the four subjects. The best score that can be obtained is four, if the grade is AL1 for all four subjects.
In a virtual briefing on Friday, the MOE said it generated indicative AL cutoff ranges for different types of schools based on students’ PSLE results last year and school choice patterns.
To help students and parents select and shortlist schools, indicative AL limits for individual high schools will be released in the first half of next year, based on the results and school options of this year’s PSLE cohort. .
For now, the Ministry of Education said score ranges by school type are intended to provide a broad sense of high school cutoff points and help contextualize end-of-school exam results for high school students. grade 5 this year, who will soon receive their grades in the new AL format this year.
There are 135 government and government-assisted schools, 28 of which are charter schools, such as Anderson Secondary, Crescent Girls’ School, and Victoria School.
There are eight independent schools, including Raffles Institution and Nanyang Girls’ High School.
For charter schools, the range of cutoffs for the Express course (Integrated Program) is 7 to 9, while for independent schools the range is 6 to 8.
For government and government-subsidized schools, the cut-off point ranges from 8 to 22 for Express (level O), 22 to 25 for Normal (Academic) and 26 to 30 for Normal (Technical).
The cut-off score range for Express (Level O) in charter schools, a subset of government and government-assisted schools, is 8 to 16.
For the Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) courses in the autonomous schools, the cut-off points range from 22 to 25 and 26 to 29 respectively.
The limit for independent schools for the Express (O Level) path is 8-10.
As in the current T-scoring system, these cutoff points are likely to vary from year to year.
On Friday, the Ministry of Education also provided an update on the criteria necessary for Secondary 1 Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) students to take subjects such as English language or mathematics at a higher level, which is now also possible under subject-based bands.
Under the new PSLE scoring system, this will be decided by the students’ AL scores for that particular subject.
If they earn AL 5 or better in a standard level subject at PSLE, they will be eligible to take the subject at the Express level in Secondary 1.
If they obtain AL 6 or better in a standard-level subject or AL A in a basic-level subject, they have the option of pursuing the subject at the Normal (Academic) level in Secondary 1.
Core subjects, which serve academically weaker students, will be assessed using three scoring bands: AL A (75-100 points), AL B (30-74 points) and AL C (less than 30 points).
Mr. Wong Siew Hoong, Director General of Education at the Ministry of Education, encouraged parents and students to select schools based on general learning needs. “Don’t just go for the school they perceive to be the highest ranked, most popular, academically demanding than your child can handle. It’s about his talent and interest in general, about the distance from home, about the way for the child, ”he said.
He added that indicative cutoffs have also shown that a perfect AL score of four may not be needed to get into some of the popular schools. “I know some parents were even thinking about 2016, so everyone should try to get four points,” he said.
Score simulation has shown that this may not be true, he said. “You don’t have to get perfect scores all the time. So (there is no) need to try 100 points all the time, you don’t even need to strive for 90 points in all subjects all the time. ”
Mr. Wong also emphasized that students taking the PSLE next year and their parents need not rush to shortlist schools. “Don’t extrapolate too much … from Primary 5 to Primary 6 there is still a year of potential growth possible and students will grow.”
He added: “The PSLE is an important milestone … we recognize that it will invariably cause some anxiety because we are human. “But we hope that our 5th grade students and their parents continue to enjoy learning, that’s the most important thing.”
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