Part 2: When is ideal time for students to study abroad in Singapore?

With over 10 years of experience in the field of education, Vietsing24h specializes in preparing students for entrance examination in public schools (known as AEIS). Up to now, we are still loyal to one-to-one teaching method. We realize that timing play a vitally important role in sending your child abroad. However, many Vietnamese parents have made mistakes. Most parents have a misconception in common – wait for their children’s primary school or secondary school graduation.

We hope that this writing will help parents make a better decision in choosing time for children to learn in Singapore.

Students should study abroad in Singapore after completing curriculum grade 2-3-4, or grade 6-7-8. Why?

1. The difference between education systems of Vietnam and Singapore:

Primary school in Vietnam includes grades from 1 to 5 while those in Singapore are from 1 to 6. Attentively, Singapore does not admit students in class 6 because it is the year of primary school graduation.

General secondary education in Vietnam consists of grades 6 to 9 while in Singapore, it comprises secondary 1 (equivalent with grade 7 in Vietnam) to secondary 4 or 5 (equivalent with grade 10-11 in Vietnam). This is the reason international students are not admitted to secondary 4 in Singapore because it is the year of graduation.

2. Time for taking entrance exams:

Ministry of Education Singapore organizes two entrance exams annually for international students.

•  AEIS held in the end of September: students enter schools at the beginning of the academic year. (for students in Primary 2-3-4-5, or Secondary 1-2-3)
•  S-AEIS held in the end of February: students get admission in the middle of the academic year (for students in Primary 2-3-4, or Secondary 1-2)

So, if a Vietnamese student completes grade 5 and has intention of learning Primary 5 in Singapore, or a student finishes grade 9 in Vietnam and intends to learn Secondary 3 in Singapore, the sole chance is to pass AEIS in September. If the student does not successfully overcome that exam, the student would have to take the S-AEIS exam in February of the following year and have to drop down 1 class, or enter a private school.

This is why student should not study aboard after completing grade 5 or 9 in Vietnam.

3. Optional subjects are restricted towards students getting admission Secondary 3 – the disadvantage of Vietnamese students completing grade 9

Secondary education in Singapore is divided into 2 level:

• Lower secondary: sec1 and sec 2 (students study all compulsory subjects in school curriculum).
• Upper secondary: sec 3 and sec 4 (Performances of students after completing sec 2 will be used to decide what subjects students will have to learn in upper secondary 3-4. Students can register to learn from 6 to 9 subjects; however, the result of maximum 6 subjects will be used to get admission to the next level.

 In case, international students starting to learn a public school in Singapore from sec 3 have to learn subjects which have slots in school. In other word, these students could not have full option. If these students have chance to learn Pure Science subject or Additional Maths subject, they will have to pass an entrance test at school as well as have an interview with Principal or Vice-principal to be placed a class.

4. The curriculum of secondary education in Singapore makes most Vietnamese students have to drop down one academic year.

Singapore education sorts students’ s capacity out 3 levels, based on The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE):

• The Integrated Program (IP): for very-good students who do not need to pass O level, but skip to A level.
• Express Program: for good students who have 4 years to study O Level – this is the sole program that admits self-supporting international students through AEIS/ S-AEIS annually.
• Normal A and T program: for average students who have 4 or 5 year to get N or O level certificate.

The Normal program of Secondary 2 is equivalent with The Express program of Sec 1. In fact, the school curriculum in Vietnam is quite the same as the Normal program in Singapore. This is the reason that Vietnamese students have to drop down 1 academic year has not been strange.

5. How a Vietnamese student completing class 9 enters a public school in Singapore?

Even though it is tard to apply for an admission of a public school in Singapore, but better late than never because it is the final class for students to learn upper sec level in a public school.

What can we do???

•  If your children are not good at English, you should consider letting your children finish grade 11 in Vietnam. Currently, your children should make use of time to improve their English skills before studying abroad.

Or your children have to drop down 2 academic years, take a sec 2 entrance exam.

• If your children excel at English but they have not taken any Math lessons in English yet, there are 2 options in this case:

+ Option 1: Prepare for Sec 3 and have to successfully overcome Sec 3 entrance exam of a public school for the first time.

+ Option 2: Prepare for Sec 3 and take entrance exams of both public and private schools. In this option, students will learn Sec 3 of GCE O level, then use the result of O level to get admission to a public school

6. Whether an academic record is important?

Students preparing for AEIS/ S-AEIS are not influenced by their academic records. Among Vietsing24h’s students, Andy PNT who completed grade 5 in Vietnam with almost zero knowledge of English language, he went to Singapore to prepare for the entrance exam. After two years of preparation, he passed Sec 1 (equivalent with class 7 in Vietnam) which means he skipped the curriculum of 2 academic years.

7. How long to prepare for the entrance exam?

Long or short time of preparation depends on English capacity of students at the beginning of preparation. Maths can learn very rapidly, but it is necessary to accumulate English lexical resource for a long time.

#vietsing24h have ever prepared many students for entrance exam in 1-3 months although those students never took any maths lessons in English. However, some cases had to spend 2 years and then skipped 2 grades as Andy’s case mentioned above. The difference is made based on each student’s English capacity and consciousness of learning.

Part 3: EXCEPTIONAL DIFFERENCES IN TEACHING METHOD AND HOMESTAY SERVICE OF VIETSING24H

Contacts

VIETSING24H:
Hotline: SG +65 8382 8468 – Ms May Tran (Viber – whatsapp)
Hotline: VN +84 904 162 666 – Ms Hue Chi (Viber – whatsapp – Zalo)